Locked-out Montreal dockers say diverted cargo faces union boycott

LOCKED-OUT Montreal dockers are telling the shippers and carriers that diverted Montreal-bound cargo will be boycotted by union labour in other North American ports.

An early test will be the 2,400-TEU Maersk Patras that is diverting itself from Montreal with its transatlantic cargo to Halifax, reported London's Containerisation International.

"They won't touch ships that come from Montreal," insisted Daniel Tremblay, president of Local 375 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who said dockers in Halifax, New York/New Jersey and Norfolk have been alerted.

But no commitment on this arrangement has been confirmed, said CI. Moreover, dockers in Montreal, Halifax and New York do not belong to the same union.

More than half a dozen vessels are moored on the St Lawrence River upstream from Quebec City and in the Montreal port zone. And an unspecified number on the transatlantic route could be re-routed to other east coast ports should the conflict not end.

"If this lock-out lasts any significant time, it will have a negative impact on many companies, both importers and exporters," said Canadian Industrial Transportation Association president Bob Ballantyne, Canada's big shipper association.

At issue is the Maritime Employers' Association decision to end pay guarantees that were accepted in the 1970s as a trade-off for the massive influx of containerisation at the port.

"But market conditions are different now," says the MEA "We can no longer afford to pay people to stay at home."
(Source:www.schednet.com)