Shipments to resume as Montreal dockworkers strike wraps up as scheduled

MONTREAL — The union representing Montreal dockworkers has ended a three-day strike at two terminals as scheduled.

The Maritime Employers Association confirmed the work stoppage came to an end at 7 a.m. at the terminals, which handle more than 40 per cent of container traffic at the country’s second-largest port.

The two sides have not met all week, with the union claiming that employers refused a sit-down convened by federal mediators on Thursday.

The employers association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, says the mediation process is failing to produce results, but that no meeting was scheduled and its aim remains a collective agreement hammered out through negotiations.

The three-day job action by a quarter of the port’s 1,200 loaders and checkers kicked off one day before tens of thousands of dockworkers walked off the job at three-dozen ports in the United States, halting roughly half of the country’s ocean cargo.

In Canada, manufacturers and food distributors worry that a prolonged strike in Montreal or the U.S. would cause weeks-long backlogs and strand shipments of items ranging from apples to auto parts.