This bulletin is presented for your information by active and retired members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canadian Area.
A year and a half ago a non-union company engaged in sampling and testing of commodities on the Vancouver waterfront was awarded a contract by Sultran, a sulphur handling organization based in Alberta that ships cargo through Pacific Coast Terminals and Vancouver Wharves. This contract was awarded to Certispec the “non-union company” following the arbitrary changing of a bid by Sultran management that was submitted by an ILWU Union Testing Company.
The procedure of changing the official bid by the union company in effect changed the lives of a large number of union members that had been performing this work on the waterfront since the inception of Sultran in 1977.
Sultran was incorporated in December 1975 with 23 shareholders (oil companies). 11 plants in Alberta and B.C. are the sulphur suppliers. Sultran bought Pacific Coast Terminals in 1981 for 16 million dollars. PCT was a member company of the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association and now wholly owned by Sultran. Since 1981 Sultran has invested 45 million in upgrading Sulphur operations at PCT and 22 million at the Bulk liquid operations.
Sultran President and CEO is Lorne Friberg who sits on the Board of Directors of the B.C.M.E.A. Sultran and P.C.T. have the same mailing address and operate from the same office, 2710 Esplanada St., Port Moody, phone 936 2102.
The actions of Sultran represented by the B.C.M.E.A. with Friberg on the Board of Directors have now placed the waterfront industry in the untenable position of facing a lock out, which will affect not only the work force, but will jeopardize all the Stevedoring Companies, Dock Operations, and all the other users of the Ports in British Columbia.
Bob Wilds CEO of the BCMEA continues to claim he has no jurisdiction over Sultran.
The question has to be asked are all the other players involved in the BCMEA and the Port prepared to have a major shut down perpetrated by the BCMEA in support of a company that illegally awarded a contract to a non union company.
Is the statement made by Wilds the head honcho of the BCMEA “that it might be a good thing to have a non union company operating on the waterfront” what is behind this whole unfortunate situation?
Is the statement made by the Sultran Vancouver Manager John Myers that he was going to get rid of the union now becoming a reality?
Well let’s get real and face the facts as they are today, the ILWU does not intend to allow waterfront jurisdiction that has been established over the last 40 years or so to be whittled away by an unscrupulous management team that has no understanding of what good labour management relations are all about. The guidelines established by the union and the employers over the last years has worked well and a certain trust developed. That trust today has been frittered away by people that do not have the interest of the Port of Vancouver or the rest of the industry as a priority. Longhsore and waterfront workers are here to stay, management people will go where they can make the best buck.
If all the Port users can’t see what the results of this confrontation, created by a small company, supported by the BCMEA will have on all our lives they must be blind or not too informed.
The action of the companies involved and those that support them are the culprits. All we are doing is respecting and protecting our jurisdiction, which is not negotiable or for sale.
Vancouver Wharves confrontation should serve as an example.
