BC Port Workers Resume Strike
State-Organized Attack on BC Port Workers
Dockworkers' picket lines go back up in Vancouver, July 18, 2023
BC port worker picket lines were reestablished throughout the coast late Tuesday afternoon closing down the ports once again. Subsequently the port owners applied to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to declare the renewal of the strike to be a completely new strike requiring 72 hours notice. The CIRB agreed, declared the renewed strike illegal and ordered the Port workers back to work.
The proposed contract, which was rejected by the leading Canadian caucus of the union, is not a negotiated settlement. It comes directly from the government mediator. The big business spokespeople and mass media have gone into overdrive demanding the Trudeau government recall Parliament and pass legislation criminalizing the strike and imposing the mediator's contract.
The ILWU Canada had paused the strike to assess the mediator's report, which all had hoped would be sufficient. It did not meet their expectations and the strike was renewed. Rob Ashton, president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada, issued a news release on July 18 which explained why ILWU Canada Longshore Division voted down the mediators recommended terms of settlement. He stated:
"The ILWU Canada Longshore Caucus does not believe the recommendations had the ability to protect our jobs now or into the future. Our position since day one has been to protect our jurisdiction and this position has not changed.
"With the record profits that the BC Maritime Employers Association's member companies have earned over the last few years, the employers have not addressed the cost of living issues that our workers have faced over the last couple of years, as all workers have.
"The term of the collective agreement that was given with today's uncertain times is far too long. We must be able to re-address the uncertainty in the world's financial markets for our members."
In response to the renewal of the strike, various state agencies, business groups and monopoly media have gone out of their way to attack the workers issuing all kinds of threats and demands. Federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan jumped on the anti-worker bandwagon echoing the CIRB declaration criminalizing the renewal of the strike. The state-organized attack criminalizing port workers is what the Chamber of Commerce and other big business groups, monopoly media and certain anti-worker government leaders have been demanding from the start of the strike.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada has now issued a 72-hour strike notice putting them in a position to resume their strike action as of 9:00 am PT Saturday, July 22.
The working class and its allies denounce the shallow ploy to manipulate the mediator's intervention into something it is not meant to be. The mediator's report was issued as a proposal for assessment by the employees and employers. The issuance of the report did not end the strike. Only a decision by both sides to accept the report as a collective agreement would have ended the strike. The port workers have rejected the report and the strike will continue until they achieve a positive outcome.
This state-organized attack must not be allowed to pass. The proper and just way to stop the strike is for the employers to offer port workers a contract that meets their three main demands: adjust wages to deal with price inflation, stop contracting out their work, and allow workers a say and control over the introduction of automation.
This article was published in
Number 38 - July 19, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10381.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca