On Tuesday, the 1,150 longshore workers at the Port of Montreal will vote on a strike mandate and the latest offer from management.
The workers, members of the FTQ-affiliated Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), will hold two separate votes. They will be asked to vote on an unspecified strike mandate. It could be an unlimited strike mandate, or one that could be broken down into days or weeks, depending on the case.
Three meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, covering all shifts. The result of the vote will be known on Wednesday, CUPE announced on Monday.
Negotiations between the parties have not broken down, however. The Maritime Employers Association, which represents the longshore companies, and the local CUPE chapter are scheduled to meet for a mediation session on Thursday, the day after the vote result is announced.
Issues in dispute include wages and work-life balance.
The last labour dispute involving longshore workers at the Port of Montreal ended in April 2021, following the adoption of a special law forcing them back to work. This law put in effect heavy fines in the event of non-compliance with the back-to-work order, in addition to imposing mediation-arbitration. The arbitrator then defined the content of the collective agreement, which were the clauses on which the parties had not yet reached agreement.
However, the following month, CUPE went to court to have this special federal law declared unconstitutional and null and void.
Recently, several longshore unions across Canada had met with the press in Montreal, saying they feared being forced into binding arbitration, as was the case with the recent CN and CPKC labour dispute – this time with the Teamsters Union.
In January 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down an important ruling in labour law, granting constitutional protection to the right to strike, asserting that it rebalances the balance of power between the parties.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews