Canada’s Labor Minister has used federal powers to put an end to port labor strikes in Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Montreal.
The Canadian Labor Minister shared that negotiations had reached a total impasse and that measures taken were necessary to avoid economic and reputational damage to the country.
According to RealAg RAdio’s Shaun Haney, “Section 107 essentially forces both sides into binding arbitration. This is a similar tactic that was used by the Canadian government in the rail strike in late summer with CPKC and CN Rail. So, now we’ve got three happening at the same time. It kind of shows you the amount of labor impasses that we have had in Canada. But, big news, no word on when those workers will go back to work. I would expect it would be very soon. In the case of the rail strike, I believe it was the next day so those port workers may be back at work tomorrow— container shipments resuming.”
$575 million worth of container trade arrives to the United States from Canada each day.
