The federal and provincial governments, along with Port Metro Vancouver (PMV) last night (March 13) announced a 14-point action plan aimed at immediately ending the trucking dispute that has tied up the ports.
In a joint statement, the three parties said they expected "an immediate and full return to work" by the striking truckers.
They warned those who didn't return to work that they "will jeopardize their opportunity to provide drayage services at PMV in the future."
The points outlined in the action plan included:
- the port will rescind licence suspensions not related to criminal activity on resumption of normal trucking operations;
- regulated trip rates will be adjusted by 10% within a month;
- the federal government will assess current wage and fuel surcharge rates, with results implemented by mid-2015;
- audits will be increased to ensure that drivers are being paid the fuel surcharge;
- a whistleblower mechanism will be in place by June 14, 2014;
- the truck licensing system will be restructured to include greater accountability on trucking companies, licence charges on companies in part to fund an enhanced compliance regime and control over the total number of trucks to avoid a surplus; and
- putting in place an extended hours pilot project by March 31, 2014, and an enhanced common reservation system by January 15.
These recommendations were drafted by labour mediator Vince Ready.
