Unionized workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway walked off the job just after midnight Sunday, shutting the waterway to all cargo vessels including grain traffic for now.
Unifor, which represents about 360 Seaway workers across five locals in Ontario and Quebec, had served Seaway management with 72 hours’ strike notice on Wednesday.
In a release dated Sunday, it said negotiations “failed to reach a satisfactory agreement” by its deadline just before midnight.
The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. (SLSMC) said in a separate release dated Sunday that an “orderly shutdown” of the waterway system took place during the 72-hour period, allowing for vessels to clear the Seaway.
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No vessels are waiting to exit the system, SLSMC said, but added there are “over 100 vessels outside the system, which are impacted by the situation.”
SLSMC said it’s also waiting now for a response to its Canada Industrial Relations Board application, seeking a ruling under the Canada Labour Code for Unifor to provide employees during a strike so vessels “engaged in the movement of grain” can continue to move through the system.
The Labour Code provisions relating to grain handling at port terminals had allowed for bulk grain traffic to continue during the British Columbia longshore workers’ strike this summer.
The Seaway system, SLSMC said, “will remain shut down until an agreement can be reached, whether it be temporary or tentative, as we work diligently to minimize disruption for all stakeholders.”
“We negotiated in good faith right up to the last moment, but we cannot allow workers’ rights to be compromised,” Unifor’s Quebec director Daniel Cloutier said in Sunday’s release. “We remain open to discussion and hope that the employer will reconsider its position for the good of all.”
SLSMC had said in a separate release Saturday that the union “continues to demand wage increases patterned after the current automotive negotiations” between automakers and unions in that sector.
However, the company said, the Seaway’s situation is “vastly different” as automotive workers “had fallen behind inflation following give-backs in past years.”
Seaway workers by comparison “today find themselves almost 10 per cent ahead of inflation,” the company said.
“This impasse is extremely unfortunate but our members remain committed to getting a fair agreement,” Unifor national president Lana Payne said in the union’s release Sunday. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
