The Surrey Board of Trade will lobby the federal government to impose back-to-work legislation on striking B.C. cargo workers, should it come to that, after the International Longshore & Warehouse Union’s membership voted 99.24 per cent in favour of striking.
“It’s really important to Surrey because we have the greatest number of manufacturers within British Columbia so we’re shipping goods to and from, all destinations, so it’s absolutely going to impact our local economy, we would expect,” Anita Huberman, CEO of the board, told the Now-Leader on Monday.
“It would absolutely impact our supply chain system and it’s unfortunate that the vote was in favour of a strike because already it is challenging for businesses in terms of rising costs, everywhere they go. It is the perfect storm for our economy right now and so we will urge, we will speak to our federal government connections for a back-to-work legislative action because the port is an essential service to keep the economy moving.”
The Surrey Board of Trade is urging the federal government to implement back-to-work legislation if there’s a strike and to introduce legislation that would designate the ports an essential service “to prevent future disruptions that are caused by labour disputes.”
Union president Rob Ashton, on behalf of the negotiating committee, revealed in a union bulletin Monday the results of the vote, taken this past weekend, “supporting strike action against the member companies of the BC Maritime Employers Association if necessary.”
The board of trade is ringing alarm bells in anticipation of strike action beginning on June 24.
“Businesses in B.C. are worried that a strike will further disrupt the supply chain and our economy,” Huberman said. “Inflation remains consistent, there is a potential interest rate increase coming again in the next few months, and higher taxation and regulatory burdens are pushing businesses to the edge of unsustainability.
“We urge the Federal Government to work with the union and industry to find a swift resolution to avoid a strike,” she said.
The Now-Leader has reached out to union and company representatives for comment.
ILWU Local 502 represents more than 3,000 employees along the Fraser River, down to Roberts Bank, and has been representing longshoremen on the river since 1944. ILWU Canada has 12 locals and is the bargaining agent for more than 7,200 employees in B.C. Its longshore division loads, unloads and checks cargo on an off freight ships, and stores goods on the docks and in warehouses.
The BCMEA represents 49 waterfront companies that collectively move roughly 60 million tonnes of goods worth $53 billion around the world each years.
Surrey, meantime, is home to one of the largest multi-purpose deep-sea marine terminals on North America’s west coast, situated along the city’s southeastern bank of the Fraser River. The terminal has seven deep-sea berths, three quay cranes that can lift up to 70 metric tonnes, and sees on average three of four freighter ships arrive for loading and unloading cargo any given week.
It’s owner, DP World, is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and is the fourth largest container terminal operator in the world with a global network serving 75 countries. Surrey’s docks are in close proximity to railways – CN, CP, BNSF and the Southern Railway of British Columbia – and major highways including South Fraser Perimeter Road. They are a two-hour sail to the Pacific Ocean, and are situated 25 kilometres from the Canada/U.S. border.
Located at 11060 Elevator Rd., the terminal features 1,200 metres of berth, has more than 190 acres of yard area and ships roughly one million tonnes of agricultural products each year.
A major steel import terminal, it serves several container companies and in 2019 alone handled more than 350,000 TEU – or 20-foot equivalent units – of cargo capacity. One TEU can equal 28 tonnes. Besides moving containers carrying general cargo, and steel, the terminal also handles lumber, logs and wood pulp. Seventy-five per cent to 80 per cent of the cargo required for major infrastructure comes through this terminal.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke noted these docks are “incredibly important to Surrey.”
Not only is it an “important place of moving goods from Surrey and the South Fraser,” she told the Now-Leader, the terminal provides “good, high-paying jobs directly and is the catalyst for secondary jobs in our city, especially trucking. It is an important part of Surrey’s economic development and a selling point for some industry when they look to locate business here.”
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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