VANCOUVER — Vancouver’s port authority and the steamship companies using Canada’s largest port complained on Thursday they are losing money and gaining a bad reputation while trapped in the middle of a trucking dispute. Officials estimated they have lost more than C$43 million ($1 = $1.49 Canadian) since the labor dispute began two weeks ago over removal of containers from the Pacific ocean port, and ships are beginning to divert to Seattle, Tacoma and Los Angeles.
The truckers, who own their own vehicles, want more money from trucking companies that carry containers to and from the docks. The truckers are paid per unit, but want to switch to hourly wages to compensate for time spent waiting to load.
The dispute involves only containers destined for the Vancouver area, but officials worry increasing congestion on the docks will make it impossible to load and unload the trains that transport containers across North America.
“It’s going to get to the point in the next week where we’re not going to be able to get anything out,” spokeswoman Linda Morris said.
Port and shipping officials complain that resolving the dispute has been made more difficult because neither the truckers nor the trucking companies have a single bargaining unit they can use for negotiations.
“We’re not taking sides, we just want people to get together,” said Norman Stark, the authority’s chief executive.
The truckers were tentatively scheduled to vote on Friday on a new offer from the trucking companies. And the port and steamship firms said they are willing to help reduce loading delays that have aggravated the situation.
Vancouver handled more than 840,000 container equivalent units last year and has seen a 44 percent increase in container traffic so far in 1999. The port, which also handles grain, coal, lumber and oil, is Canada’s busiest.
Stark complained to reporters on Thursday that the diversion of ships will give Vancouver a reputation of unreliability and undo progress it has made attracting new shipping lines and additional container business.
Port officials acknowledge Vancouver has been able to increase its container business, in part, because of labor disputes at rival U.S. port facilities. “We’ve played on that and now we’ve got one of our own,” Morris said.
