MONTREAL – Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon says contract talks at the Port of Montreal have reached an impasse, as he tries to convince dockworkers and their employers to reset relations.
With negotiations faltering, MacKinnon told reporters Wednesday his proposal to appoint a special mediator and bar work stoppages for 90 days aims to rekindle hopes for a deal down the line.
“These are very challenging talks, I won’t try and sugarcoat it,” he said outside a workforce summit in Montreal.
“We’ve hit a bit of a logjam, and we need some new momentum.”
MacKinnon said both sides need to “take a timeout” and “get serious,” adding that a new mediator could inject fresh energy into the stop-and-go discussions.
“Sometimes you just need a change of scenery. And in this case, what we’ve proposed to the parties is that we do just that — we mix it up a little bit.”
The Maritime Employers Association and the union have until Friday to accept or reject the minister’s offer. Both sides say they are considering it.
Nearly 1,200 dockworkers launched a strike on overtime shifts at the port last Thursday, a week after they walked off the job at two container terminals for three days.
The employers association, which represents shipping companies and port operators, struck back by warning that employees assigned to shifts with incomplete crews will not be paid because they slow or halt the flow of freight.
Lisa Djevahirdjian, a spokeswoman for the union local, which is affiliated with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said that “no one has been affected in this way” so far.
The minister sat down with both sides in Montreal on Tuesday. However, the union says actual bargaining, overseen by two federal mediators, has ground to a halt.
“There have been no talks. That’s why the minister stepped in with this suggestion. The two former mediators could not go any further,” Djevahirdjian said.
Montreal longshore workers have been without a contract since Dec. 31.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
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