The strike lasted thirteen days. The social movement that paralyzed several ports on the west coast of Canada, including the largest in the country, in Vancouver, ended Thursday, July 13, prompting the relief of the government and many commercial actors.
The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) and the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union of Canada (ILWUC) “have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year agreement,” the BCMEA said in a statement. . Seven thousand terminal loaders and 49 employers in thirty ports went on strike on July 1 after months of fruitless negotiations. The deal still needs to be ratified, the BCMEA added, without giving further details.
Subcontracting, port automation and the cost of living were the main reasons for the collective action taken by the union. The duration of the strike and its consequences aroused the concern of many crucial economic sectors, like the automobile industry, which called on the government to intervene to settle the conflict as soon as possible.
“The strike is over,” Federal Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan tweeted. “The scale of these disruptions is significant,” he noted in a joint statement with Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. The announcement of the agreement was welcomed by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, whose president, Perrin Beatty, also considered that “the Canadian economy [had] been seriously damaged during these thirteen days”.
“Rebuilding Our Reputation”
According to the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, the “longest strike in nearly forty years” has disrupted trade to the tune of 9.9 billion Canadian dollars (6.7 billion euros).
“Going forward, we need to rebuild our reputation as a stable business partner,” its director, Bridgitte Anderson, said in a statement. “It’s going to be months before the supply chain gets back to normal,” the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said, calling on the government to “deem ports an essential service.”
The total value of estimated cargo awaiting unloading is at least C$3 billion, according to a Royal Bank of Canada report released this week. Every day, goods crucial to exports (coal, wheat, rapeseed, food products, etc.) and imports (clothing, petroleum products, cars and automobile parts, etc.) pass through these ports.
Vancouver alone trades approximately C$305 billion worth of goods each year and contributes C$11.9 billion to Canada’s GDP.