The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU Canada) plans to recommend its members accept a tentative agreement to end the weeks-long strike at British Columbia’s ports, which could end the standoff that led to a 13-day strike.
The union announced on July 21 that it would force 7,400 West Coast Canadian dockworkers to vote on the same government-dictated tentative agreement that it rejected just days earlier by a meeting of union delegates for failing to reach workers’ demands. Leadership had been due to vote on July 21 on whether to recommend ratification but provided no further details regarding the tentative deal.
The ILWU Canada will put the terms of the deal to its membership at a stop-work meeting on July 25, according to an online letter. In part, it reads, “There will be a stop work meeting … to recommend the Terms of Settlement to the membership,” the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). If its members accept the agreement, the dispute will be over.
On July 21, the B.C. Maritime Employers Association said the agreement to be presented to workers is the same one the union’s caucus rejected just days ago.
Dock workers walked off the job for 13 days earlier this month. That strike ended last week with a tentative deal that union leaders rejected on July 18.
The walkout is estimated to have disrupted C$6.5 billion ($4.9 billion) of cargo movement at the ports, based on the industry body Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters’ calculation of about C$500 million in disrupted trade each day.
Photo courtesy ILWU Canada
