VANCOUVER, Nov 8 (Reuters) - No negotiations were scheduled on Monday in a labor dispute that has stopped nearly all cargo shipments through Canada’s busiest port at a cost of nearly C$90 million a day, officials said.
The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association said it had no intention of ending the lockout. It began on Sunday in a dispute over wages and the use of nonunion labor. Unionized workers began limited picketing on Monday.
The federal government, which last week said it would not attempt to force an end to the dispute, called on the employers and union to return to the bargaining table. There have been no talks since late October.
“We do hope they will realize that, whatever the legitimacy of the dispute, they really are causing some considerable inconvenience and harm to the economy, not just to the West, but the entire country,” Transport Minister David Collenette told reporters in Toronto.
The lockout affects all of Canada’s Pacific Coast ports as well as Vancouver, the largest, which handles about C$33 billion in trade a year – nearly three times as much cargo as Halifax, Canada’s largest Atlantic port.
“We’re looking at a very empty port and hoping from the best on the union side that will remove the precondition that they have put on (the contract talks),” said Asa Zanatta, spokeswoman for the employers’ association.
The employers have accused the International Longshore and Warehouse Union of attempting to use the bargaining process improperly by making a precondition for any agreement the use of unionized workers by a company that transports sulfur through Vancouver.
The employers’ association also said it was forced to issue a lockout order because the union has been in a legal position to call a strike since October 20, and the uncertainty was causing ships to divert to U.S. ports.
Union officials were not available for comment on Monday, but have already said the lockout was unwarranted because they had no intention of calling a strike. More than 3,000 workers have been without a contract since 1998.
The lockout has stopped the loading and unloading of cargo containers, potash, sulfur, containerized grain, petrochemicals, oil, general cargo and some coal.
Shipments of coal to Japan and bulk grain have not been stopped as “essential services,” and the Canadian Wheat Board on Monday downplayed concern that grain vessels using Vancouver will be delayed because of the labor dispute.
“All grain ships at Vancouver and Prince Rupert are loading. We are not anticipating any delays,” CWB spokeswoman Deanna Allen told Reuters.
($1=$1.47 Canadian)
