Operations set to resume at the Port of Montreal

Longshore workers at the Port of Montreal will have to return to work on Saturday, in accordance with an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB).

The CIRB issued an order on Thursday requiring the resumption of operations at the Port of Montreal as of 7 a.m. Saturday, according to a press release issued by the Maritime Employers Association (MEA).

The document specified that port employees will receive their assignments on Friday as of 6 p.m. for the following day.

In the press release, the MEA said it hopes for the collaboration of the union and its members, the port administration and “all other partners in the supply chain to facilitate a return to normal activities at the Port of Montreal.”

The MEA locked out 1,200 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal Sunday night after union members voted to reject what employers called their final and comprehensive offer.

Subsequently, federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon intervened Tuesday to end both disputes. He asked the CIRB to order a resumption of all operations and to move both rounds of negotiations to binding arbitration.

The union representing dockworkers at the Port of Montreal announced Wednesday that it would challenge the minister’s decision to end the lockout in court by submitting the dispute to binding arbitration.

The local section of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), affiliated with the FTQ, represents nearly 1,200 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal, currently subject to a lockout that is freezing the second largest port in Canada.

The union called an unlimited strike on Oct. 31, affecting the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals of the Termont company.

The company was targeted because it often uses a type of “shift schedule” that dockworkers are protesting. The company responded that it has the right to do so under the collective agreement, which expired on Dec. 31, 2023. The parties are already in mediation on the future collective agreement, without much progress. Schedules, work-life balance and salaries are in dispute.

This is the third labour dispute affecting supply chains in the country this year, after rail and air transport, which worries federal Labour Minister MacKinnon.

CUPE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

— With information from Lia Lévesque

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews