MONTREAL — Operations at the Port of Montreal were greatly reduced Monday as the Maritime Employers Association made good on a threat to lock out nearly 1,200 longshore workers if they didn’t accept what it called a final contract offer.
The lockout took effect at 9 p.m. on Sunday, and the employers’ association is asking federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to intervene. MacKinnon’s office issued a statement Monday calling on both sides at the country’s second largest port to get back to the negotiating table.
“The parties must understand the urgency of the situation and do the work necessary to reach an agreement,” his office said. “Canadians are counting on them.”
The union told a news conference on Monday it is ready to return to the table as early as Tuesday. But Michel Murray, an adviser with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the dock workers, said union overtures have received no response from the employer.
Murray told a news conference simultaneous lockouts in Montreal and Vancouver seem designed to force the federal government’s hand. Port workers in British Columbia are locked out amid a labour dispute involving more than 700 longshore supervisors, resulting in a paralysis of container cargo traffic at terminals across Canada’s west coast.
“We hope that the employer side will emerge from its silence of the past three weeks,” Murray said. “But clearly, when we look at what is happening, the lockout in Vancouver, the lockout in Montreal, we feel that it is a co-ordinated, planned attempt to increase the pressure on the federal government so that it intervenes in our file.”
Julie Gascon, CEO of the Montreal Port Authority, warned of “catastrophic” economic consequences of a prolonged conflict.
“This lockout affects not only the 1,200 longshoremen directly impacted by the work stoppage, but it also impacts over 10,000 workers in the logistics sector, from trucking and railway employees to maritime agents and pilots,” she said in a statement.
“Logistics jobs are the first to be affected, which inevitably sets off a domino effect throughout the entire economy in the markets we serve.”
Gascon told reporters in an early morning news conference effects will trickle down to other parts of the economy. “Today the conflict is impacting the supply chain, but tomorrow the conflict will impact factories as well, after that, it will be retailers,” she said.
The Port of Montreal, which moves nearly $400 million in goods every day, said essential services will continue, with liquid bulk terminals and the grain terminal among those remaining open.