During this partial strike of indefinite duration, all port terminals will remain open but dockworkers will not be working overtime as part of their duties, it said.

The port authority estimates the strike to slow down or disrupt the handling of around 50 per cent of goods, including food, pharmaceutical products and raw materials for industries, transiting through the port, both imports and exports.

At present, around 10 ships expected at the port could be affected, it said.

The Maritime Employers Association and the Canadian Union of Public Employees did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Negotiations between the two parties, along with federal mediators, resumed last week but they have not reached an agreement yet. Both the employer group and the union had previously noted scheduling of meetings as a key hurdle.

Unionized workers at the Port of Montreal went on a three-day strike late last month, impacting the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals, which account for about 40 per cent of the port’s container traffic.

—Reporting for Reuters by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru

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“All Port of Montreal terminals are now open, and cargo can be picked up or dropped off as usual … clients waiting to import or export goods can expect delays in the coming weeks,” it said.

The partial strike hit the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals, which account for about 40 per cent of the port’s container traffic.

Talks between the employer and union remain in a deadlock over wages.

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Transport Canada, in a release Wednesday, said the goal of the terminal project is to “increase the number of containers stored onsite, improve the quality of the grain-cleaning service, optimize traffic flow in the yard, and increase capacity for loading and handling containers.”

Set up in 2014 by La coop federee (now Sollio) and other investors, the CanEst facility is sited next to the port’s container terminals to receive grain by rail and truck and provide services such as product cleaning, sifting, packaging and containerizing.

The CanEst terminal, served by both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways, has capacity to receive over 100 rail cars and also has with 91 concrete silos, for storage capacity of 68,000 tonnes.

Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and Annie Koutrakis, parliamentary secretary for transport, announced the CanEst funding a week after the final report from the National Supply Chain Task Force was released.

That report, released Oct. 6, the Task Force included a letter to the minister with an “urgent call to address Canada’s transportation supply chain crisis.”

Alghabra said Wednesday the investment for CanEst will help keep supply chains running efficiently.

The task force report goes on to list multiple calls to action, directed mostly at the Canadian government and transportation and supply chain stakeholders.

“Immediately undertake actions to ‘unstick’ the transportation supply chain,” the report’s first recommendation reads.

“These [actions] include addressing congestion at port container terminals and prioritizing government attention on regulations, policies and procedures that are impeding the effective operation of a reliable supply chain.”

Transport Canada said it considers the CanEst project a step toward addressing the issues raised by the task force.

The CanEst project will cost $18 million in total, with the federal component coming from the department’s $2 billion National Trade Corridors Fund (NTCF), which can back both public- and private-sector projects.

CanEst general manager Marc-Aurel Clapperton said the events of the past couple of years have “only deepened our commitment to streamlining the export process.”

Montreal Port Authority CEO Martin Imbleau said the project’s “favourable repercussions” will be “felt even on farms in the Prairies, Ontario and all of Quebec.”

“As Canada’s trade volumes continue to increase, investment in critical infrastructure assets such as seaports, railways, highways and roads, and airports must also increase to meet demand,” the task force said in its report.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, in Wednesday’s release, said port infrastructure is “critical” for supporting the flow of Canadian ag products.

— Hannah Polk reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Regina.

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Canada has announced a slew of measures to isolate Russia, including imposing sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin, closing Canadian airspace to Russian planes, banning oil imports and forbidding Canadian financial institutions from dealing with the Russian central bank, acting in tandem with other Western countries.

“Today, we are taking steps to close Canadian waters and ports to Russian-owned or registered ships,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said.

Alghabra said while the number of Russian ships entering Canadian waters and ports is “small,” there will still be an impact, especially with other countries doing the same.

Russia represents less than two per cent of Port of Montreal’s annual containerized volumes, and the ban will have little commercial impact, a spokesperson for that port authority said.

Port of Vancouver, Canada’s busiest, said the number of Russian-flagged vessels calling there is minimal. In the past, those that have traded in crude oil, canola oil and copper concentrates, a spokesperson said.

Canada is tracking three Russian-flagged vessels off the East Coast, one of which is a cargo vessel, a government official told Reuters.

Canada is also scrutinizing holdings of all Russian oligarchs and Russian companies in the country, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Tuesday. “We are reviewing them and everything is on the table,” she added.

Canada is sending 1,600 bulletproof vests and almost 400,000 meal rations to Ukraine.

Canada imported $2.14 billion worth of goods from Russia in 2021, Statistics Canada data showed, with metals and minerals among the most valuable categories.

— Reporting for Reuters by Alexander Schummer in Toronto; additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal, Julie Gordon and Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Bill C-29, introduced Tuesday in the House of Commons, cleared third reading in the Commons Wednesday and received three readings in the Senate and royal assent Friday.

The port’s longshore workers, represented by the Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (CUPE Local 375), undertook a part-time strike starting April 13, and expanded that to a full-time stoppage effective April 26.

The workers’ previous collective agreement expired at the end of December 2018; the union has described the main sticking point in talks as worker scheduling as it relates to “work/life balance.”

A strike doesn’t affect bulk grain traffic, which is protected under the federal Labour Code, it does affect export movement of containerized crops, such as pulses and special crops, as well as imports of goods such as fertilizer.

Federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi, in introducing C-29 on Tuesday, billed it as the government’s “least desired course of action.”

The bill, she said at the time, would also set up a “neutral mediation-arbitration process to resolve the issues in dispute between the parties and conclude a new collective agreement,” she said, emphasizing the government “is not taking sides.”

Tassi had also said C-29 does not prevent the union and Maritime Employers Association (MEA), which represents port terminal companies, from “concluding an agreement on their own terms at any point in this process.”

Pulse Canada, which among other crops sector groups had pressed Ottawa to ward off a work stoppage, said Friday the pulse industry “welcomes the end of the strike” at the port and thanked MPs and senators who voted for C-29’s passage.

However, Pulse Canada president Greg Cherewyk said the group “encourages both parties to reach a permanent agreement as quickly as possible in order to provide certainty to containerized shipping in Canada.”

Cherewyk described the port work stoppage as “the latest example of the vulnerability of Canada’s supply chains” and said Pulse Canada seeks “a national conversation on supply chain resiliency” including shippers, government and other stakeholders.

CUPE on Friday ripped C-29 as “unconstitutional, as it infringes fundamental rights protected by the Charter” and said it would challenge the bill in court.

In a release, the union said the MEA “walked away from the bargaining table April 27, once it was clear the Trudeau government would give them their wish of legislating their employees back to work.”

CUPE national president Mark Hancock said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “just sent a loud and clear message to every employer in the country: don’t bother bargaining in good faith with your workers, because if things get tough, we’ll be there to bail you out.”

CUPE national secretary-treasurer Charles Fleury, in the same release, credited the federal New Democrats and party leader Jagmeet Singh “for successfully amending this bill to take away some of its worst elements.”

The NDP, in a separate release Thursday, said Trudeau and Tassi “are going to dispose of an inconvenient labour dispute and undermine fundamental Canadian labour rights along the way.” –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Labour Minister Filomena Tassi on Tuesday announced the introduction of Bill C-29, which “would end the work stoppage at the Port of Montreal and ensure the safe resumption and continuation of operations at the port.”

Dockworkers represented by the Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (CUPE Local 375), whose last contract expired in 2018, began a full-time strike Monday morning.

CUPE 375 and the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), which represents port facility operators, “remain far apart,” Tassi said in a statement, and when “all other efforts have been exhausted, and a work stoppage is causing significant economic harm to Canadians — the government must act.”

C-29 would also set up a “neutral mediation-arbitration process to resolve the issues in dispute between the parties and conclude a new collective agreement,” she said, emphasizing the government “is not taking sides.”

Tassi also said the bill does not prevent the union and MEA from “concluding an agreement on their own terms at any point in this process.”

Given the Liberals’ minority government status, C-29 would need the support of at least one other party for passage through the House of Commons. Conservative leader Erin O’Toole said Monday on news channel LCN that his party would support the bill.

The federal New Democrats on Tuesday ripped the bill as “tipping the scales in favour of the employers” against unionized workers’ Charter right to strike. Meanwhile, Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said Monday on Twitter that special legislation is “not the solution.”

Monday’s strike follows a 19-day work stoppage last August, a mediated truce that ended last month and, from April 13 onward, a “partial” strike in which dockworkers refused overtime and held strikes on weekends.

CUPE 375 has described the main sticking point in talks as worker scheduling as it relates to “work/life balance.”

A strike isn’t expected to affect bulk grain traffic at Montreal, as the federal Labour Code calls for port workers during a strike or lockout to “continue to provide the services they normally provide” for loading, tie-up, let-go and movement of grain vessels in and out of port.

However, a strike is expected to affect export traffic through Montreal’s container terminals, including those handling containerized crops and other agrifoods. Several Canadian farm and ag sector groups have previously called for intervention to ward off a strike.

Fertilizer Canada also said last week that a strike at Montreal would affect deliveries of imported fertilizer going into planting season in Eastern and Atlantic Canada. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The federal Liberal government said Sunday it would introduce special legislation to end the strike at the Port of Montreal, hoping to stop it from hurting the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unionized workers, in talks for a new contract since 2018, started a partial strike last week and warned they were prepared to walk off the job completely to protest changes to their work schedule.

The centre-left minority Liberal government needs the support of one opposition party to push through the legislation. The left-leaning New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois both said they would not support it.

The official opposition Conservatives, who have generally supported the idea of forcing an end to strikes in key industries, said they would study the law before deciding.

Both sides said they were meeting on Monday with a federal mediator.

The 1,125 longshore workers, represented by the Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (CUPE Local 375), had already refused to work weekends and nights after rejecting an offer in March from the Maritime Employers Association.

“A labour stoppage would not only prevent goods from passing through the port but would also create congestion at other ports,” said Perrin Beatty, chief executive of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

The Montreal Port Authority said it handles $275 million worth of goods daily.

“This strike is going to have massive detrimental effects on the Canadian agricultural sector,” said Dwight Gerling, president of DG Global, a major shipper of soybeans.

Bulk grain exports through the port would not be affected under the federal Labour Code, but the strike is expected to affect exports of containerized crops — and imports of crop inputs such as fertilizer.

The dockworkers’ last strike in August 2020 lasted 19 days and had a ripple effect on supply chains.

— Reporting for Reuters by Allison Lampert in Montreal; additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and David Ljunggren in Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (CUPE Local 375) said Friday its members, who have been striking on weekends and refusing weekday overtime since April 13, will begin a “general unlimited strike” at 7 a.m. ET on Monday.

Given the union’s ongoing weekend strikes, however, the full-time strike technically begins Saturday, the Montreal Port Authority said Friday in a separate release.

“This new work stoppage hinders the key role that port operations play in the economic recovery and will have a significant and very concrete impact on the population and SMEs (small/mid-size enterprises) here,” port authority CEO Martin Imbleau said.

“We’re talking about raw materials for our factories, computers for working from home and fresh exotic fruits that can no longer get to our docks, and maple syrup and pork from Quebec producers that can no longer be distributed around the world via the Port of Montreal. So, it’s urgent that the two parties come to an agreement.”

Fertilizer Canada CEO Karen Proud, in a separate release Friday, said the expanded strike “threatens food security at a critical juncture” as fertilizers enter Canada at the port for planting season in Eastern and Atlantic Canada.

“If this strike is allowed to occur, up to one million acres in Eastern Canada may go unfertilized just next week,” the organization said.

“We don’t want to hurt the Montreal economy. However, we do want to exercise our fundamental right to bargain collectively,” CUPE 375 spokesperson Michel Murray said in a separate release.

The union, in its release, said that while the parties were still negotiating, the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), which represents longshore workers’ employers, announced Thursday it would make changes to the longshore workers’ schedules starting next Monday.

“This was the second time in a week that the MEA changed the longshore workers’ working conditions,” CUPE 375 said. “These actions are worsening the conflict instead of resolving it.”

The MEA said via Twitter on Friday that “there has not been a single day of negotiations since April 15” and it’s “still waiting for a response from the union regarding the two counterproposals submitted through the mediators” on that date.

The MEA noted Friday it had received another notice of meeting that day from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. “The meeting will take place on Monday, and we will be at the table,” the association tweeted.

The port authority noted liquid bulk handling, Oceanex service at its Bickerdike Terminal and its Viterra bulk grain terminal “will not be affected by this situation.”

The federal Labour Code calls for port workers during a strike or lockout to “continue to provide the services they normally provide” for loading, tie-up, let-go and movement of bulk grain vessels in and out of port.

Container traffic

But a strike would affect traffic through Montreal’s container terminals, such as its CanEst Transit terminal devoted to storage, cleaning, sifting, packing and loading of agricultural products.

The CanEst terminal, whose ownership group includes Quebec ag co-operative Sollio and Regina pulse and durum processor AGT, loads about 200 containers per day.

Pulse Canada and several other crops sector groups have previously gone public calling for federal intervention to ward off a work stoppage, saying the port at full operation sees over $880 million in containerized ag economic activity per year.

Fertilizer Canada on Friday also called on the federal government to “immediately implement back-to-work legislation” at the port, then set up “a long-term action plan to prevent future labour disputes in services that are essential to Canada’s food chain, as well as economic health and stability.”

“If the (MEA) doesn’t want a strike, all it has to do is let up on its pressure tactics and the union will do likewise. No overtime strike. No weekend strike. It’s straightforward. We want to return to the bargaining table,” CUPE’s Murray said Friday.

CUPE 375’s previous collective agreement at the port expired in December 2018, the union said, and talks with the MEA since “have bogged down on the issues of wages and life-work balance.”

For its part, the port employers’ group said via Twitter that “every decision made by the MEA is made with the aim of protecting the fluidity of the supply chain, meaning the imports and exports of our (SMEs).” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (SCFP/CUPE Local 375) said Saturday they had filed 72 hours’ strike notice, to take effect Tuesday — a move they said is in response to a lockout notice served Friday, also effective Tuesday, from their employers’ association.

The lockout notice came “after a good week of negotiations where the work was going well,” CUPE representative Michel Murray said Saturday in a release.

The union and the Association des employeurs maritimes (AEM), which represents port employers, said in separate statements Monday on Facebook they have been called to separate meetings Tuesday by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and would attend.

Reuters on Monday quoted a representative for federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi as saying while the government believes a negotiated agreement is the best option for all parties, “we are actively examining all options as the situation evolves.”

The union said Saturday its partial strike means that, starting Tuesday, its member workers won’t take any overtime work beyond their regular eight-hour shifts, and will be on strike Saturdays and Sundays indefinitely.

The longshore workers would continue regular day, evening and night shifts from Monday to Friday, the union said.

Thus, Murray said, “we put pressure on the employer without much disturbing customers who are waiting for their merchandise.”

A strike wouldn’t affect bulk grain traffic at Montreal, which runs through Viterra’s 262,000-tonne capacity grain terminal. The federal Labour Code calls for port workers during a strike or lockout to “continue to provide the services they normally provide” for loading, tie-up, let-go and movement of grain vessels in and out of port.

However, a strike would affect traffic through Montreal’s container terminals — and those include the CanEst Transit terminal, devoted to storage, cleaning, sifting, packing and loading of agricultural products.

The CanEst terminal, whose ownership group includes Quebec ag co-operative Sollio and Regina pulse and durum processor AGT, loads about 200 containers per day.

“Demand for goods is at an all-time high, and yet port traffic is dropping,” pulse industry group Pulse Canada said on Twitter Monday. “The recent uncertainty is just the tipping point for further damage to (Canadian agriculture).”

Pulse Canada and several crops sector groups — including the Canadian Special Crops Association, Soy Canada, Cereals Canada, the Prairie Oat Growers Association, Western Grain Elevator Association and others — have previously stated their case for federal intervention.

The Port of Montreal, when fully open, sees over $880 million in containerized ag economic activity per year, they said.

The port’s unionized longshore workers’ previous collective agreement expired at the end of December 2018; the union has described the main sticking point in talks as worker scheduling as it relates to “work/life balance.”

The port has since seen intermittent work stoppages plus a 10-day strike last August, halted by a mediated truce that expired March 20.

The parties said in August they had a “mutual agreement” in which they’d be able to turn to arbitration at the end of the truce if “certain points remain in dispute.”

Ag groups aren’t alone in calling for federal intervention. Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) said Monday they want Ottawa to “ensure service continuity” at the port.

“Just the threat of a work stoppage at the port caused an 11 per cent decrease in activity this past month alone,” the association said in a release.

“Some manufacturers have had to redirect their containers to the Port of Halifax, incurring millions in additional costs every week. Industry will have to absorb these costs and delays, and it will ultimately hurt consumers,” CME CEO Dennis Darby said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The six-day blockage of the Suez Canal by the grounded container ship Ever Given caused a major backup of container ships, tankers and other shipping vessels that’s expected to take days to sort out. With many Canadian pulse exports going to Asia and Africa, this type of disruption would cause a domino effect back home.

“It would definitely impact the transit time of the goods arriving to the country of destination,” Elyce Simpson Fraser, senior vice-president of Simpson Seeds Ltd. at Moose Jaw, Sask., said.

Before the Suez Canal blockage, she added, Canadian pulse exports were already facing difficulties due to “Egypt’s blind lack of willingness” to carry agriculture goods during the pandemic.

Difficulties elsewhere include delays, backlogs, cancelled vessels and a lack of empty shipping containers. The burden of additional costs to ship cargoes such as pulses will then be placed on growers.

“We can’t consistently supply cargo to the markets and it’s causing a lot of stress and cash flow situations along the entire supply chain,” Simpson Fraser said.

“It’s really becoming cost-prohibitive and the market is having to deal with these increased costs on top of these delays and we don’t see this ending for another 12 months.”

To make matters worse, an ongoing labour dispute at the Port of Montreal is already impacting shipments. Longshore workers on March 22 voted to reject their employers’ offer but have not yet submitted a strike notice.

That uncertainty has caused volume at the port to drop by nearly two per cent since the start of 2021 and shipments are being diverted away from the port.

Bulk grain vessels would continue to be loaded and served at Montreal in the event of a strike as per the federal Labour Code, but movement of containerized ag products such as pulse crops would be affected.

“The railways in Regina are returning containers… So we’re stuck with product on plant and left with very expensive options to move our cargo a different way, all of which are not necessarily accepted by buyers,” Simpson Fraser said.

“I encourage anyone who is in touch with their local representative in their constituency to put pressure on the (federal) government to step in, because we cannot afford to have a strike or shutdown at that port.”

— Adam Peleshaty reports for MarketsFarm from Stonewall, Man.

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