Monday, December 2, 2024

Port of Montreal employer submits ‘final’ offer to dockworkers, threatens lockout

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MONTREAL — The employers association at the Port of Montreal has issued the dockworkers’ union a “final, comprehensive offer,” threatening to lock out workers at 9 p.m. Sunday if a deal isn’t reached.

On Friday morning, the union — Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal — and the Maritime Employers Association spent two hours with a federal mediator without making progress.

The employers association says the new offer includes a three per cent salary increase per year for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase for the two subsequent years. It says the offer would bring the total average compensation package of a longshore worker at the Port of Montreal to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the contract.

“The MEA agrees to this significant compensation increase in view of the availability required from its employees,” it wrote Thursday evening in a news release.

The association added that it is asking longshore workers to provide at least one hour’s notice when they will be absent from a shift — instead of one minute — to help reduce management issues “which have a major effect on daily operations.”

Michel Murray, with the union that represents nearly 1,200 longshore workers, said Friday the latest offer including little more than “cosmetic changes.”

The union launched a partial unlimited strike on Oct. 31, which has paralyzed two terminals that represent 40 per cent of the port’s total container handling capacity. A complete strike on overtime, affecting the whole port, began on Oct. 10.

The union has said it will accept the same increases that were granted to its counterparts in Halifax or Vancouver — 20 per cent over four years. It is also concerned with scheduling and work-life balance.

Murray said the employer’s new offer contained nothing to address the workers’ scheduling concerns. “Zero. Zip. Nyet,” he said. As well, he said, the $200,000 compensation figure put forward by the employer is not accurate.

Union leadership was expected to meet Friday afternoon to decide whether to submit the new offer to members for a vote. Murray said he had no objection to doing so, but suggested members were unlikely to support it since they have previously rejected two similar offers by secret ballot.

Workers have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2023.

Only essential services and activities unrelated to longshoring will continue at the port after 9 p.m. Sunday in the event of a lockout, the employer said.

The ongoing dispute has had major impacts at Canada’s second-biggest port, which moves some $400 million in goods every day.

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