Ottawa orders the resumption of work at the ports of Montreal and Quebec

Ottawa orders the resumption of operations at the Port of Montreal by imposing final and binding arbitration in order to limit economic damage on the second day of the lockout imposed by the port authority.

“For a country that depends on trade, the economic trade and health risks are extremely high and disproportionate to the challenges of collective bargaining,” federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon said Tuesday.

“I want to emphasize this: there is a limit to the economic self-destruction that Canadians are prepared to accept,” he added.

The approximately 1,200 dock workers at the port of Montreal have been locked out since Monday, after more than a year of negotiations, stuck in an impasse.

Arbitration will also be imposed on the ports of Quebec and British Columbia, where labor conflicts resulting from endless negotiations also persisted.

“The parties are showing an alarming lack of urgency and negotiations are not progressing towards new agreements,” said Minister MacKinnon.

This is the second time since taking office last summer that the Minister of Labor has imposed final and enforceable arbitration. His action had made it possible to put an end to the paralysis of the railway lockout which threatened to collapse the economy.

In the case of the Port of Montreal, negotiations have been ongoing since November 1, 2023.

Julie Gascon, CEO of the Montreal Port Authority, says that the Port of Montreal has lost 24% of the volume of goods that pass through the metropolis in two years. “It’s really catastrophic,” she said on RDI on Monday.

The image, even the reliability of the port took a hit during the 2021 conflict, she said.