*** LOCKOUT ENDED *** http://cupe.ca/strikes/lockout-port-montreal

*** UPDATED 7/22 at 9pm *** CUPE Local 375 announced that the lockout will end on Saturday July 24. Members will be discussing and voting on the terms negotiated to end the lockout at a membership meeting on Friday July 23. The details of the settlement have not been released. Daniel Tremblay, President of CUPE Local 375, also announced that the union and the employer will resume contract talks Monday July 26.

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The Longshore Workers Coalition has sent this letter of support and solidarity to our Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375 longshore brothers and sisters in the port of Montreal who have been locked out since Monday July 19.

ILA Local 1657–clerks in the Port of Montreal and who have been effectively locked out too–is supporting CUPE Local 375. The large ILA Local 269 in Halifax confirmed on July 21 that they will not work any ships that are diverted from Montreal.

For more information about the lockout, read below.

Longshore Workers, Bidding to Protect New Hires, Are Locked Out in Montreal
by Mischa Gaus (reprinted from Labor Notes)

Dockers in Montreal were locked out Monday in a dispute over income security for new workers.

Longshore workers with the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375 have refused to work overtime since July 9, telling their employer to call in more help before assigning OT. They’ve worked without a contract since December 2008.

The Maritime Employers Association responded by locking 910 CUPE members out of work. Another 125 port checkers with Longshoremen’s (ILA) Local 1657 were laid off.

Daniel Tremblay, CUPE Local 375 president, called the company’s moves illegal and reiterated the union’s desire to get back to the table as soon as tomorrow.

“We want to settle this problem the fastest way possible,” he said, noting that at least five ships are waiting in the St. Lawrence River.

Tremblay said the dispute rose from the MEA’s decision to hire 65 workers in 2008, anticipating that the global economic crash wouldn’t affect Canada. When shipping volumes suffered, the larger workforce produced an $11 million annual cost in guaranteed income for the dockers, $4 million more than normal.

Now MEA has unilaterally pulled 169 new and part-time workers out of the guaranteed-income scheme, which “fundamentally restructures” the contract, he said.

The income guarantee dates to 1970, when the port authority agreed to pay a steady 36- or 40-hour week to get a more stable workforce-the inconsistency of work, short notice before a shift, and constant flux between night and day work burned out many dockers, Tremblay said.

MEA claims that Montreal is the only port with such a scheme, but New York has a similar contract provision. The average annual wage in Montreal is $80,000, Tremblay said.

Because there’s still less work now than before the recession, some members are paid for days when there’s no job, leading the MEA to lash out in the press at “lazy” longshore workers. But the port crowed about “a vigorous recovery in most types of bulk cargo” last week. Montreal handles all types of cargo, from Wal-Mart goods to car parts to wine, with a sizable share of it destined for factories and store shelves in the Midwest.

The leadership of the Longshore Workers Coalition, a reform movement within the ILA, pledged its support to CUPE and ILA Local 1657, as did the International Transport Workers’ Federation, which called the lockout a “needless overreaction.”

The province of Quebec has legislation that prevents scabs from taking up jobs, but because the port is under federal jurisdiction those rules don’t apply. Tremblay promised a “big fight” if port bosses try to import scabs.

He noted that the ILA local in Halifax has offered support already, and that he’s in contact with unions at East Coast ports that may see ships re-routed from Montreal.