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Montreal dockworker lockout widens Canada ports disruptions

By AFP
November 12, 2024
The Port of Montreal is closed after terminal operators shut down operations over a labour dispute with the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on November 10, 2024. — Reuters
The Port of Montreal is closed after terminal operators shut down operations over a labour dispute with the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on November 10, 2024. — Reuters

MONTREAL: A lockout at the Port of Montreal on Monday widened transportation disruptions in Canada, coming on the heels of a separate lockout in Vancouver and other Pacific coast ports.

One official warned that prolonged labour unrest at the nation´s two largest ports in Montreal and Vancouver risked “severe economic consequences.” Some 1,200 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal were denied entry to the work site after their union rejected the latest contract offer.

Workers at the Port of Vancouver and other Pacific ports, meanwhile, on Monday marked one week since being locked out in a separate labour dispute. “When we look at what is happening, the lockout in Vancouver (and) the lockout in Montreal, we consider that it is a coordinated, planned attack in order to put pressure on the government to intervene,” Michel Murray, spokesman for the Canadian Union of Public Employees Longshoremen´s Union Local 375, told a news conference in Montreal.