Ports in British Columbia are waking up to the possibility of another provincewide labour disruption as employers say they will lock out members of the union representing more than 700 foremen after it served a strike notice. A seaplane prepares to land on the harbour as a cargo ship is guided by tugboats from a berth at port, in Vancouver, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER - Ports in British Columbia are waking up to the possibility of another provincewide labour disruption as employers say they will lock out members of the union representing more than 700 foremen after it served a strike notice.

The BC Maritime Employers Association says in a statement that it has issued a formal notice that it will "defensively" lock out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 starting Monday at 8 a.m.

It says the lockout, which would shut down all cargo operations among association members across B.C., is meant to "facilitate a safe and orderly wind-down of operations" in light of "escalating and unpredictable strike action."

The employers say the union issued a 72-hour strike notice for job action starting Monday at 8 a.m., after three days of mediated talks this week yielded no agreement in the dispute that has been ongoing since the last contract expired in March 2023.

Local 514 president Frank Morena, meanwhile, says in a release that workers had only planned to "engage in limited job action" through an overtime ban and a refusal to implement tech change, and it was the employers who "completely overreacted" by threatening a "full-scale lockout."

Morena says workers are now "extremely angry" due to what they described as the employers' refusal to bargain on major issues such as manning requirements in the face of more port automation, adding that the lockout is an "attempt to force the federal government to intervene in the dispute."

"Our members have repeatedly tried since our contract expired on March 31, 2023 to bargain a new contract without any job action but the BCMEA employers have refused to move and now want to create a crisis instead of negotiating," Morena says in the union statement.

The union is also accusing the employers of not showing up for negotiations on Thursday, the last scheduled day of mediated talks this week, while also failing to notify others that they would not be participating.

"The BCMEA and its members clearly don’t want to reach an agreement even when federal mediators and the union are standing by to continue talks — what kind of employer takes their ball and goes home when everybody else is on the field?" Morena says.

The employers association says its final offer to the union remains open for workers to accept unless it is withdrawn.

"We did not arrive to this decision lightly," the employers association says in its statement announcing the lockout. "This regretful action follows thorough consideration of ILWU Local 514’s continued intransigence and their provocative decision to proceed with another strike notice."

The employers' statement also says the association is prepared to rescind the lockout notice if the union withdraws its strike notice.

There have been a number of recent disruptions at the Port of Vancouver, Canada's largest, due to labour unrest.

It includes a days-long picketing effort at several grain terminals in September, a work stoppage involving both major Canadian railways in August, and a port worker strike last year that lasted 13 days and froze billions in trade at the docks.

The current dispute centres around one employer, DP World, and the union says it tried to negotiate directly with the company but was overruled by the Canada Industrial Relations Board that it cannot bargain with a single employer.

The union said in September that members voted 96 per cent in favour of taking strike action against employers if necessary.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024