The labour standoff between the B.C. Maritime Employers Association and dock foremen isn’t even a week old and already its effects are being felt.
Members of ILWU Local 514 have been locked out since Monday, idling B.C. container ports, including Deltaport, in a dispute involving 730 supervisors.
At Ocean Trailer, in Tilbury Industrial park, the stoppage was making for a busy time for the truck trailer leasing company.
Chief operations officer Mack Keay explained Wednesday that shippers wanted to move as much freight out of the port as soon possible, before everything ground to a halt.
“Then everything will slow right down. Because there won’t be any new containers coming off the boats,” he explained. “We have over 1,000 container chassis that we rent in our fleet here so if there’s no freight coming off at the port, there’s no need to rent chassis from us.”
He added that it’s a big concern for anyone in trucking . . . moving containers, “It’s not good.”
It’s inevitable there will be a later slowdown in work as ships stop coming into Vancouver, he added.
“They (ships) either sit out there and wait, or they go to Seattle, or L.A.”
Nearby, at Aheer Transportation, the company’s approximately 130 drivers have been off work since Monday.
“If the port is closed, we are closed,” said Leida Aheer, with the company.
Booking and scheduling of container pickups has also mostly stopped. “There’s nothing going out or in,” she added.
“All the ships . . . already at the port, they’re waiting to be discharged,” she said.
Meanwhile, more ships keep heading for Vancouver.
Even a long weekend creates congestion at the port, she added, and once the dispute is settled, the congestion will have to be cleared. “It creates a big mess,” she said.
“Lack of involvement of the federal government is creating all these problems,” she added.
A representative for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 said Thursday they have been ordered back to the bargaining table with the BC Maritime Employers Association and federal mediators on Saturday at 5 p.m. and that Sunday and Monday have been set aside for talks to continue if necessary.
The BCMEA also said Friday that it and ILWU Local 514 are scheduled to meet with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service on Saturday.
Earlier in the week, the ILWU Ship and Dock Foreman Local 514 said that the union had planned only limited job action on Monday with a ban on overtime and a refusal to implement tech change.
Employers say the final offer includes a 19.2 percent wage increase over a four-year term along with other improvements, while workers say the deal does not address what future staffing levels will look like with the advent of port automation.
According to the BCMEA, the final offer comprises an increase in the median salary, over four years, for a foreperson from $246,323 to $293,617.
In Delta, approximately 2,966 longshoremen and 115 foremen work at Deltaport and Fraser Surrey Docks.
- files from CP
