After a 72-hour notice was issued by the Port of Montreal Port Workers Association of Canada, it plans to start an indefinite strike at 7 a.m. local time on Monday (April 26), which marks a further escalation of labor disputes in the port.

Continuing disputes in the Port of Montreal 

The Port of Montreal is Canada’s second largest port. It handles 275 million Canadian dollars ($220.4 million) worth of cargo every day.

Last year, the port handled an estimated 1.6 million containers, most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises which rely on container transportation of goods, such as food and textile.

Since the port labor contract expired in 2018, the conflict between labor and management has not been interrupted.

In August 2020, after a 12-day strike, the labors of the port and the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) made a 7-month truce agreement, which ended on March 20 this year.

With the end of the truce, a new negotiations continued in early April, and the conflict between labor and management reached a new high level.

On April 10, due to the transaction volume fell by 11% in March, the Maritime Employers'Association (MEA) suspended the provision of guaranteed basic wages for the labors of port. And instead , they are compensated based on actual working hours. 

MEA announced a statement that this method was to deal with the decrease in freight volume caused by "indetermination and anxiety because of labor relations", thereby to reduce costs.

From April 13th, the terminal union canceled all overtime and training activities, and from April 17th, it will no longer work in shifts on weekends.

The indefinite strike of the dock union is also to counter the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) proposed on Thursday to extend the daily working hours of dock workers from 5 hours and 20 minutes to 7 hours.

The strike has brought huge economic losses to all parties

On Friday, five industry organizations including the Montreal Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Independent Business Federation issued statements condemning the strike and the Canadian government’s measures

These organizations say that closing the port will cost Canada at least $29 million a day, and the blow to small businesses that rely on port supplies will also be fatal.

Michelle LeBlanc, CEO of the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, said: "The announcement of an indefinite general strike heralds disastrous consequences for the economy of cities, provinces and other parts of the country.

The supply of strategic assets like ports to Quebec and Canadian companies The chain is crucial, and it is totally irresponsible and unacceptable to stand still in this way.

In the 2020 general strike, many ships chose to change their port to Halifax, the fourth largest port in Canada, which also brought severe challenges to the port. Lane Farguson, a terminal operator and port authority spokesman for the Port of Halifax, previously stated that the railway company has been monitoring developments in Montreal and preparing for a possible strike again.

If the strike strikes Halifax again, the port and its partners will do their best to provide services for it, but regular flights are still the priority service targets.

Dennis Darby, president and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that more than 2,500 member companies of the association have spent tens of millions of dollars on transshipment issues.

According to this situation,The strike maight continue for a period time.