The British Columbia Maritime Employers’ Association (BCMEA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada wrap up a week of bargaining talks today.
But ILWU Canada president Tom Dufresne says there’s still no end it sight.
“We’re just plugging away,” he said.
Dufresne said the union’s top goals in talks are to retain a supplementary pension and First Aid attendants, in the face of possible cuts, and to expand maternity and paternity benefits.
“We’re looking for some top-up on maternity and paternity leave, because right now all we have is what’s contained in the Canada labour code and we’re looking for some improvement on that to top people’s wages up to 95% of earnings,” he said. “It’s an inexpensive item – about $0.10 an hour, we figure.”
For now, he said, the BCMEA is resisting the idea of a maternity and paternity leave top-up “quite vociferously.”
Port Metro Vancouver’s president and CEO Robin Silvester recently told Business in Vancouver that the labour uncertainty on Vancouver’s waterfront is causing cargo to be diverted to rival American ports (see “Simmering port labour unrest sending goods shipments south" – issue 1109; January 25-31).