SASKATOON — Twenty-five idle vessels sat at anchor at Vancouver and Prince Rupert Jan. 31, as striking longshoremen were forbidden by their employers to load grain vessels.
The labor dispute brought to a halt an ambitious export program planned by the Canadian Wheat Board and other exporters.
“The effect of this, in one word, is enormous,” said board information director Bob Roehle. “We had a heavy shipping program and we’ve got good sales on the books and now it all comes to a standstill.”
West Coast shipping targets for February had called for weekly grain car unloads of 486,000 tonnes.
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The shutdown is the third major disruption to the grain transportation system in 1993-94, following last fall’s rail car shortage and January’s cold, snowy weather.
The 3,500 members of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, who have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 1992, went on strike Jan. 29 at 14 ports in British Columbia.
The only issue in dispute is money. The B.C. Maritime Employers Association is offering an 8.4 percent increase over three years, while the union has asked for 12.8 percent. As of Jan. 31, no talks were scheduled.
All commodities equal
Union president Gord Westrand said in an interview the longshoremen are prepared to load grain vessels at any time. But employers association president Robert Wilds said all commodities must be treated the same.
“You can’t explain to the sulphur producers or coal producers or pulp producers why we would let one cargo move and not the others,” he said.
But Westrand said the real reason the employers won’t let grain be loaded is to force the federal government to legislate an end to the strike.
For the moment, federal human resources minister Lloyd Axworthy has rejected intervention, calling on the two sides to return to the bargaining table. On Monday, Manitoba Reform MP Jake Hoeppner demanded in the House of Commons that the government force the workers back to work and get the grain moving again.
