Cranes sit idle at the Port of Montreal on Nov. 12.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon had to do something to stop Canada’s business groups from screaming about lockouts at ports in Montreal and British Columbia. Now the unions are screaming at him for intervening.
It’s just the latest political squeeze that the Liberal government has faced from labour disputes in federal jurisdiction this year. There has been a raft of them on a scale not seen since the 1990s, and it’s putting the Liberals’ long-running efforts to woo the unions at risk.
In summer, it was both of Canada’s major railways. This week, it’s ports. In between, it was mechanics at WestJet and pilots at Air Canada. By Friday, it could be Canada Post.
The feds have intervened in a lot of those disputes, and the unions don’t like it. Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske said they’re frustrated that the Liberals have done it again at the ports.
Ottawa orders ports reopened and binding arbitration in bid to resolve labour disputes
“I can tell you, having spoken with some of those union leaders this morning and hearing the anger and frustration that their members are expressing to them – you know, it may very well have an implication for the MPs, at least in those ridings where those workers currently reside,” she said in a telephone interview.
That’s bad news for the Liberals, especially now, when an election is probably four or five months away. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s party has made inroads with unionized workers, and being seen as siding with employers could push others to the unequivocally pro-union New Democrats.
Certainly, the labour disputes of 2024 haven’t been easy for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to stickhandle. Union workers hurt by inflation have been more willing to push for better contracts to catch up. And this year’s disputes were particularly threatening to the economy.
Potential simultaneous shutdowns at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway Ltd. might have hobbled the transport of goods, so the government ordered binding arbitration. Businesses and farmers that couldn’t get products to market were demanding Ottawa do something. That happened with the ports, too.
Binding arbitration isn’t the worst possible outcome for workers. But Ms. Bruske said it creates frustration because the imposed contracts often don’t address specific issues that frustrated employees want to fight for. And she argues the Liberals willingness to intervene made port employers feel they could cut off talks.
“They left that meeting room and went and phone the government and said, ‘Hey, fix this problem for me,’ ” Ms. Bruske said. “That is training employers to not actually have to respect their workers.”
That’s the kind of criticism the Liberals have worked hard to avoid. The former labour minister, Seamus O’Regan, worked to woo union leaders, co-opting NDP positions. In June, the government passed anti-scab legislation restricting the use of replacement workers.
But there’s a three-way political battle to secure the votes of unionized, blue-collar workers now. Mr. Poilievre’s Conservatives have sought to emulate the success of Ontario Premier Doug Ford in winning them over.
Opinion: We must do something about the frequent labour disruptions harming Canada
Still, union leaders rarely endorse Mr. Poilievre, and the Liberals have put work into displacing the NDP as the endorsed pro-labour party.
“The reality is, we’re very happy with a lot of the legislative wins, gains that we’ve made over the last number of years. Sustainable jobs act, anti-scab legislation. All of those things – pharmacare, the dental program – those are all positives,” Ms. Bruske said.
But, she added: “Government needs to also hear our message, that [they] are not doing a good thing here, by imposing a collective agreement and by training those employers to not have to be serious about actually facing workers and speaking to their demands.”
That’s worrisome for the Liberals, even if they didn’t have a lot of good options other than intervening. A long shutdown of ports would cause chaos for Canada’s export businesses and damage to the economy. That would make Mr. Trudeau’s already-struggling government look like it was incapable of keeping the lights on and running the store. It would be a political nightmare.
But it didn’t take long for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to accuse the Liberal government of caving to corporate greed. It’s been an unusually tricky year of labour disputes in Ottawa’s jurisdiction, and that could damage the long Liberal efforts to win over the unions.