Port Workers Strike in Montreal

The Montreal Longshoremen’s Union (Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 375) declared a 4-day strike beginning Monday, July 27, 2020. This strike affected all activities at the Port of Montreal, and also at the shipping terminal at Contrecoeur, located west of Montreal. Local 375 represents 1,125 longshoremen, some of whom are women (25% of new hires are now women).

It should now be noted that Local 1657 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, representing the auditors and counting 175 people, will go on strike on Friday, July 31 to similarly paralyze Port activities. The Port of Montreal and Contrecoeur terminal operations will therefore be paralyzed for five days. Local 1657 has not used the strike as a means of pressure for 30 years.

The Maritime Employers’ Association (MEA – the management) refuses to negotiate clauses affecting job security and the jurisdiction of its employees’ duties. Since the beginning of the pandemic, some employees have been working seven days a week without leave. Litigation is therefore beginning to spill over into occupational health and safety issues.

The main issue remains atypical schedules. Members at Local 375, for example, work day shifts for one week, but for the next three weeks can then be assigned to work evenings and nights. The schedule in the longshoremen’s contract requires them to be available on 19 days out of 21, and this schedule has been transformed into 19 days worked out of 21. This does nothing to help with work-life balance. In this contract, employees must therefore check their schedule every evening at 6:00 p.m. in preparation for the next day and can be assigned to any task and position.

Currently, the MEA uses scabs, since anti-scab legislation is under provincial jurisdiction and the Port of Montreal’s activities are under federal jurisdiction. The scabs are actually managers trained to move cargo.