After 29 days, Vancouver's port trucking strike is over following an intense day of bargaining on March 26.
Around 1,000 non-unionized truckers organized as the United Truckers' Association had walked off the job on February 26. They were joined March 8 by 250 truckers in the Vancouver Container Truckers’ Association, affiliated with Unifor. Both groups complained that rates per trip are too low to cover their costs, and long waiting times at port terminals have reduced the number of trips they can make.
Unifor National President Jerry Dias said that from the beginning, the union said that negotiation was the only way to end the dispute.
“We have said throughout this that we were willing and eager to negotiate around the clock,” Dias said. “We understood the significance of the work stoppage.”
Many of the truckers on strike are owner-operators who get paid by the trip and must cover their own vehicle and fuel costs. That practice encourages rate undercutting, as drivers compete with each other to get jobs.
The March 26 agreement includes a 12% trip rate increase and stronger audit and enforcement of those rates. It came as back-to-work legislation was set to come into force and as Port Metro Vancouver (PMV) was threatening to take away the truck licences of workers who did not return to the job.
Unifor said the Premier’s Office was instrumental in brokering the agreement. The provincial government and union had expressed frustration at the reluctance of the federal transport minister, Lisa Raitt, to get involved in the dispute. The provincial and federal governments, both groups of truckers and Port Metro Vancouver were all involved in the agreement.
Raitt issued a statement March 27 that said the transport ministry will continue to work with the provincial government and PMV to make sure truckers get back to work.
“Our economic prosperity, competitiveness and ability for our products to reach new markets depends on a well functioning port,” Raitt said.
Vancouver's last port trucking strike, which took place in 2005, lasted 47 days. The main issues then, as now, were low pay and long wait times. A deal brokered by labour mediator Vince Ready ended that strike. While that agreement set minimum pay rates per trip, those rates have since declined.
The federal government appointed Ready to conduct a review of the port trucking system March 6. That work continues and Ready will report to the B.C. and federal government May 30.
