MONTREAL — Montreal port workers, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375, are stepping up their fight for safe and livable working conditions. They’ve been working without a contract since the beginning of the year, and their last contract was imposed by forced arbitration in 2021. Local members voted by over 99% against the port companies’ latest offer and by 98% to authorize a strike.
They carried out a 24-hour strike Oct. 27, holding an extraordinary general meeting where they discussed and voted on giving strike notice to the bosses of Termont Corporation Terminals, to begin Oct. 31 at 11 a.m.
They also voted to provide financial support to the 320 workers who will be affected by the strike. It will stop 15% of the shipping volume of the port. The workers have also been refusing to work overtime since Oct. 10.
Termont is targeted because it is the only company at the port to retaliate against workers by modifying their schedules in a punitive way.
“Termont is provoking longshore workers and their local by using schedules that have negative impacts on work-life balance,” Michel Murray, the CUPE union’s representative, told the press. “If we reach a permanent agreement on this issue, we could avoid a strike.”
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon proposed Oct. 14 that the longshore union and the Maritime Employers Association take their dispute before a special mediator for 90 days, and guarantee that during this time there would be no strike or lockout. The union turned this down.
Attacking the port workers’ right to strike, Jasmin Guenette, the national vice president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, called for government intervention. “It’s time the federal government made ports an essential service, so that they remain operational at all times,” he said.