Charging that maritime employers are “dragging their heels” in deadlocked negotiations, Port of Montreal longshoremen today began an “indefinite” ban on overtime work in another industrial action short of a general strike.

Some container ships and bulk carriers arriving at U.S. ports generate complaints from their crew members that they suffer from substandard conditions that include a shortage of food, according to Robert Wilkins, Executive Director, International Maritime Center and Chief Program Officer, Seafarers' Ministry of the Golden Gate.

The recently resolved International Longshoremen’s Association’s (ILA) strike, which shut down ports on the East and Gulf Coasts, wasn’t just about wages and benefits but also focused on opposing automation at container terminals where the union says jobs are threatened. But is the ILA right about the threat of automation?

Within the last year, the Port of Hueneme, located in Ventura County, California, was hit by 8 inches of rain in two hours plus a drought hurting blueberry shipments from Peru and hurricanes hurting Mexican banana imports, reports Kristin Decas, Executive Director, Port of Hueneme.

In the first day of the longshore strike that has shut down ports on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts, Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su criticized employers represented by the U.S. Maritime Alliance

On September 30th, the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), representing employers at U.S. East and Gulf ports, said it and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) “have traded counter offers related to wages.”

While a devastating strike looms on the US East and Gulf coasts, Canada is dealing with its own labour conflict at the Port of Montreal, the largest Canadian container gateway on the Eastern Seaboard.

Trade does indeed promote peace, as promulgated by many statesmen and thinkers, including former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson who in 1918 called for “the removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions” as part of his blueprint for world peace.

As a pressure tactic in the midst of deadlocked negotiations with all maritime employers, the union representing 1,150 longshore workers at the Port of Montreal today announced that a three-day strike would begin as of 7 a.m. Monday and last until Thursday.

Amidst ongoing waterfront labour conflicts on Canada’s West Coast, a work stoppage has been threatened by longshoremen at the Port of Montreal, eastern Canada’s leading container gateway.