Nearly $5-billion worth of cargo has been potentially disrupted at British Columbian ports as a workers’ strike enters its seventh day, says a group that represents waterfront employers.

The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), which represents 49 private-sector employers, also said there have been layoffs in industries that depend upon the ports, but didn’t elaborate on the sources of their information or the companies affected.

“At 17 missed shifts and six days of ILWU Canada’s strike action, we are learning of layoffs in related industries, cargo diversions and disastrous economic impacts in real-time,” the BCMEA said in a statement on July 6.

It urged the union representing the workers to participate in a “voluntary mediation-arbitration process to restore stability for Canadians as soon as possible.”

The BCMEA said it has advanced “reasonable proposals” that would make progress towards the union’s demands and has offered “significant wage increases.”

But the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents the thousands of workers who are on strike, said the BCMEA has launched a smear campaign against their own workers instead of negotiating.

“This is straight out of the strikebreaking playbook,” ILWU president Rob Ashton said. “Instead of sitting down and negotiating with workers, they’re funding a dirty-tricks media campaign, using anonymous sources to selectively leak misleading information to reporters.”

He said workers often must work under difficult and dangerous conditions and that a waterfront worker’s income is sporadic. The unpredictability of shifts also makes it hard to supplement it with other jobs.

He added that the workers’ families are suffering due to “spiralling” food bills, housing costs and interest rates as employers refuse to dip into their “massive” post-pandemic profits.

“All we’re asking from employers is to share some of the wealth our labour is creating for them through a fair, reasonable increase in wages, and to ensure our members can continue to do that work with respect and dignity,” said Ashton.

BCMEA members are collectively responsible for annually handling about 16 per cent of Canada’s total traded goods, so the strike at the ports has raised concerns among businesses about rising costs.

On July 5, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and more than 120 other groups sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to urge the government to safeguard the country’s supply chain and called on it to reconvene Parliament to pass back-to-work legislation immediately.

But the federal government hasn’t shown any such intention so far. Seamus O’ Regan, minister of labour, in a tweet on July 6 urged both parties to get a deal.

“We know what is at stake. It is a lot, it is the supply chains of the country, it is inflation, it is the costs to working people right across this country,” he said. “Get a deal. Canadians need a deal.”

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