Both the St. Lawrence Seaway Corporation and the Unifor union assured Friday that they would do everything they could to prevent a strike that would paralyze commercial traffic from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic starting Sunday.
Both camps claimed to continue their talks but acknowledged that hopes of reaching an agreement acceptable to the roughly 360 unionized workers were slim.
“[Nous sommes] “The differences in salaries are 1,000 nautical miles,” said the Unifor union, which is demanding significant pay increases for its members.
“These are jobs that require intensive training and a high level of understanding of health and safety risks and entail enormous responsibility for the welfare of seafarers and their cargo. They are irreplaceable,” Unifor Quebec director Daniel Cloutier said, explaining the union’s demands.
For its part, the company explained that it could not give its workers what they demanded.
“Progress at the bargaining table remains slow as high wage demands from unions could potentially lead to tolls being raised to levels that would harm the competitiveness of the waterway and in turn increase prices for goods on the waterway,” the organization explained
Preparations for closure, more than 80 ships in transit
In a sign of the divide between the positions of the two camps, the company has begun preparations to close the sea route to shipping.
Ships and companies were given deadlines for clearing the sea route. There are currently “more than 80 ships, including 40 ships flying international flags,” on the river connection.
Exception for cereals
The strike, scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, comes at a busy time on the river due to grain harvest season.
In addition, the company has indicated that it intends to file a petition with the Canada Industrial Relations Board to force its workers to continue work related to ships transporting grain.
In 2022, just over 4,000 cargo ships will use the sea route, transporting more than 36 million tons of goods, including 10 million tons of all types of grain and 15.6 million tons of mining products.