After a week of work stoppage in Canadian ports in which workers went on strike at the Port of Montreal and were locked out of work in British Columbia, Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon has intervened, forcing the ports to reopen for fear of further economic damages.

• A significant portion of U.S. trade flows through Canada, and some slowdowns are still likely due to the time in which the ports were closed.
  
  

Powerstick.com CEO Nigel Harris had told PPAI Media that with both sides refusing to make progress, he hoped that the Canadian government would step in, which has ultimately come to fruition.

“The responsibility for these negotiations belongs to the parties alone, but the impacts are being borne by all Canadians,” MacKinnon stated in his reasoning for intervention.

What Are The Details?

In the big picture sense, the disputes at the heart of the work stoppages remain at the moment, but MacKinnon is assigning a third party to determine a resolution. Through Canada’s Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), he has invoked the following:

• Workers at ports on both Canadian coasts must return to their duties.
• CIRB will temporarily extend the unions’ existing collective bargaining agreement while a new deal is worked out.
• During that time, CIRB will serve as the third-party arbitrator in the negotiations between the ports and the unions. Once a determination is made, that arbitration will be binding for both sides.
  
  

Asif Bandeali, COO of Fairdeal, based out of Ontario, had told PPAI Media in the beginning stages of the work stoppages that the effects were “not anything serious at the moment,” but that a prolonged strike would create problems.

“If the strike goes on for weeks, then us and our distributors will be impacted much more,” Bandeali said.

He was seemingly speaking to fears that the Canadian government felt it could not afford to become a reality.

Written by: Jonny Auping

Published with Permission from PPAI