SASKATOON – Grain workers at Thunder Bay are bearing the brunt of slow grain movement, says the head of their union.
“Everybody talks about cars and tonnages,” said Herb Daniher of the Canadian Lakehead Grain Elevator Workers. “From our perspective, we talk about people.”
He said terminal workers with as much as 24 years seniority are now out of work following the latest round of layoffs to hit the port, and more layoffs are expected in July and August. Only about 300 workers are actually on the job, compared with the peak of 2,000 a decade ago.
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Daniher last week asked agriculture minister Ralph Goodale to launch an investigation into why so little grain is arriving at the Lakehead and why shipments are so far below the industry’s official shipping targets.
“The (Canadian) Wheat Board and the politicians have fabricated numbers and padded the stats to mislead the industry, grain handlers and the community,” he said in a strongly worded press release accompanying his letter.
A wheat board official said that’s not the case, adding the situation at Thunder Bay shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the industry.
Supplies were down this year and the late spring and delayed seeding meant even less grain entered the pipeline in May and early June than had been anticipated.
“The amount of grain movement in general is quite light at all port areas,” said wheat board information officer Brian Stacey.
Daniher said in an interview that while he’d obviously like to see more grain arriving at the port, he’s even more upset about the disparity between the sales-based targets and the number of cars actually being unloaded.
In the first three weeks of June, weekly rail car unloads averaged about 1,250 cars, well below the official target of 2,050 cars week that was set in late May. (In April, the unload target for June was an even more robust 2,600.)
Based on those targets, some union members turned down summer jobs outside the grain industry on the assumption they would be called back to work at the grain terminals this summer. And because they’re not working, their ability to collect unemployment insurance will be reduced.
Accurate numbers needed
“We’re saying give us more accurate numbers so people can plan their future,” said Daniher, adding that not only terminal workers, but also grain companies, various support industries associated with grain handling and the entire community need solid numbers on which to base plans.
He said the wheat board and the Western Grain Transportation Office (formerly the Grain Transportation Agency) have generally done a good job projecting grain movement, and he isn’t suggesting they stop issuing the four-month shipping plan.
“I’d rather have some information than no information,” he said. “But with this information that came out this time I can see literally hundreds of people going to be negatively impacted.”
Mike Amos, Thunder Bay port co-ordinator for the Western Grain Transportation Office, said the 2,050 car target issued in late May was acknowledged to be a best-case scenario.
“Everybody realized weather and seeding would have an impact,” he said. “These were optimistic projections based on seeding going well.”
The latest planning document, issued late last week, sets unload targets of 1,620 cars a week in July, 920 cars in August, 1,325 in September and 2,400 in October.
