The situation at Vancouver's port is set to heat up this week after unionized container truckers voted unanimously to join non-unionized truckers in a strike.
Members of the Vancouver Container Truckers Association, which is part of Unifor, held the strike vote on March 1, and gave 72-hour strike notice on March 3. The union says its members will walk off the job if outstanding issues are not resolved by noon on March 6.
The union's last collective agreement expired in June 2012.
Around 1,000 members of the United Truckers Association, who are mostly owner-operators, walked off the job last week. They had made little headway on demands sent to Port Metro Vancouver in October, asking for improvements to long waiting times and to be paid hourly if they had to wait longer than an hour.
The VCTA also says long waiting times are cutting into truckers' pay and is calling for a pay rate increase. It is also asking for the federal and provincial governments to appoint labour mediator Vince Ready to work out a solution.
Also on March 1, Port Metro Vancouver obtained an injunction to prevent protesting truckers from doing anything to disrupt normal port operations. PMV took the step after video surveillance cameras captured what the port says is a UTA member stopping another trucker and cutting his brake line.
The British Columbia Trucking Association, which represents trucking companies, says the employees of some of its members were harassed and intimidated last week as they try to enter port terminals.
In 2005, container truckers went on strike for 47 days. The issues at that time were long waiting times and low pay. That strike ended after Ready mediated an agreement that included increased pay rates.
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