Arbitration imposed on longshore workers and employers at the Port of Montreal to end their 2024 labour dispute has wrapped up with a five-year collective agreement through to the end of 2028.
The Maritime Employers Association (MEA), representing port terminal operators, on Friday announced the “upcoming implementation” of the agreement with the Port of Montreal Longshoremen’s Union (CUPE 375).
CUPE 375, which represents the port’s 1,200-odd longshore workers, hasn’t yet issued a statement about the agreement.
The arbitrated agreement brings some measure of labour peace at the port up to the end of 2028 at least, allowing shippers of grain and other commodities to plan accordingly.
The agreement follows labour disputes in 2024 between port terminal operators and longshore workers at Montreal and between terminal operators and ship and dock foremen at Vancouver.
Those ended in mid-November that year when the federal government ordered the disputes be sent to arbitration, followed by back-to-work orders from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB).
Read Also
Montreal’s port authority reported in mid-January 2025 that backlogs had cleared and all port activities were “completely back to normal.”
The Montreal workers and MEA remained in talks until mid-March 2025, when, according to the MEA, federal mediators called off further mediation, sending the dispute to final and binding arbitration.
The MEA didn’t provide any details in its release Friday about the new agreement, other than to say the arbitration decision is retroactive to calendar year 2024 and “establishes the working conditions, compensation and other provisions of the collective agreement for the entire five-year period.” The workers’ previous agreement expired at the end of 2023.
“After a period marked by uncertainty, this five-year agreement provides the stability needed to ensure the continued operations of the Port of Montreal and support the economic growth of the regions and industries it serves across the country,” MEA president Nicola Dolbec said in Friday’s release.
Montreal’s grain handling facilities include the 260,000-tonne capacity Viterra terminal, now owned by Bunge, plus the 68,000-tonne capacity CanEst terminal for crop loading and shipping via containers.
At Vancouver, where ILWU Local 514 representing ship and dock foremen had been locked out before the federal government’s November 2024 order, the union and B.C. port employers reached and ratified a new agreement in June last year, running to the end of March 2027.