About 7400 port workers, members of the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union), have been on strike at more than 30 ports across British Columbia (BC) since July 1 — Canada Day.
The strike has shut down ports and logistics chains across the country and parts of North America, and shows the power of workers in a context of “just-in-time” production and extensive supply chains.
Its outcome holds both promise and peril for workers going forward — either broadened solidarity among workers against a capital and state offensive or further state repression in the form of “back-to-work” legislation and new laws outlawing port strikes.
The union says that workers are primarily concerned with protection from what they call an ongoing erosion of work, resulting from contracting out and port automation. One worker I spoke with said that they are aware of efforts to automate parts of the Metro Vancouver docks. The ILWU has already called on the Federal government to block the CA$3.5 billion Roberts Bank container port project, due to concerns about automation and ecological damage.
Union members voted almost unanimously (99.24%) in favour of strike action back in early June. The ILWU issued a 72-hour strike notice on June 28. At that time the ILWU issued a statement accusing the BC Maritime Employers Association of demanding “major concessions” from the union despite “record profits during the COVID-19 pandemic”. The workers’ previous employment contract expired on March 30.
Threats of state intervention
Representatives for the ILWU and the employers’ association negotiated over the Canada Day holiday long weekend (July 1‒2), but it did not go well. The employers’ association issued a statement on June 3 saying that it did not believe more bargaining would result in a deal, predictably calling the union's demands “outside any reasonable framework for settlement”.
The union accused the employers’ association of changing its position on a central issue at the last minute to “muddy the waters” and of negotiating in bad faith. It rightly argues that workers should be sharing the “record high profits” at the ports. The union is well aware that there will be a push by the capitalists to get the federal government to impose back-to-work legislation, or more — as ports fall under federal jurisdiction.
As is typically the case, capital can avoid negotiating as it waits for its state protectors to save the day legislatively. ILWU president Rob Ashton said as much on July 3: “We hope the Association is not hiding behind the threat of back-to-work legislation and binding arbitration to avoid engaging in bargaining with the Union.”
It would appear that the employers are doing just that, and is being assisted by other associations of Canadian capital. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business issued a warning about the impacts of supply chain disruptions on costs for small businesses and consumers in its call for the government to introduce legislation to “ensure that port activities are fully maintained even in the event of a strike”.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce openly urged the federal government to reconvene parliament immediately to enact back-to-work legislation. Their statement said, in part: “This is massive. It’s not just something that is affecting British Columbia, this is something that affects the whole of Canada. We obviously would love for a deal to be struck at the table, but just given how serious of an issue this is, we think the government needs to intervene and bring some stability back to our supply chain.”
On July 4, day four of the strike, the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) industry group used over-the-top language and explicitly called for the government to act on behalf of capital: “Once again manufacturers are being held hostage and paying the cost of a labour disruption at one of Canada's transportation hubs. We need government action now to prevent permanent damage to our economy and to Canada's reputation as a serious trading partner.”
The CME went further and signaled to the government its support for legislative changes to prevent similar disruptions in the future. Whether this would involve declaring dock workers, or logistics workers more broadly, as “essential services” and prohibiting future strike action, or simply outlawing dock strikes, this is an ominous portent of struggles to come.
The power of logistics strikes
The dock workers’ strike shows the real power that logistical workers have, particularly within current dispersed production and distribution regimes. Vancouver’s ports have been the sites of recent struggles, including shutdowns in solidarity with Palestinian resistance. Land defenders and allies have also blocked the port in their struggles against extractives industries on Indigenous territories.
It is estimated that BC ports alone handle around 25% of all imports and exports in Canada, with a value estimated to be $350 billion for only the last year. The Port of Vancouver is called Canada’s “gateway to the east”, dealing with most of the country’s trade from China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea as well as trade with the United States.
Industry analysts are in agreement that a prolonged strike could do “major damage” to the national economy. Fraser Johnson, a professor of operations management stated, in response to the strike: “Supply chains are complicated and integrated animals in the sense that ports are one important part of the supply chain, but they’re also connected to the road system, to the rail networks. It won’t take a lot of disruption in terms of a strike at the Port of Vancouver to start to hit consumers, both in terms of availability and in their pocketbooks.”
This should be a key focus for anticapitalist organising in Canada. It is another reason that the strike will need to be supported. Governments across Canada, provincially and federally, have already introduced legislation outlawing acts of economic disruption, including strikes. These have been mostly in the context of state efforts to protect extractives capital from Indigenous land defenders and environmental direct action.
Another business professor, Werner Antweiler of the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business, predicted that the federal and provincial governments would not wait more than two weeks into a dock strike before taking action to legislate striking workers back to work.
This is an urgent struggle, one that could expand in working class solidarity. It could also end in a new wave of repressive legislation against organised workers.