Poised 200 feet over a container terminal in the port of Montreal four sacked Liverpool dockers paralysed transatlantic shipping lines CAST for five hours on Monday, 15 July. The action is part of an international campaign calling on shippers "to stop trading with the port of Liverpool until all 500 sacked dockers are reinstated".
Having lain in wait for the "Cast Bear" to arrive from Liverpool, dockers occupied two gantry cranes at 8 am Montreal time, with plans to remain for a week. Montreal longshoremen refused to board the ship while Liverpool dockers remained on the terminal.
From his vantage point in the crane, shop steward Tony Nelson spoke to LabourNet by mobile phone: "Negotiations are taking place beneath us between Michel Murray of the Montreal Longshoremen's Union and Kevin Docherty, CAST representative on site at the terminal. I can see management talking to the police while our legal representative is speaking with the longshoremen who have all stopped work. We have been asked to leave the cranes in exchange for a meeting with CAST management, who have received our press release, but no decision has been taken."
A few hours later, the dockers did meet CAST management and conveyed their intentions to pursue the company world-wide. The Montreal-based company owned by Canadian Pacific is being asked to follow the example of Atlantic Container Line, which shifted its operation to Thamesport in late June pending a resolution of the dispute. CAST's sister service, CanMar, departed Liverpool earlier this month. After meeting management, the four men were taken into police custody for questioning, though it was unclear whether any charges had been filed. A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation eyewitness radio report indicated widespread support from the Montreal longshoremen for the arrested men in their fight.
