The federal and provincial governments are prepared to play major roles to ensure that any deal reached in the trucker strike that has snarled container traffic at the busy Port of Vancouver doesn't fall apart, B.C. Labour Minister Mike de Jong says.
De Jong hinted last week that the two levels of government will work around current Canadian competition laws if it means getting traffic moving again at Vancouver's port.
The high-profile issue of fuel surcharges is easier to handle than the sticky jurisdictional issues that involve governments and have weakened previous trucker deals, he said.
Mediator Vince Ready presented the two sides with a set of non-binding recommendations last week aimed at ending the five-week strike. Ready was appointed by the federal and B.C. governments early in work stoppage.
De Jong said he's spoken with Ready and is convinced a deal is close. He said he was in hourly contact with federal Labour Minister Joe Fontana late last week to ensure the province and Ottawa can help pave the way to settle the strike.
The Vancouver Board of Trade estimates the holdup in container cargo is costing the Canadian economy at least $75 million a day.
A chorus of concern has been raised across Canada over the swelling costs of the labour dispute, with key trade associations calling for provincial government action.
B.C.'s business community has demanded the federal government step in to end the strike. Business leaders have said they fear having to lay off workers and they worry that those companies able to afford alternative shipping routes may not come back to Vancouver.
The Retail Council of Canada (RCC) warned that the livelihood of many of Canada's 155,000 small and medium-size retailers is being threatened.
"Smaller retailers simply do not have the financial resources to make temporary alternative arrangements," said Diane Brisebois, president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada. "We're hearing from increasingly desperate small and medium-size retailers, particularly in B.C. and Alberta, who have merchandise sitting trapped on the docks.
"We hope both parties in this dispute will re-evaluate their positions to break the current impasse in negotiations."
And in Montreal, Michael Broad, president of the Shipping Federation of Canada, called on the government "to provide the necessary protection to those businesses that wish to pick up and deliver their cargo. There can be no collective bargaining in this situation because there is no union, no common employer.
"What we have here is a group of independent owner-operators who have taken the law into their own hands in order obtain better trade conditions."
Federal Industry Minister David Emerson said he hopes a short-term solution to the dispute can be found while larger issues between the port, truckers and brokers are negotiated with the container facility in operation.
He thinks the longer process could take 60 to 90 days to sort out. "What we need to do is get a short-term fix," he said.
Emerson also said he is appalled by violence in the dispute. "The violence is just unforgivable, it's unacceptable and the whole damage to our reputation as a gateway port is - again - it's unacceptable," he said.
Last month, eight transport trucks were shot up in a company's yard in the suburb of Richmond. Pro-West Transport believes the gunfire was a warning by striking truckers angry that it has continued transporting goods after the strike started June 27.
The business groups say the strike is not a labour dispute, but a business-to-business quarrel. Most of the truckers are independent contractors who are not affiliated with any union.
They recently formed the Vancouver Container Truckers Association and haul 40 per cent of the goods arriving at the port.
- with files from Business Edge
