Port Metro Vancouver
The negotiations between the ILWU Canada and the BCMEA (an organization that represents the various employers) have been ongoing for 18 months. The Union has been negotiating in good faith with employers and desires a fair contract. Container traffic volume is in the record numbers and the companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars. US bound container traffic alone has increased by nearly 70%.
There has also been a campaign of attack towards the Indo-Canadian Longshore workers. The IRDA Report stated that Indo Canadians were hindering productivity because many were not able to comprehend the English language very well. It was claimed that this resulted in lost production.
However, the Union found these exaggerated attacks baseless. Indo-Canadian machine operators, including crane operators, are giving record production. Productivity is not based on race. The Community has been working on the shipping docks since the early seventies. In forty years “language” was never an issue. In the past year or so these claims have come forth. They must not be taken lightly. In general they appear to be racist and if not racist certainly can be viewed as an attempt to make a racial separation on the waterfront. Negotiating should be done in good faith at the table and not by sensationalized claims or racist attacks. It’s becoming clear who is negotiating fairly.
It’s interesting to point out that two of the big player companies that the Longshoremen Union is negotiating with are either foreign owned or are based outside of BC. Dubai World’s headquarters are based in Dubai and TSI (which operates Deltaport) is ironically owned by the Ontario Teachers Fund.