MONTREAL — After voting 96% to go on strike 11 days earlier, the 32 port agents at the Montreal Gateway Terminals here, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4317, walked out Sept. 22. This terminal specializes in handling containers being transported between Canadian industries and their international customers.
Key issues in the strike are higher wages and the port contracting out jobs done by the unionists. They have been without a contract since last December. “No agreement has been reached on the minimum operating requirements to keep the terminals running smoothly,” CUPE representative Loic Blanchard told the media, “even though, thanks to our members, the company is very profitable. The workers deserve better!”
“We’re only after what other organized port agents receive,” striker Christine Custeau told this Militant worker-correspondent on the picket line Sept. 25. Many passing cars and trucks responded to strikers’ signs urging motorists to “honk” in support.
CUPE’s picket lines are up Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Strikers welcome visitors to come by and show their solidarity.