(Canadian Press)
The federal industry
minister expressed exasperation Sunday after employers scuttled a mediated deal to settle a costly, month-long port strike.
Trucking companies unanimously rejected a proposal from mediator Vince
Ready. Earlier in the day, the drivers voted 90 per cent in favour. Both sides were to meet again Monday with the mediator in hope of salvaging an agreement.
If both sides had accepted, the strike -
estimated to be costing the B.C. economy $75 million a day - could have been over by Tuesday.
Federal Industry Minister David Emerson told The Canadian Press on Sunday night his reaction to the
companies' decision was "one of extreme disappointment and puzzlement."
He said companies rejected some of the rates they had already agreed to in negotiations. "It may require the
government to take further regulatory action. We're on the fast track to drive this from crisis to solution," Emerson said. "It takes my breath away how we seem to find new and innovative ways to
destroy ourselves."
He said the Ottawa had done everything the companies had requested to find a resolution to the dispute.
"Then they turned around and just gave us the
finger," he said. Employers' spokesman Richard Longpre said the mediator's proposal would have created divisions between the companies in the industry.
Some of the rate increases were such that
companies could not support them, he said, adding that customers who had been consulted had rejected the increases the deal would have imposed on them.
"We say this is not going to work and it's
going to require some more thought," Longpre said of gthe deal.
"Everybody realized the impact this is going to have on a number of customers, on the general public, something that
everybody is concerned about," he said.
"The trucking companies are hoping Ottawa will consider some kind of 90-day cooling-off period," he said.
Longpre said such a plan would
allow the time for companies and truckers to come up with a rate structure that would apply to the entire industry.
"It's a rate structure that would be in the best interest of not just the
trucking companies but the owner-operators as well, one that would have a consistent application to the whole industry," Longpre said.
He said if the drivers were in a union rather than
independent contractors, the situation "would be a fundamentally different scheme. "If they want to unionize, that's their choice."
Truckers spokesman Ken Halliday said the drivers
were "shocked" by the companies' rejection of the deal. He said 99 per cent of the recommendations were bargained across the table with mediator Ready. "They said they can't afford it so why
did they offer it in the first place?" Halliday asked. "There's a credibility issue across there."
He accused the companies of bargaining in bad faith and rejected the idea of a
cooling-off period. "We don't see any purpose for a cooling-off period," he said. We've got an agreement."
The federal industry minister also rejected the idea of a cooling-off period.
"It's completely stupid," he said. "I don't know what they mean by a cooling-off period. This is not a labour dispute where you simply use labour law. This is a commercial contractual dispute.
"You kind of wonder about much good faith there is in these discussions," he said.
The mediator's offer to end the strike by 1,000 truckers would see have seen hauling rates at the
port increase and would provide relief down the road from rising diesel prices.
Emerson, however, said a fundamental issue in the dispute may be that the trucking companies don't trust each other and
want an enforcement mechanism for any agreements.
The federal and provincial governments have also agreed to address larger issues such as waiting times at the port. B.C. Labour Minister Mike de Jong
could not be contacted for comment.
The Vancouver Board of Trade says the five-week dispute is costing B.C.'s economy $75 million a day.
The truckers, represented by the Vancouver Container
Truck Association, voted in favour of the agreement at a suburban hotel on Sunday. They haul 40 per cent of the goods arriving at the city's ports with the remainder going directly onto rail cars.
Port of Vancouver spokesman Duncan Wilson said the strike has cost the Canadian economy almost $400 million.
"We're very disappointed," he said the rejection of the proposals. "We had
hoped we would see a resumption of normal operations." He said the port will be discussing its options for dealing with the dispute in the coming days.
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