The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, representing ship and dock foremen, has agreed to delay serving 72-hour strike notice on employer DP World Canada at Centerm in order to take part in federal mediation and is refuting false claims made by the BC Maritime Employers Association about the dispute, according to ILWU's release.
ILWU Local 514 President Frank Morena says the Union is doing everything it can to avoid potential job action - including not serving strike notice in order to try and restart failed negotiations - but that the BCMEA is deliberately being misleading and bargaining in the media. Morena said the Union wants to bargain directly with its employer, DP World Canada, but the company is refusing to bargain and attempting to have the BCMEA do its bargaining instead, leading to an impasse.
Morena said, that Union members voted 100% to take job action if needed. Morena said three key issues are outstanding: DP World Canada's use of semi automation at its container terminal without bargaining tech change; centralized dispatching despite losing an arbitration over the issue; and its use of management dispatchers instead of Union members at its Nanaimo terminal, again despite the arbitration ruling against it. ILWU Local 514's contract expired March 31, 2023, and talks to reach a new contract for its over 700 members failed last year and again in January 2024.