Five Unifor locals representing 361 workers with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. (SLSMC) have served their 72 hours’ notice of a strike that could shut the waterway to grain and all other traffic just after midnight Sunday at the earliest.
Unifor members represented by Locals 4211, 4212 and 4323 in Ontario and Locals 4319 and 4320 in Quebec “have all delivered strong strike mandates,” the union said in a release Wednesday.
Locals 4211 and 4319, which represent the seaway’s supervisory and engineering group of workers, had already voted Aug. 1 to reject a tentative deal, Unifor said.
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The maintenance, operations and administrative unit, represented by Locals 4212, 4323 and 4320, announced Oct. 12 its members had voted 99 per cent in favour of strike action if a deal isn’t reached by a deadline of Saturday (Oct. 21).
“Employers have seen that workers will absolutely use their right to strike when they feel it’s necessary, and our members in all units at the Seaway have had enough,” Lana Payne, Unifor’s national president, said in a release Wednesday.
“It’s time to come to the table with a serious wage offer or the employer can watch what happens when workers stand together and demand their fair share.”
“This employer has shown no willingness to address the workers’ concerns in the workplace or approach them with a respectful wage offer,” Unifor Quebec director Daniel Cloutier said in the same release.
Unifor said such a strike would “effectively shut down transit through the Seaway.”
SLSMC concurred in a separate release Wednesday, saying that “should the unionized workers proceed with strike action, the St. Lawrence Seaway will be closed to all traffic.”
The not-for-profit corporation, which handles movement of marine traffic through Canadian Seaway facilities — that is, 13 of the waterway’s 15 locks between Montreal and Lake Erie — said it has started to implement its plans for an “orderly and safe shutdown of the system” within the 72-hour notice period.
Meanwhile, SLSMC said it “remains committed to obtaining a fair settlement, and will continue to bargain in good faith with the assistance of a federally-appointed mediator.”
“Cargo movements through the Seaway are an important part of the North American economy
and supply chain,” the corporation said Wednesday.
“In particular, this labour action would impact grain movements during a period when the world is in dire need of this essential commodity, even as supply has been affected by the situation in Ukraine and the greater frequency of extreme weather events being experienced around the world.”
A separate U.S. government corporation, the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp. (GLS), operates seaway facilities within U.S. territory, including two locks at Massena, N.Y., about 120 km southeast of Ottawa. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
