08/24/2020

Port employers and dock workers in Montreal have agreed to a seven month truce and are confident that they will be ale to reach anew contract agreement before the truce expires in March 2021.

Although work will resume in Montreal it remains to be seen if the impact of the strike will have a negative impact on the port as many vessels bound for Montreal had been diverted and successfully handled in other ports like Halifax.

If carriers are not confident that the parties in Montreal can come to a long-term agreement they might continue to divert cargo away from the port, allowing its competitors to build the infrastructure to handle the diverted cargo on a regular basis.

It is expected to take about two to four weeks to handle the current 11,500 containers backlogged in Montreal.

Please contact your V. Alexander Account Team with questions about specific cargo that might have been affected by this situation.

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08/10/2020

Dockworkers in Montreal have announced an indefinite strike starting today in an effort to pressure employers to move on issues like vacation time, higher pay and improved work conditions.

This will most likely cause further disruption at the port, and more cargo will be diverted to other Canadian ports like Halifax and Saint John, which will make the on-carriage from these ports to the Montreal area more challenging due to the expected volume increase.

The strike could be a test for those ports to determine if they can manage cargo that does not necessarily move through Montreal, e.g. cargo to the US Midwest, and could result in a permanent shift of cargo away from Montreal.

Parties affected by the strike seem to be hopeful that the government will eventually intervene to force an agreement of the disputes to avoid even more disruption.

We will continue to monitor the situation, if you have cargo that is affected by the strike please contact your V. Alexander Account Team to discuss the situation and potential options for your cargo.

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07/31/2020

Workers at Montreal’s port have notified the port operators that they will strike again next week, starting on Monday, 08/03/20 at 7 am until Friday, 08/07/20 at 7 am.

The strike will take place at Termont Terminal that is used by MSC.

Three container terminals closed on Thursday after terminal operators claimed that union members attacked port managers and employees earlier in the week.

Dockworkers’ latest opening to go on strike, over pay and work rules, stemmed from a June 8 ruling that dockworkers are not considered essential workers as employers had claimed.

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07/30/2020

Dock workers at the Port of Montreal will continue their strike beyond the initially published period, causing concerns of prolonged work stoppages.

Local 1657 of the International Association of Longshoremen will begin a new strike on Friday. 07/30/20, at 6 a.m., shortly before workers were supposed to return from a 96-hour strike.

The union claims that employers “refused to recognize and negotiate many clauses affecting job security and the jurisdiction of our members’ duties.” in the ongoing dispute over working hours.

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07/24/2020

Dock workers at the Port of Montreal plan to walk off the job starting Monday, July 27 at 7 a.m. until Friday, July 31 at 6:59 a.m. to put pressure on the Maritime Employers Association in an ongoing dispute about a new labor contract. The old labor agreement expired on 12/31/2018.

The walkout will also affect operations at the port’s Contrecoeur terminal.

The port serves Canada and several U.S. states, and its sites extend over 15 miles on the island of Montreal and 2.5 miles in Contrecoeur.