18 May 2007
Ports Brace for Shocks
A worker walks past CPR headquarters in Calgary
yesterday.
Vancouver British Columbia - Nervous Lower Mainland port
and truck operators are wondering where the first telling blows of 3,200 Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. track-maintenance
workers, who went on strike yesterday, might fall.
The only victim yesterday appeared to be Pacific Coast Terminals in Port Moody. Pickets appeared at the bulk-loading
facility early in the morning and members of the ILWU Local 500 declined to cross the lines.
"That appeared to be the only location in the Port of Vancouver that was affected yesterday but we expect we will see some more
activity," said port spokesman Duncan Wilson.
There were also reports of information pickets appearing briefly at Fraser River Port but there was no operational disruption.
CP said the strike delayed trucks in Vancouver and Toronto.
"By slowing traffic by 10 minutes, it's not going to impact train service," CP Rail spokesman Mark Seland said.
Delivery of intermodal containers represented 28 percent, or $311.6 million, of CP Rail's freight revenues during the first quarter.
Paul Landry, president of the B.C. Trucking Association, said he had heard only one report of a picket at Fraser docks and there
appeared to be no other problems.
"I know we would have heard about it if there were," he said."
Train traffic across Canada also stayed on track after the workers hit the bricks. Any shutdown would be very serious for the Lower
Mainland, a senior shipping industry official who did not wish to be named, said yesterday.
"If [the ports] were shut down for any length of time, it would be very serious indeed," he said.
The ports are already in a catch-up situation as a result of an earlier strike by CN workers and bad winter weather.
Shippers across the country have already raised concerns about the impact a second railway strike in four months would have on their
bottom lines.
"We could probably go for a few days, if there were service delays and disruptions," the Canadian Wheat Board's Maureen
Fitzhenry said. "But when we start getting into a week or more, that's when things start getting unsustainable."
CP Rail said the strike was not disrupting its tightly scheduled freight runs. Canada's second-largest railway said there
are no further talks scheduled with the Teamsters.
The fight is largely over money.
CP has offered pay increases of three percent this year, four percent in 2008 and three percent in 2009. The union is seeking a
13 percent raise over the three-year period. The last contract expired in December.
The stoppage is the second to hit a Canadian railroad this year.
In February, 2,800 Canadian National conductors and yard workers represented by the United Transportation Union walked out for two
weeks.
In April, federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn pushed back-to-work legislation through, saying the
dispute hurt the economy and threatened some rural communities.
Yesterday, he said that the government has the right to intervene if security or the health of the economy is
threatened.
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