“Singin’ in the rain” is one thing.
“Loading grain in the rain” is another matter entirely.
After three years of negotiations between maritime employers and longshore workers at Vancouver, a virtual ban remains on loading grain in inclement weather.
When the rain comes down in Vancouver, the curtain comes down on grain loading.
There are two generally accepted methods of loading grain into vessels on wet days, but according to British Columbia’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union, neither is safe and it refuses to participate.
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The employers, represented by the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, disagrees, but can’t convince the union to change its mind.
“There is a lot of rain in Vancouver,” said Greg Vurdela, the association’s vice-president for marketing and information technology.
“If you don’t load in inclement weather, you’ll be stockpiling the product all the way back to the Prairies.”
ILWU president Tom Dufresne dismissed it as a non-issue, saying the matter has been resolved, but declined to go into further detail.
Vurdela said grain is loaded in wet weather either by covering the hatch and grain stream with a tarpaulin or by opening a “feeder hole” in the side of each hatch and inserting a pipe.
“I assume producers want this to happen, to ensure their product moves to market in a timely and efficient manner,” said Vurdela.
“We have the ILWU holding the entire industry to ransom on this.”
Both sides agree safety issues are associated with the use of tarpaulins, but the employers association is convinced that’s not the case with pipes in feeder holes.
The union maintains there is a risk the vessel could blow up when it’s loaded through the feeder hole.
Beckett said the association has conducted scientific studies that indicate that is not the case, noting there are no cases on record where a vessel blew up while loading through a feeder pipe.
“However, the union has created enough safety doubts in people’s minds that it can’t proceed,” he said.
Union reps visit captains of foreign vessels and warn them of the dangers, he added.
The union and employers have a signed agreement verifying the safety of feeder holes, but the association said it doesn’t get transferred to the job site.
There has been no similar attempt to resolve the tarpaulin issue.
The employers say other countries don’t have the same restrictions as Canada, putting grain farmers and shippers in this country at a competitive disadvantage.
“We’ve done everything required in the past three years to demonstrate safety, but we can’t get compliance,” said Vurdela.
Canadian Wheat Board spokesperson Maureen Fitzhenry said there’s no doubt the ban on wet weather loading affects the board’s ability to move grain to market.
“We’re certainly always looking for more efficiency. We’d love to have 24/7 loading.”
She said the board won’t get involved in the labour dispute and won’t comment on safety issues.
“That’s not our area of expertise.”
