The union representing tugboat crews at Seaspan is not serving strike notice, it announced June 3.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 400 had voted 100% in favour of a strike earlier that day in response to Seaspan’s announcement that it will impose changes to an expired collective agreement June 9.
The ILWU had said June 2 that Seaspan had attempted to “unilaterally impose” 46 changes to the collective agreement that expired in September 2013, which Seaspan said has been in place for four decades.
Seaspan now says it will defer implementation of these changes. It also announced that the union representing tugboat captains and engineers, the Western Branch of the Canadian Merchant Service Guild, has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Seaspan, which will see the two parties entering into federal mediation.
“[The guild] has signed with intent to push the outstanding issues to arbitration,” said the president of ILWU-Canada, Mark Gordienko.
“My union [the ILWU] has not agreed to that, and they’ve adjourned and they’re meeting again next week [with Leitch].”
Terry Engler, ILWU Local 400 president, said his local has not been on strike since it was formed in the 1950s, and that the threat, which has now been averted for the time being, was unprecendented.
