Three unions are now challenging the federal government’s recent decisions to intervene in major labour disputes, saying it’s undermining workers’ rights.
The union representing locked-out dock workers in Montreal was the latest Wednesday to say it plans to challenge Ottawa’s intervention in court, not long after the union representing locked-out workers in B.C. announced its intention to fight back.
“We will fight this order in the courts. We will fight the arbitrated forced contract in the courts,” said Frank Morena, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship & Dock Foremen Local 514, which represents the workers in B.C., in a press release Tuesday.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon stepped in on Tuesday to get ports in British Columbia and Montreal moving again after employers locked workers out, directing the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order the resumption of all operations and move both sets of talks to binding arbitration.
On Wednesday, the BC Maritime Employers Association said the board has issued an order for operations to resume at the province’s container terminals Thursday “and to continue operations and duties” until “a final determination” is made in the dispute.
The employers association said dispatch functions will restart for the day shift while terminal operations and maintenance may begin by 4:30 p.m. depending on “operating realities.”
The B.C. employers also said the board has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 18 to hear from both sides of the dispute “on certain questions raised with respect to the ministerial direction” on ordering an end to the work stoppage.
Container cargo traffic at terminals on the West Coast had been halted since last week, after a labour dispute involving more than 700 longshore supervisors led to a lockout by the employer.
In Montreal, the Maritime Employers Association locked out 1,200 longshore workers on Sunday night after workers rejected what the employers called a final contract offer.
“Negotiated agreements are the best way forward, but we must not allow other Canadians to suffer when certain parties do not fulfil their responsibility to reach an agreement,” MacKinnon said in a statement Tuesday.
He said he didn’t take the decision to intervene lightly, but that the stoppages created real economic risk.
“It is my duty and responsibility to act in the interest of businesses, workers, farmers, families and all Canadians.”
The mechanism used by the minister — using Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code — is the same one the government used in August when Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. locked out more than 9,000 workers, grinding railway operations to a halt across the country.