B.C. ports workers, employers ratify collective...
March 9, 2009
9 March 2009
B.C. ports workers, employers ratify collective agreement
This article is excerpted from the 7 March 2009 edition of “globeandmail.com”.
…. The B.C. Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ratified a collective agreement that averted a costly strike threat….
While the dispute involved only 450 workers, there were fears that as many as 5,000 other workers would walk off the job in support.
That could have crippled ports along Canada's Pacific Coast, and had already prompted as much as a fifth of shipping traffic to be diverted through the U.S..The union's local 514 had been without a contract since March 2007 and the tentative agreement was reached last month….