By Robb M. Stewart

OTTAWA--Dockworkers at the Port of Montreal continue to mount pressure on employers in an effort to push for a new collective deal, with plans for a 24-hour strike from Sunday morning.

The longshore union at Canada's second-largest seaport filed the strike notice days after the federal government's offer to appoint a special mediator to try and break the impasse failed to gain support.

The Port of Montreal has warned of processing delays and a backlog of containers waiting to be handled amid the labor dispute, and logistics companies have said some clients worried about a possible labor stoppage have rerouted goods to other ports. The association representing employers at the busy port said a significant drop in cargo posed financial challenges for port companies and damaged the country's reputation as a reliable trading partner.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375's close to 1,200 members began a strike on overtime work earlier this month after a majority in April rejected the most recent offer from the Maritime Employers' Association and voted to adopt pressure tactics. About 350 stevedores and cargo handlers held a three-day strike early this month that shuttered two cargo terminals.

Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon, who had proposed a 90-day period without pressure tactics by other sides under a special mediator so negotiations could resume, earlier this week said the two sides needed to find a path forward toward a negotiated settlement as quickly as possible.

The last collective agreement for dockworkers expired at the end of last year. When Montreal dockworkers hit the pick lines in 2021, the strike was brought to an end by the introduction of back-to-work legislation by Ottawa, which sought to ease pressures on supply chains that were already being squeezed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The dispute in Quebec adds to other pressures on trade in Canada this year, including a strike by grain terminal workers on the country's West Coast that affected six terminals at the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia and a brief work stoppage on Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National Railway freight lines.

Data released Thursday by Statistics Canada showed the staged shutdown of the two rail networks had big impact on railway carloadings in August, with freight carried by the country's railways down almost 11% on a year earlier to 27.8 million metric tons, the lowest volume in more than a decade.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 24, 2024 11:24 ET (15:24 GMT)

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