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The economically devastating strike is entering into its second week with thousands of workers at more than 30 ports in B.C. taking part. Dock workers walked off the job on July 1 with negotiations over wages, contracting out and automation top of mind.
According to the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association’s (BCMEA) website, the union represents 49 of B.C.’s private sector waterfront employers and operators, including Vancouver, which is Canada’s largest port.
Members are moving 16 per cent of Canada’s total traded goods annually and good worht more than $500 million every day.
Kent Fellows, an economics professor at the University of Calgary, said the effects of the strike are already being felt by businesses in this province.
“The longer the strike propagates the more those impacts are going to build up and we may see either a combination of things and products that just aren’t available because we can’t import them,” said Fellows.
As the strike continues, he said “the cost goes up every day,” and stressed the importance of understanding how this is already impacting the economy with the future cost of goods increasing as supply decreases.
Even if the strike were to be resolved tomorrow, Fellows said the pressures from the past 10 days would reverberate throughout the economy for the rest of the year as the port works to clear the backlog.
Caught up in the crossfire will likely be small- to medium-sized businesses due to inventory management issues.
Fraser Johnson, a professor of operations management at Western University’s Ivey Business School, called the Vancouver port “the gateway to the East,” and stressed the critical role it plays for both imports and exports. He said Alberta businesses that require the port to export their goods would be at risk.
“The stuff that comes in through the port of Vancouver includes everything from consumer electronics and appliances, to fashion and toys that are shipped in from Korea and China. Household, construction materials, cars and parts, machinery and equipment (are also among exports),” said Johnson.
Johnson said that in a few months when back-to-school season approaches, people who are looking to buy consumer goods such as electronics and clothes may see a shortage in supply depending on how long the strike lasts. However, he said groceries are less likely to be impacted.
The president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada, which represents about 7,400 striking workers, told a solidarity rally on Thursday that the B.C. Maritime Employers Association has walked away from the table three times.
In statement released Monday, Rob Ashton, the union head, said the union’s attempts to get a fair wage increase in current negotiations have been “blocked by shipping companies and terminal employers who have seen profits explode during the last three years.”
The political realm is butting heads over back-to-work legislation that would force port workers back on the job. The UCP called on New Democratic Opposition Leader Rachel Notley to join them in their call to end the strike.
Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland UCP MLA Shane Getson called for Notley to break rank with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who said he would block back-to-work legislation that would force workers to return to their posts.
A statement to Postmedia from Singh’s office on Friday called on the union to return to the bargaining table.
“Both Liberal and Conservative governments have too frequently forced workers back to work, which has undermined collective bargaining rights and only made the situation we’re seeing today worse for workers. The NDP will always stand on the side of working Canadians and will fight to uphold workers’ rights,” said the statement.
