Port of Montreal: Dockworkers to hold another partial but unlimited strike

Meeting in a general assembly on Sunday, the dockers of the Port of Montreal decided to hold another partial strike, but unlimited this time.

This strike, starting Thursday at 11 a.m., will once again affect the two terminals of the Termont company.

“If there is an agreement on work hours by Thursday at 11 a.m., a partial, definitive agreement that resolves this issue for the next collective agreement, we are ready to withdraw our strike notice sent this morning,” said Michel Murray, union advisor at CUPE, during a press conference.

These are the ones that were affected by a three-day partial strike at the beginning of October.
But this time, the partial strike affecting the two Termont terminals will be unlimited, announced the Canadian Union of Public Employees, affiliated with the FTQ, on Monday.

Why target Termont specifically? The company frequently uses a type of schedule that union members protest against. During hearings before an arbitrator in 2021, a representative from the company claimed that this type of schedule was only used in 1% of cases. Since then, however, Termont has widely adopted this scheduling practice, asserting its right to do so.

The union points out that other employers manage to avoid using these “quarter schedules” that inconvenience its members, leading them to increase pressure on Termont.

“The schedules have been like this for 20, 30, 35 years. Then, out of nowhere, there’s Termont saying: I’m going to use it 100%. That wasn’t the case before,” said Murray.

The union, representing 1,200 dockworkers, had already held a 24-hour strike on Sunday.

They took the opportunity to vote in favor of a special contribution “to help those affected by this new strike.”

Additionally, since October 10, dockworkers have been refusing to work overtime, and this pressure tactic will continue.

Alongside scheduling and work-life balance issues, salary disputes are also on the table.

Regarding salaries, “it should be fairly easy to resolve,” said Murray, noting that Montreal dockworkers would be willing to accept the same agreement reached by dockworkers in Vancouver and Halifax, which includes a 20% increase over four years.

The collective agreement for this local CUPE section expired on December 31, 2023. Federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon had proposed a special 90-day mediation period, without strikes or lockouts, to facilitate negotiations, but this did not materialize. The parties are already in mediation and are awaiting a call from the mediators.

The collective agreement of this local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), affiliated with the FTQ, expired on Dec. 31, 2023.

As of the time of writing, the Maritime Employers Association had not yet commented.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews.