The strike ended sooner than investors had expected, weakening shipping stocks across Asia on Friday as freight rates were no longer expected to surge.

At least 54 container ships queued outside the ports as the strike had prevented unloading and threatened shortages of anything from bananas to auto parts. Everstream Analytics was calculated the number queuing at 4:00 p.m. ET (2000 GMT). More ships are sure to arrive. Pricing platform Xeneta said it was likely to take two to three weeks for the normal flow of goods to be reestablished.

“Remember that ships keep calling, so it’s not just a matter of handling the ships already in line, but to work extra hard to run down the congestion before supply chains are re-running,” Xeneta Chief Analyst Peter Sand told Reuters.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) workers union and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) port operators announced the deal late on Thursday. Sources said they had agreed a wage hike of around 62 per cent over six years, raising average wages to about $63 an hour from $39 an hour.

Shares in shipping companies in Asia and Europe fell.

“Shipping stocks had previously rallied on expectations of price increases triggered by the strike by U.S. dock workers and the tense situation in the Middle East,” said Taishin Securities Investment Advisory analyst Tony Huang.

The ILA launched the strike by 45,000 port workers, their first major work stoppage since 1977, on Tuesday, affecting 36 ports from Maine to Texas. JP Morgan analysts estimated the strike would cost the U.S. economy around $5 billion per day.

Retailers account for about half of all container shipping volume, with Walmart, IKEA, and Home Depot among those that rely on the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, according to eMarketer analyst Sky Canaves.

Bill of lading figures from Import Yeti, a data firm, show the importers reliant on the affected ports include IKEA, Walmart and Goodyear Tire & Rubber.

East Coast ports are also destinations for coffee, whose price has risen because of the disruptions.

Although the tentative deal on wages has ended the strike, the two sides will continue hammering out other issues, such as the ports’ use of automation that workers say will lead to job losses.

“The decision to end the current strike and allow the East and Gulf coast ports to reopen is good news for the nation’s economy,” the National Retail Federation said in a statement. “The sooner they reach a (final) deal, the better for all American families.”

Cargoes stuck at US ports as labor strike continues https://reut.rs/3zSu1g3

Additional reporting for Reuters by Jihoon Lee in Seoul, Emily Chan in Taipei, Tom Westbrook in Singapore, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen

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“All Port of Montreal terminals are now open, and cargo can be picked up or dropped off as usual … clients waiting to import or export goods can expect delays in the coming weeks,” it said.

The partial strike hit the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals, which account for about 40 per cent of the port’s container traffic.

Talks between the employer and union remain in a deadlock over wages.

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Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway staff represented by the Teamsters union voted overwhelmingly this month to strike as early as May 22.

Producers groups like Grain Growers of Canada have warned a stoppage would interrupt grain movements and would delay payment to farmers. It could also have negative implications for trade relationships.

Further to the west, talks between management and unions at the port of Vancouver have also hit an impasse.

“Any work stoppage affecting our railways and ports would be crippling for our national economy and North American supply chains,” Smith said in a letter to Trudeau that was released by her office.

Smith said Ottawa had to do all it could to help the parties in both disputes reach negotiated settlements.

“In the event of a work stoppage, your government must be prepared to use all the tools at its disposal to terminate it rapidly, including, if necessary, back-to-work legislation,” said Smith.

The Liberals could present a draft law to force striking workers back to work but in the past have shown little interest in doing so.

Asked about a possible Vancouver port strike, the office of Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said: “Our government believes in collective bargaining.” O’Regan last week asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to look at whether a rail strike might have safety implications.

Until the board has issued a decision, the strike by workers at  cannot start. The board on Monday asked for submissions by the end of business on May 21 and could take weeks to act.

The unions are currently negotiating contracts and asking for better wages and working conditions.

—Reporting for Reuters David Ljunggren

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“CN cannot escape the spotlight. The shameful behaviour by CN Autoport in Halifax will be met with resistance across our union,” said Lana Payne, Unifor national president in a March 14 news release.

“CN can expect more unscheduled disruption from coast-to-coast if it continues strike-busting tactics,” Payne added.

Unifor said it “safely” stopped the train at “a rail crossing at a public roadway near CN’s Winnipeg yards” where close to 100 Unifor members and supporters were holding a demonstration.

Workers at Autoport, a CN-operated transshipping hub at the Port of Halifax, began their strike on February 27, according to a news release from Unifor. Unifor Local 100 represents 239 workers at that facility.

Unifor said it stopped the train as a protest after CN brought in replacement workers to work at the Halifax facility. It said some cars, loaded onto trains by these replacement workers, end up in Winnipeg where they’re stored before delivery elsewhere in North America.

“The strike in Halifax will be resolved with good faith bargaining at the bargaining table,” said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s western regional director. “CN is wrong if it thinks it can bully our members with scabs. This approach will only extend the strike and cause headaches for its national operations.”

In a statement, CN, speaking for Autoport, did not directly address the incident, however it said that it respected the right to peaceful and safe strike actions and remained “committed to achieving a fair negotiated settlement with the union.”

“We recently reiterated to employees that we remain ready to find a resolution at the bargaining table as soon as Unifor is ready,” a CN spokesperson said.

“Our contingency plan is keeping the supply chain fluid and goods moving safely. These activities will continue uninterrupted as along as necessary.”

–Updated March 15 to add comments from CN.

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Negotiators with the B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) and International Labour and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada), working with the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), reached a new tentative deal July 30.

BCMEA members said they ratified the agreement last Monday (July 31). ILWU Canada members’ ratification votes, held Thursday and Friday, turned up 74.66 per cent in favour of the new deal, union president Rob Ashton said in a memo Friday.

A caucus of ILWU leadership had recommended Aug. 1 that workers approve the new deal.

The employers’ association said late Friday that the new agreement “includes increases in wages, benefits and training that recognizes the skills and efforts of B.C.’s waterfront workforce, while providing certainty and stability for the future of Canada’s West Coast ports.”

About 7,400 longshore workers at Vancouver and Prince Rupert went on strike starting July 1. Their previous collective agreement had expired March 31 and talks had been underway since that time between the parties with federal mediators.

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez, in a joint statement Saturday, said the new deal’s ratification is “good news for the employer, the union, and the many workers and businesses across Canada that rely on our B.C. ports.”

But the ministers also noted the dispute “caused serious disruption to our supply chains, risking our strong international reputation as a reliable trading partner. We do not want to be back here again.”

The new deal follows the ILWU Canada leadership caucus’ rejection of a tentative deal on July 18 — after which union membership voted July 28 to reject a second tentative deal that had the caucus’ support.

O’Regan on July 29 invoked section 107 of the Canada Labour Code and directed the CIRB to see whether the union’s rejection of that second tentative deal had “eliminated the possibility of a negotiated resolution.” If so, he authorized the CIRB to then impose either a new collective agreement or final binding arbitration on both parties.

O’Regan said Saturday that federal officials will “review how a disruption on this scale unfolded, so that in future we can provide greater stability for the workers and businesses across Canada that depend on our B.C. ports.”

On that matter, the ministers said Saturday “we will have more to say on this soon.”

Bulk grain traffic has a Labour Code exemption from any longshore labour outage, but traffic in containerized pulse crops and other agricultural goods and commodities is not exempt.

Farm and business groups and others in recent weeks have called on Ottawa to draft new contingency plans to limit impacts of such disputes. Manitoba Pork and Keystone Agricultural Producers, for example, called last month for all food and agriculture shipments to be declared as essential.

The two groups also called for a process in which mediation is launched before strikes or lockouts take place, and for staggered labour contracts to be set up help ensure “operational continuity in impacted ports during times of disruption.”

Alberta’s Transport Minister Devin Dreeshen, in a separate statement Saturday, also called on the feds to “bring forward mechanisms that provide more stability and predictability in the segments of Canada’s supply chain within its jurisdiction.

“Class 1 rail, ports, and airports are critical pieces of infrastructure and we cannot afford these sorts of disruptions to our province.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“The volume of grain that moved in the last three weeks has been really good. We were clearing eight vessels on an average week. For this time of year that’s not bad,” said Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp.

Quorum is tasked with tracking grain movement throughout Canada and issuing regular reports.

As of Monday, the union representing workers at the west coast ports had reached a settlement agreement, according to a joint statement from the International Longshore and Warehouse Canada Union (ILWU) and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), released Sunday.

For a good portion of July, the more than 7,400 members of the ILWU walked off the job after negotiations failed with the BCMEA.

The strike upended operations at two of Canada’s three busiest ports, the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, gateways for exporting natural resources and commodities and bringing in raw materials, however grain movement continued.

Above average movement

Hemmes said this July saw more grain moved than during the previous July, with the amount likely above the three-year average.

“To say we were affected during the strike, I would say we weren’t at all,” Hemmes said.

“The [Canadian] Labour Code that protects the loading of grain vessels really worked to the benefit of the grain industry,” Hemmes said. “The railways got a little bit congested, but it didn’t seem to affect much.”

However, grain that was containerized, such as pulses, wasn’t covered under the code. Several pulse groups in Canada said that resulted in their exports being unable to move.

For the grain industry on the whole, things going forward over the next couple of months are likely to become problematic, said Hemmes.

With the harvest of cereals, oilseeds and pulses to be coming off of Prairie fields, grain movement to ports such as Vancouver will be picking up, just as they will be trying to clear the backlog created by the strike.

“It’s going to take a couple of months to clean up the backlog. On top of that, they’re going to have to catch up on potash, some of the coal, and some of the other products that just couldn’t move during that period of time,” Hemmes explained.

“In all fairness, that’s probably going to have a little bit of a backlash on grain movement because they’re going to be juggling things around,” he added.

Hemmes said October to December is the busiest time for grain movement in Canada. He stressed that the railways have performed “really well this year.”

A tentative agreement

“Our ports are operating, but this deal – made by the parties – would mean long-term stability,” federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said in a social media post on Monday.

O’Regan said on Saturday he could impose a new collective agreement or a final binding agreement on the dock workers.

Bob Dhaliwal, secretary treasurer of the ILWU, said new ratification votes would be scheduled but was not immediately able to give a timeline.

“It’s a complicated process,” he said by email on Monday.

Workers walked off the job for 13 days earlier this month over disagreements about issues including wage increases and expanding the union’s jurisdiction to regular maintenance work on terminals.

Neither the union nor the employers’ association disclosed details of the new deal, which was reached with the assistance of the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB).

The tentative agreement comes two days after workers turned down a proposed labour contract, following which O’Regan directed the CIRB to resolve the dispute.

–Reporting for MarketsFarm by Glenn Hallick in Winnipeg, reporting for Reuters by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa.

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