Port of Montreal paralysed by 24-hour dockworkers' strike

The Port of Montreal was paralyzed on Oct. 27, 2024 by a 24-hour longshoremen's strike. This image shows containers being transported to the Port of Montreal on Sept. 30, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi)

The dockworkers at the Port of Montreal are on strike on Sunday, as they had announced, due to the impasse in negotiations for the renewal of their collective agreement.

The Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal, a local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees affiliated to the FTQ, gave 72 hours' notice of strike action on Thursday morning.

Sunday's walkout affects all Port of Montreal terminals until 6:59 a.m. on Monday morning.

Since Oct. 10, some 1,200 dockworkers at the country's second-largest port have been on an overtime strike, which will continue after Sunday's strike.

The union is also taking advantage of Sunday's strike to hold an extraordinary general meeting with its members on issues that have not been made public.

In a press release issued the day before, the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) said that the strike also affected the Contrecoeur terminal.

However, “in accordance with the Canada Labour Code, activities for grain vessels will be maintained, as will those related to supplies to Newfoundland and Labrador, in compliance with the Canada Industrial Relations Board's decision of July 23, 2024,” the MEA press release stated.

Last week, the federal Minister of Labour, Steven MacKinnon, proposed to the union and the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) that a special, time-limited mediation process be used to resolve the impasse.

The Maritime Employers Association says it hopes “that the upcoming discussions with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will be fruitful and allow a return to the bargaining table in order to quickly reach a negotiated collective agreement.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which represents 97,000 members in all sectors of activity, including 21,000 in Quebec, is concerned about this latest dispute affecting the country's freight transport industry.

“It's time for the federal government to make ports an essential service, so that they remain operational at all times. This will protect our supply chain and our small and medium businesses, and make industrial action such as we are seeing at the Port of Montreal impossible,” said Jasmin Guénette, Vice-President, National Affairs, on Sunday morning in a written statement emailed to The Canadian Press.