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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The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada), which represents about 7,400 longshore workers at various Vancouver and Prince Rupert port facilities, said Tuesday afternoon its longshore caucus had voted to reject terms of settlement proposed last week by federal mediator Peter Simpson’s team.

Instead, ILWU Canada said, its membership “will be back on the picket line for a fair and negotiated collective agreement” as of 4:30 p.m. PT.

Service for bulk grain vessels at West Coast ports is exempt from the work stoppage under Canada’s Labour Code.

Several farmer and ag industry groups had been publicly calling for federal action to end the strike, however, as containerized pulse crops, perishables such as meat and produce, fertilizer and other goods face potential delays.

The union caucus “does not believe the recommendations had the ability to protect our jobs now or into the future,” the union said Tuesday.

Work was to resume at B.C. ports last Thursday evening after the port management group, the B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), said a tentative agreement had been reached and the longshore workers’ 13-day strike would end.

Simpson and his team had been directed by federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan to draft terms for an agreement to take to the union and management for their review — an option that was open to O’Regan under the Canada Labour Code.

However, ILWU Canada had not said last Thursday whether it would put the mediator’s proposed deal to a ratification vote.

Rather, it said Tuesday, with the “record profits” BCMEA member firms have collected in recent years, “the employers have not addressed the cost-of-living issues that our workers have faced over the last couple of years as all workers have.”

Also, the mediator’s proposal called for a collective agreement with a four-year term, which ILWU Canada said “with today’s uncertain times, is far too long. We must be able to readdress the uncertainty in the world’s financial markets for our members.”

BCMEA, in a separate statement Tuesday, said ILWU’s “internal caucus leadership rejected the tentative agreement, before it was even taken to a vote of the full union membership.”

The employer group said the proposed “fair and comprehensive package could not satisfy some of (ILWU’s) internal caucus leadership, and in rejecting this tentative agreement, ILWU leadership is choosing to further harm Canada’s economy, international reputation and most importantly, to Canadians, their livelihoods and all those that rely on a stable supply chain.”

BCMEA said the proposal had called for “considerable hikes in wages and benefits” that are “generally above the established norm of recent private and public sector union settlements in British Columbia and Canada.”

The tentative deal had also included “specific provisions that addressed the union’s concern regarding ‘contracting out’ work and measures to improve training, recruitment and retention of ILWU trades workers now and in the future,” the employer association said.

Among those provisions, BCMEA said, the deal called for “benefit coverage for all casual trades workers, a tool allowance, and a commitment to increase apprentices in the industry by 15 per cent.”

A statement was not yet available early Tuesday evening from O’Regan or Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, both of whom were attending the Atlantic Growth Strategy Leadership Committee meeting with Atlantic Canada’s premiers Tuesday in Moncton. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Roughly a quarter of all Canadian pea exports, a third of the lentils, and all the chickpeas typically move by container, with a strike by British Columbia port workers in early July hindering some movement.

That labour stoppage was resolved after 13 days, and the Port of Vancouver announced that it was “actively working to clear the backlog of ships waiting to enter (the port) caused by the recent labour strike.”

Canada has exported 1.972 million tonnes of lentils by the end of May, with Turkey the top destination at 562,500 tonnes followed by India at 501,000 tonnes, according to Statistics Canada data. That compares with 1.300 tonnes of lentil exports through May of the previous crop year.

Pea exports of 2.312 million tonnes are up by 42 per cent compared to the same time the previous year, with China accounting for nearly 1.3 million tonnes of the total. Other major importers of Canadian peas include Bangladesh, the U.S. and Pakistan.

Canada has exported 203,300 tonnes of chickpeas through the 2022-23 crop year-to-date, with the U.S. the top destination, followed by Turkey. The exports through May were well above the 136,000 tonnes that moved through 10 months the previous year.

Large green lentils are currently trading in the 56-58 cents/lb. range in Western Canada, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire data, with new-crop bids as high as 55 cents. Old-crop red lentils top out at 34 cents/lb., with the new crop only slightly lower at 33 cents.

Green peas delivered to the elevator are trading at roughly $13-$14 per bushel, with yellow peas in the $8.75-$12.80 per bushel area. New-crop pricing for the two crops top out at $13.80 and $10 per bushel respectively.

Large-calibre Kabuli chickpeas are currently trading at around 44 to 45 cents/lb., according to Prairie Ag Hotwire, with new-crop bids topping out at 44 cents/lb.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin is an associate editor/analyst with MarketsFarm in Winnipeg.

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The B.C. Maritime Employers Association said in a release Thursday morning it had reached a tentative pact with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada) on a new four-year collective agreement “that recognizes the skills and efforts of B.C.’s waterfront workforce.”

The deal ending a 13-day strike came after federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan on Tuesday night tasked federally appointed mediators with drafting terms for a new agreement based on progress made in talks to date.

O’Regan had set a deadline of Thursday evening for the union and management to decide whether the mediator’s terms were acceptable.

He and federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, in a joint statement Thursday, said the ILWU and BCMEA are now “finalizing details for the resumption of work at the ports.”

BCMEA said Thursday morning it’s “committed to working closely with ILWU Canada and their locals and supply chain partners to safely resume operations as soon as possible.”

Thanking federal mediator Peter Simpson and his team as well as O’Regan for their help in reaching the tentative deal, the employer group said it “recognizes and regrets the significant impact this labour disruption has had on the economy, businesses, workers, customers and ultimately, all Canadians.”

Parties at Vancouver and Prince Rupert now “must collectively work together to not only restore cargo operations as quickly and safely as possible but to also rebuild the reputation of Canada’s largest gateway and ensure supply chain stability and resilience for the future,” BCMEA said.

O’Regan and Alghabra, in their statement Thursday, concurred that the scale of the disruption at the West Coast has been “significant” and “has shown just how important the relationship between industry and labour is to our national interest. Our supply chains and our economy depend on it.”

Service for bulk grain vessels and cruise ships at B.C.’s ports was exempt from this work stoppage. However, several farmer and ag industry groups had publicly called for federal action to end the strike, as containerized pulse crops, perishables such as meat and produce, fertilizer and other goods were potentially at risk from delays.

Past that, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) said in a separate release Thursday the strike “has caused severe backlogs that will take weeks to process. The damage to manufacturing supply chains is significant, as production slowed in the lead-up to the strike and will take even more time to get back up and running.”

CME said it’s been estimated that a day of a port shutdown takes up to a week to make up, “meaning it will take months for the sector to recover.”

O’Regan and Alghabra emphasized Thursday that “deals like this, made between parties at the collective bargaining table…are the best way to preserve the long-term stability of Canada’s economy” and “we do not want to be back here again.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The B.C. Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), in a statement Monday, said it’s “of the view that a continuation of bargaining at this time is not going to produce a collective agreement” with its longshore workers’ union, which went on strike Saturday morning.

While any prolonged strike at the West Coast could snarl many of Canada’s supply chains, longshore work at port grain terminals at Vancouver and Prince Rupert is not affected. The Canada Labour Code requires that loading or movement of grain vessels continue during any such work stoppage. The association and workers’ union also confirmed last Friday that service to cruise ships at the West Coast would not be affected.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada), in a separate statement Tuesday, said it received a message Monday from federal mediators that the BCMEA had “walked away from the table.”

The BCMEA, which represents 49 employers at B.C.’s waterfront, such as ship owners and agents, stevedores and container and cruise ship terminal operators, said Monday it “has gone as far as possible on core issues” in talks, but the union “seems to have entrenched their positions.”

The ILWU and BCMEA had been in talks with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) since March 28.

The employers’ group said Monday the union “is attempting to aggressively expand their scope and re-define Regular Maintenance Work far beyond what is set out in the industry-wide agreement, which has been legally well established for decades.”

Under their collective agreement, which expired March 31, the union “exclusively supplies the labour force” but “has been consistently unable to fulfill the trades work they have jurisdiction over.”

Also, the BCMEA described the union’s proposals for compensation as “unreasonable, and well outside the established norm of union settlements in Canada.”

ILWU Canada, in a separate statement Monday, said the BCMEA “has accused the union of trying to expand its scope of work beyond regular maintenance.” Rather, the union said, it “has been raising the issue of the rampant contracting out of our maintenance work for years” and its focus in bargaining “has been to stop the erosion of jurisdiction and the extensive use of contractors.”

As for compensation, the union said it “did not take the position that gorging on massive profits was unreasonable, but we did take the position that it is reasonable for the workers that helped to achieve those record profits in the first place to have a fair and equitable share of them.”

The union said it also “hope(s) that the association is not hiding behind the threat of back-to-work legislation and binding arbitration to avoid engaging in bargaining with the union.”

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, in a separate tweet Tuesday, said he “encourage(s) both parties to immediately return to the bargaining table and remain there until a deal is reached.”

Collective bargaining, he said, “is hard work but it’s how the best, most resilient deals are made.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU Canada) on Wednesday morning served the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) with 72 hours’ strike notice, which would see strike action begin Saturday at 8 a.m. PT.

The BCMEA — which represents 49 employers at B.C.’s waterfront, such as ship owners and agents, stevedores and container and cruise ship terminal operators — emphasized in its statement Wednesday that any work stoppage “will not impact employees required to service grain vessels” as per the Canada Labour Code.

Under section 87.7 (1) of the Code, longshore workers “shall continue to provide the services they normally provide to ensure the tie-up, let-go and loading of grain vessels at licensed terminal and transfer elevators, and the movement of the grain vessels in and out of a port.”

Exports of grains, oilseeds and related byproducts through licensed elevators at Vancouver and Prince Rupert totalled 31.51 million tonnes in 2020-21, and were cut by drought to 17.55 million tonnes in 2021-22.

The ILWU, in a separate statement Wednesday, said its bargaining committee “has run out options at the bargaining table because the BCMEA and their member employers have refused to negotiate on the main issues.”

Those issues, the union said, include protection for its members against job losses caused by contracting-out and port automation, and against “record-high inflation and skyrocketing cost of living.”

Port employers, the union said, “have repaid our hard work and dedication with demands for major concessions. Their only objective is to take away rights and conditions from longshore workers after having gorged themselves on record profits during the pandemic.”

The ILWU and BCMEA have been in talks with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) since March 28, when the union filed a notice of dispute, the BCMEA said.

The employer association said it has since put forward “multiple proposals and positions in good faith, with the objective of making progress and achieving a fair deal at the table.” Talks are still scheduled to continue between the parties with FMCS on Thursday, BCMEA added.

The BCMEA said it’s also “open to any solution that brings both parties to a balanced agreement.” For one, it proposed binding mediation and arbitration, but added that the ILWU has so far “declined” that proposal.

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said in a separate statement Wednesday that the FMCS will “keep supporting negotiations until an agreement is reached.”

All parties, the ministers said, understand “what is at stake for Canadians and our supply chains,” adding that port facilities and workers “are responsible for moving goods both nationally and internationally, and industries and consumers would feel the effects of a work stoppage.”

The ministers, in their statement, did not mention back-to-work legislation as an option to prevent a strike, saying instead that they “support the collective bargaining process because the best deals are made at the bargaining table.” The House of Commons adjourned for the summer on Wednesday last week.

The ministers said they “strongly encourage the parties to get back to the bargaining table and work together to reach an agreement.”

The ILWU’s previous contract dispute with port employers ended in a deal on May 30, 2019 following a BCMEA lockout that lasted just a few hours. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Terminal unloads at Vancouver jumped 22 per cent during week 47 of the 2019-20 crop year, compared to the same week in 2018-19. For the current week, there were 5,708 cars emptied as opposed to 4,680 a year ago.

Prince Rupert booked a decline of nine per cent, from 1,356 during Week 47 a year ago to 1,239 now. Overall for the West Coast, unloads were up 15 per cent year over year.

At Thunder Bay, on Lake Superior, unloads slipped seven per cent. There were 1,703 railcars unloaded in Week 47 this year compared to 1,823 for the same week in 2018/19.

On the year-to-date, Vancouver and Thunder Bay are presently ahead of their pace last year, but Prince Rupert is behind.

Edmonton-based Quorum, the federally appointed monitor for the Prairie grain handling system, reported 237,171 railcars have been unloaded at Vancouver at this point in the 2019-20 crop year, which makes for a three per cent increase. By week 47 last year, there were 230,250 unloads.

A year ago at Prince Rupert 58,110 cars had been emptied, but the port is at 52,856 this year, for a decline of nine per cent. Combined, the West Coast ports are slightly ahead of last year by one per cent.

There’s been a 15 per cent jump at Thunder Bay, with year-to-date currently at 80,558 railcars. In 2018/19, 70,048 cars had been unloaded.

In terms of volume, Vancouver has unloaded nearly 21.87 million tonnes of grain in 2019-20, which makes for a four per cent increase over the same point the previous year. Prince Rupert is down about 10 per cent, with 4.85 million tonnes of grain emptied from railcars. In 2018-19, Prince Rupert stood at 5.41 million tonnes. All told, the West Coast is ahead of last year by one per cent at 26.72 million tonnes.

Thunder Bay has seen approximately 7.52 million tonnes of grain unloaded to this point in the 2019-20 crop year. That’s 15 per cent more than 6.52 million tonnes in 2018-19.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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Railway blockades have sprung up at a number of locations across the country over the past two weeks, as protestors express solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs opposing the planned path of a Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia.

Via Rail on Wednesday announced temporary layoffs of nearly 1,000 people, while Canadian National Railway (CN) has stopped most eastern operations and temporarily laid off 450 employees.

Along with the blockade on the CN line through northern British Columbia to Prince Rupert, blockades have also gone up in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and, most recently, on the CN main line near Edmonton.

There were 40 vessels at Vancouver as of Sunday and 10 at Prince Rupert, according to the latest weekly grain monitoring report compiled by the Quorum Corporation.

The Vancouver lineup compares with the one-year average for the port of 24 vessels, while the Prince Rupert yearly average is only five. Eight vessels were cleared in Vancouver during the week, but none in Prince Rupert.

“Blockades on CN’s B.C. North Line closed traffic to and from the Port of Prince Rupert for week 28 and into week 29 leaving the grain terminal out of grain and all port anchorages utilized,” said the Quorum report.

“Also, line outages on the Joint Section between Kamloops and Vancouver have impacted traffic for weeks 27 and 28 and are expected to impact both (CN and Canadian Pacific) railways’ ability to position empty cars in the country in weeks 28 and 29. These disruptions account for the increasing vessel lineups at both ports.”

A separate daily report from the Ag Transport Coalition also highlighted the impact blockades were having on rail operations, both to the east and the west.

“If the blockade near Acheson (Alta., west of Edmonton) impedes the westerly flow of traffic to Prince Rupert for an extended period of time it will negatively impact the port,” the coalition report said, adding “there are currently more than 850 cars enroute to Prince Rupert, however only some 300 of these cars are currently west of Edmonton; an extended closure may cause the port to run out of loads for unloading before the end of the current week.”

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Total visible Canadian canola supplies as of Sunday were pegged at 1.6 million tonnes. That’s the highest canola stocks in commercial hands since the fall of 2016 and about 600,000 tonnes above the level reported at the same time a year ago.

About two-thirds of the visible canola was being held in primary elevators across the Prairies, with only 131,200 in an export position in Vancouver.

Vessels waiting to load are reportedly backing up on the West Coast, with protests slowing rail movement across the country expected to cause further disruptions.

Total farmer deliveries during the crop year-to-date of 10.7 million tonnes are up seven per cent from the same time the previous year. Meanwhile, exports to date of 4.7 million tonnes are about half a million tonnes behind the 2018-19 pace.

Domestic disappearance remains solid, with the 183,200 tonnes processed during the latest reporting period bringing the year-to-date total to 5.5 million tonnes. That’s up by 13 per cent from the same time a year ago.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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