30 October 2023
OTTAWA A seaway workers’ union in eastern Canada agreed to a new tentative labor contract on Sunday, ending a dayslong strike that had impeded the movement of grains and other commodities on a key North American trade route linked to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Unifor union, representing 361 workers along the St. Lawrence Seaway, said the agreement covers Unifor members at Locals 4211, 4212 and 4323 in Ontario and Locals 4319 and 4320 in Quebec, who work in the supervisory and engineering group and the maintenance, operations, and clerical group.
Work will resume at 7 a.m. ET on Monday, a spokesperson for Canada’s Labour Ministry told Reuters.
The workers had walked off on Oct. 22 after contract talks with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. broke down over a wage dispute. The strike forced vessels out of the 13 Seaway-operated locks between the Port of Montreal and Lake Erie and affected nearly 150 vessels outside that waterway.
The Seaway Corp. will begin to implement a recovery program immediately and will start passing ships progressively as of Monday, it said in a statement.
The strike – the latest in a string of contract disputes as workers demand higher compensation to make up for a rise in the cost of living – led to industry groups cautioning about supply chain disruptions potentially worsening inflation.
The seaway strike followed a 13-day walkout in July at some of Canada’s busiest ports that disrupted trade and weighed on the economy.
About 36.3 million metric tons of cargo valued at $12.04 billion passed through the St. Lawrence Seaway’s infrastructure in 2022, according to the Canadian Manufacturing Coalition.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Rod Nickel, Kim Coghill and Michael Perry)
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