VANCOUVER, British Columbia — According to Reuters, a judge cleared the way for Canadian grain shipments to resume through the Pacific port of Prince Rupert on Wednesday, ordering an end to picketing at the terminal that was handling shipments diverted from Vancouver by a labor dispute.
The Prince Rupert terminal had asked the court for an injunction to stop the protest that began late on Monday by unionized grainworkers who have been locked out of their jobs in Vancouver since Aug 25.
The Prince Rupert workers, who are also represented by the Grainworkers Union, had refused to cross the picket line. Six ships are waiting to be loaded at the port on British Columbia’s central coast and three more ships are on the way.
The union had argued the Prince Rupert plant should not be allowed to operate because it is jointly owned by the five companies who locked out Vancouver workers on Aug. 25 in a fight over scheduling and other contract issues.
Management had argued the Prince Rupert facility operated as an independent company had won the right from labor regulators to bargain a separate contract with workers so it should not be dragged into the Vancouver labor dispute.
The court ruled there was an issue to be decided about whether the Prince Rupert facility was run by the same company as the Vancouver terminal, but it would suffer irreparable harm if picketing were allowed to continue.
“We think it (the joint ownership) is obvious, but we had trouble producing direct evidence,” union representative Ron Burton said after the ruling, saying the union was considering an appeal.
The Vancouver terminal operators, who negotiate a joint labor contract for their facilities in that city, include Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, Agricore United, James Richardson International, Cascadia Terminal and Pacific Elevators Ltd.
The Prince Rupert facility can handle up to 800,000 tonnes of grain each month and was reopened last month for shipments blocked by the fight in Vancouver. The terminal had been idle since May due to a lack of business because of Canada’s drought-reduced grain crop.
The decision to reopen the facility was made by management at the request of the Canadian Wheat Board, which controls export sales of Canada’s western grain crop, and not by terminal’s shareholder owners, terminal general manager Jeff Burghardt said.
Burghardt predicted the union would have a very difficult time convincing labor regulators to reverse their rulings granting Prince Rupert independent bargaining status from the Vancouver terminals.
Burghardt said all of the grain moving through Prince Rupert is coming from loading facilities served by the Canadian National Railway, because Canadian Pacific has not agreed to incentive rates to divert grain from Vancouver.
Prince Rupert is about 180 miles farther away than Vancouver is from Canada’s major grain producing regions, but closer by ship to Asia. Both CN and CP have lines into Vancouver, but only CN reaches Prince Rupert.
The terminals transfer grain from rail cars to ships, and Vancouver and Prince Rupert are Canada’s only Pacific coast ports with grain facilities. The dispute has not stopped shipments through central and eastern ports.