REGINA (Staff) – Two farm organizations say labor problems at the port of Vancouver must be solved or Canadian grain will start flowing through the United States.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities are presenting briefs to an industry inquiry commission looking into west coast ports. They are demanding fewer strikes and more labor flexibility.
But Grain Services Union general secretary Hugh Wagner said the problem is more perception than reality. He said the demands for essential services designation for port workers, which would prohibit strikes and lockouts, are “a creeping attempt by employers to destroy the collective bargaining power of unions right at a time of enormous change.”
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Not allowed to strike
SARM president Sinclair Harrison said the organization will repeat its call that ports be essential services.
He said a February trip members of SARM took to the port of Vancouver revealed inefficiencies, which farmers are paying for.
“We’ve paid a lot of attention on our farms to becoming more productive, to tighten our belts and we do not see the same kind of efficiencies carried on at the ports.”
But Wagner said there is no evidence Canada has ever lost a sale or had its reputation as a supplier damaged because of labor problems in the port of Vancouver.
Western Canadian Wheat Growers president Larry Maguire disputes that claim.
His organization is calling for final offer arbitration provisions. If an agreement could not be reached, management and the union would both submit their final offers and an independent arbiter would impose one of the offers as the final settlement.
“If Vancouver wants to be the port of choice they are going to have to get their act together,” he said.
