Canada’s labour minister, Steven Mackinnon, said yesterday he will intervene to end lockouts of workers at the country’s two biggest ports. However, aggrieved dockworkers have vowed to take the matter to court.
Mackinnon directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order the resumption of all operations at the ports of Vancouver and Montreal and move the talks to binding arbitration following days of closure at the two ports.
“There is a limit to the economic self destruction that Canadians are prepared to accept,” MacKinnon said. “In the face of economic self destruction there is an obligation to intervene.”
The move to end the stoppages comes after the government stepped in to end halted operations at Canada’s two main railways in August.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 514, which represents workers on Canada’s west coast, said it will be planning on legally challenging both the Canada Industrial Relations Board’s order to end the job action and the minister’s forced arbitration.
“The union will launch a charter challenge based on interference with the constitutional right to free collective bargaining and the right to strike as previously upheld in the Supreme Court of Canada,” the ILWU said.
The Canadian Labour Congress said in a statement, “The government is sending a dangerous message: Employers can bypass meaningful negotiations, lock out their workers, and wait for political intervention to secure a more favourable deal.”
