A local of the British Columbia Ports Longshoremen’s Union has announced that a tentative agreement has been reached between the union’s bargaining committee and employers.
A statement posted on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) Local 502 website indicates that a tentative agreement has been reached with the BC Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA).
Rick Hurtubise, president of ILWU Local 502, said in the release that an “emergency contract caucus” will be held on Friday to vote on sending the tentative agreement to all union members for ratification.
Mr. Hurtubise said that Local 502 will call a meeting to present the agreement to its members if the vote is positive.
No mention of a new tentative agreement has been posted on the BCMEA website or the main ILWU site.
The development represents a new twist in a turbulent week in the labor dispute that saw the union reject terms from a federal mediator on Tuesday, only to issue but quickly rescind a new 72-hour strike notice.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also called a meeting of the Incident Response Group on Wednesday, a decision reserved for crisis situations.
Earlier Thursday, Trudeau said the federal government was “appalled” by the longshoremen’s union leadership’s rejection of the federal mediator’s agreement to end the strike at British Columbia ports, including Vancouver, the country’s largest.
Mr. Trudeau described as “unacceptable” the decision of the union executive to reject this tentative agreement that had been reached at the bargaining table, thus putting the members back in a strike position.
Uncertainty continued to hang over activities at British Columbia ports, the West Coast’s main gateways for imports and exports, since the ILWU leadership caucus rejected mediator terms on Tuesday, briefly sending workers back to the picket line.
The move was ruled illegal by the Canada Industrial Relations Board, prompting the union to issue a new 72-hour strike notice on Wednesday, only to rescind that notice a few hours later.
The union, which represents about 7,400 port workers, said its caucus did not believe the tentative agreement “has the ability to protect our jobs now or in the future,” and called for a return to the bargaining table. He also promised to appeal the decision of the Industrial Relations Board.
The prime minister said the government needed to make sure people had confidence in the collective bargaining process.
“We know that the best deals are always found through negotiation at the table, and that’s what we focus on,” he said. But we also know that this strike could not continue and we are happy to see that the union is reconsidering the good offer that was on the table and the agreement that was accepted by both the union leadership and the [management party]. »
The strike originally began on Canada Day and lasted 13 days, halting or severely disrupting operations at more than 30 BC port terminals and other sites where union members work, crippling the transportation of billions of dollars worth of goods.
