Tug workers accept mediator's contract offer, await employers' response

Updated 4:30 p.m. ET, Fri Apr 23, 2004

By Courtney Tower
The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

Tug boat operators have accepted a federal mediator's contract proposal and were awaiting a response by employers that could end their week-long strike that has crippled the Port of Vancouver (schedules).

Canada's federal labor minister, Claudette Bradshaw, told Parliament today that the Canadian Merchant Service Guild representing 800 striking tug boat masters and crew had accepted the collective agreement offered by federal mediator Bill Lewis.

Details of the pact have not been disclosed.

The union was ready to return to work immediately if the employers, represented by the Council of Marine Carriers, also agreed, she said.

"The minister is at the moment awaiting the employers' response, and she urges them to also accept.", said Denis D'Amour, Bradshaw's spokesman, at 11:30 a.m. local time.

Lewis had set a 4:30 p.m. deadline for both sides to respond to his recommendations. Parliament could order the union back to work if employers don't accept the offer.

The deadline was announced Thursday when negotiations reached an impasse.

The union is seeking is seeking increases in wages and benefits of as much as 17 percent over three years, while employers were offering an increase of about 13.5 percent.

A coalition of British Columbia business leaders held a public meeting Thursday calling for the government to end the strike they claimed was costing the provincial economy about C$85 million (US$62 million) a day. They said the Port of Vancouver and nearby Fraser Surrey Docks were losing traffic to ports in the United States, that all 10 pulp and paper mills along the B.C. coast would have to close by the weekend, and that up to 80 percent of all coastal logging would have to shut down by the middle of next week.

"It's a devastating situation," Anne McMullin, chief spokesperson for the Vancouver Port Authority, told local media, with 80 percent of coal traffic and two-thirds of container shipments shut down. She said the port is losing about 4,000 containers, or about US$3.04 million, each day.