B.C.'s transportation minister and premier are calling on federal transport minister Lisa Raitt to come to this province to help mediate a trucking strike that has hobbled Vancouver's port.
Premier Christy Clark said her government and federal officials have put together a 14-point proposal, which the province plans to put before the truckers the afternoon of March 13. However, 12 of those points would require federal authority.
"I cannot say in strong enough terms how strongly we are urging the federal government to execute on ... the proposals in the report that belongs to them at their federally regulated port," Clark said.
"We're strongly urging the truckers to sit down and look at the proposal and find a way to accept them and inviting Minister Lisa Raitt … to sit down with the truckers and find a solution to this."
Around 1,000 members of a non-unionized group of container truckers, the United Truckers Association, have been off the job since February 26. They were joined March 8 by 400 members of Unifor-Vancouver Containers Trucking Association. The main issues for both groups are pay rates and long wait times at port terminals.
Clark made the comments during a press conference with Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall following a meeting between Clark, Wall and Alberta's premier, Alison Redford.
Clark's statement was echoed by B.C.'s transportation minister, Todd Stone, in a separate press conference.
"Yesterday and through last night officials from Port Metro Vancouver as well as the federal government, transport Canada and the province to come up with a plan," Stone said.
"We received late last night a new set of recommendations from Vince Ready and his colleagues."
Stone said that Raitt now needs to review and sign off on the plan before it can be brought to the truckers.
"My understanding at this point is that the federal transport minister is now the individual who needs to sign off on this joint action plan within the next hour or two, so I strongly urge federal transport minister Lisa Raitt to review this plan."
He warned that if the dispute is not settled within the next 24 hours, ships will start to divert from Port Metro Vancouver to the Port of Seattle.
"The port is on its knees," Stone said, adding that people across the province are in danger of losing their jobs because of the dispute.
Gavin McGarrigle, B.C. area director for Unifor, said he had not yet seen or been advised of the proposal.
In a statement released late in the afternoon on March 13, Raitt said her ministry now has Ready's recommendations, "which we believe will provide all parties with the basis for a path forward.
"We look forward to announcing that path with the province and the Port of Vancouver shortly, and to the Port resuming normal operations.”
Raitt appointed veteral labour mediator Vince Ready to review trucking issues at the port on March 6. He will provide recommendations to government on May 30. Ready mediated Vancouver's last container trucking strike in 2005. That strike lasted for 47 days.
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