MONTREAL -- Ottawa tabled on Tuesday morning a bill to end the strike of the 1,150 longshoremen at the Port of Montreal and impose arbitration, with substantial fines in case of non-compliance with the new law.

A mediator-arbitrator will determine the terms of the next collective agreement under An Act to provide for the resumption and continuation of operations at the Port of Montreal, tabled by federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi.

The mediator-arbitrator will have the option of hearing representations from both parties and then render an arbitral decision -- the usual route -- or asking the parties to submit a final offer of settlement, known in the industry as the "best offer."

Bill C-29 requires a return to work by 12:01 a.m. after the law receives Royal Assent, otherwise the union and the employer are liable to fines of $100,000 per day. 

The bill will be debated late Tuesday afternoon.

In addition to this fine, an officer or representative of the union or employer may be fined $50,000 per day, and $1,000 per day for each person who violates the law.

"It's going to spoil the work environment," Marc Ranger, Quebec director of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, an affiliate of the QFL, told The Canadian Press.

"It's clumsy, ill-advised," while mediation is still underway, Ranger added.The 1,150 longshoremen's union is a local of CUPE, a large union with 122,000 members in Quebec.

To introduce a special law, "it completely short-circuits the balance of power between the two parties," the veteran union leader said.

'AN AFFRONT TO ALL WORKERS IN THIS COUNTRY'

The 1,150 longshoremen's union called an indefinite general strike at 7 a.m. Monday after the Maritime Employers Association changed their work schedules.

The parties were again called before mediators Monday morning and were still there Tuesday, Ranger said.

In a 2015 decision in Saskatchewan, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed that the right to strike has constitutional protection.

"The right to strike is an essential element of a meaningful collective bargaining process in our labour relations system," the highest court ruled, noting it also promotes equality in the bargaining process.

Ranger sees the law as "an affront to all workers in this country."

Rather than pass such a law, "the federal government has the ability to tell the parties to stop all pressure tactics and return to where they were on April 9," by continuing to negotiate, with the help of mediators already on the file.

"This would give both parties some breathing space and take the pressure off," Ranger said.

New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh has already said he is prepared to "use every possible tool we can to show our opposition" to the bill.

"This is the same thing the Conservative government would have done," he said of Justin Trudeau's Liberal government.

The parties were again called before mediators Monday morning. They were still there Tuesday, Ranger said.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2021.