Atypical strike at Port of Montreal set to begin next week

A standard strike at the Port of Montreal is set to begin on Monday after the union representing dockworkers issued the obligatory 72-hour leer to the Maritime Employers Association.

Barring a ultimate-minute reprieve, the 1,150 port workers affiliated with the Canadian Union of Public Workers will doubtless be in a exact strike residence as of Monday at 7 a.m., which can presumably presumably paralyze the port.

The dockworkers had been on an overtime strike and refused to work on weekends since April 17 and 18.

They order the actions are in response to a commerce in work shifts the Maritime Employers Association wants to impose as of Monday.

READ MORE: Longshoremen at Port of Montreal set to strike

The union acknowledged it is miles responding to “frontal attacks” from the employer “to attempt to bend” the workers.

“If the employer agrees to exhaust its measures, we’d robotically exhaust our overtime strike, our weekend strike and our Monday morning indefinite traditional strike leer and operations would resume immediately within the port,” acknowledged Michel Murray, CUPE union adviser, at a Friday news conference.

He acknowledged the Maritime Employers Association does not desire to negotiate and is pursuing a residence of provocation in voice to power Ottawa to react.

The MEA acknowledged it was once dissatisfied with the union govt’s resolution, adding that it is miles reviewing its alternatives and wants a immediate resolution to the impasse.

Quebec’s Minister of the Economy and Innovation, Pierre Fitzgibbon, on Twitter called on the federal govt to “intervene lickety-split,” with out specifying exactly what he wants.

The port is “a strategic public provider for the revival of our economy,” he tweeted. “Now isn’t very the time to cripple it with a strike. Our corporations devour already suffered enough from this labour dispute.”

In Ottawa, the Contemporary Democratic Occasion called for the Trudeau govt to come up for workers’ rights and requested it not to introduce abet-to-work legislation.

“Ottawa has already suggested that the kind of law is within the works; nothing surprising coming from the Liberals who devour at heart very most realistic the interests of the richest,” acknowledged deputy chief Alexandre Boulerice.

Montreal Board of Alternate CEO Michel Leblanc, acknowledged that “the union is taking the economy hostage,” a situation he considers “totally irresponsible and unacceptable.”

Within the period in-between, the Quebec Employers Council famend that the Port of Montreal is “an vital link” within the present chain.

““For us it is miles an vital provider that can’t stop functioning. The federal govt has the total tools to act,” and would possibly per chance presumably well furthermore compose so, president and CEO Karl Blackburn acknowledged.

The Canadian Federation of Just Industry estimated that the strike will doubtless be “very detrimental.”

The dockworkers at the Port of Montreal had been with out an employment contract since December 2018.

They started a first strike ultimate summer season, which ended in a truce that lasted seven months.