TORONTO—A strike at Canada’s second-busiest port is showing few signs of progress deep into the second week of the walkout, as concerns rise about the damage an extended shutdown could do to the Canadian economy.
The longshore workers’ union at the Port of Montreal has been agitating for better scheduling, arguing that workers who are asked to be on call for 19 out of every 21 days have no work-life balance. They have been working without a contract since the end of 2018.
The Maritime Employers Association, which represents shipping companies at the port, says the workers are paid well for their time. The flexible schedules allow the port to more efficiently meet demand from ships that can vary widely and to compete with ports in the U.S., said Martin Tessier, president of the MEA.
The strike has raised concerns about the port’s reliability as a central node in supply chains serving the eastern half of Canada, he said, and shippers have rerouted cargo to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Philadelphia and the Port of New York and New Jersey as a result.
“Every day that goes by, the reputation of the Port of Montreal is impacted,” said Mr. Tessier. “[Shippers] are looking at other options.”
Montreal’s port handles more than US$75 billion of merchandise a year, including more than 2 million metric tons of iron ore. The port is second to Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canadian container imports, according to PIERS, a data service of
and is the country’s main maritime gateway for trade with Europe.
The stoppage is already causing steel plants to curtail production, said Brendan Marshall, a vice president of economic and northern affairs at the Mining Association of Canada industry group.
“This is a just-in-time supply chain so the result of the disruption would be that plants would be either unable to produce at their own production timelines, or sales would be lost,” he said.
An extended closure could hurt the auto sector, food processors and lumber companies, said government officials for the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, who wrote a letter asking the federal government to intervene.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s governing Liberal Party has so far refused to pass back-to-work legislation to force a deal, although it has sent mediators to help move the talks along. Further complicating matters, the government ended the current session of Parliament on Tuesday, meaning the government can’t pass new bills until it returns on Sept. 23.
“We have faith in the collective bargaining process, as we know the best deals are made at the table,” said Filomena Tassi, Canada’s labor minister, in a statement last week.
The dockworkers, who had staged some job actions earlier this summer, walked out on Aug. 10 after port employers cut overtime pay and diverted ships from the port, launching a “technical lockout,” said the union.
On Wednesday, the MEA’s Mr. Tessier threatened to bring in replacement workers to move almost 500 containers holding essential and perishable goods like sugar and pharmaceutical supplies if the union refused to do so.
The union fired back. “This kind of decision is out of line,” said Michel Murray, a representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375. “It’s going to put more fire, more pressure, on this negotiation, and this is not what we need.”
By Wednesday night, the union appeared to have convinced the port to back off, winning a guarantee that replacement workers wouldn’t be called in as long as the union agreed to sort through the containers.
The concessions marked the first, tentative, signs of progress in negotiations that otherwise remain stalled.
Write to Vipal Monga at vipal.monga@wsj.com
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