Less than nine months after last summer’s confrontation, the port was set for another strike after the Canadian Union of Public Employees served notice to the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) on Friday that the 1,150 longshoremen would strike at 7am local time today. Both sides have accused each other of negotiating in bad faith and the standoff escalated quickly.
Shippers had hoped a shutdown of the port could be avoided, but the signs were ominous. Now, the federal government decided it was necessary to step in to stop another paralyzing work stoppage, and signaled it could table a bill aimed at ending the labor dispute as early as Wednesday.
Nonetheless, some shippers have already diverted traffic from Montreal to alternative gateways, and others have confirmed they have developed alternative routings – primarily using the port of Halifax, which also came into play during the strike last summer.
Mallory Alexander is continuing to monitor this situation and will provide updates as they are made available. For further questions, please reach out to your Mallory Representative.
Source: The Loadstar