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Port Truckers to mount convoy as agreement set to expire
July 6, 2007
Truckers warn of more disruptions as ongoing undercutting undermines livelihoods
Vancouver - With only 30 days remaining in the agreement that ended the massive 2005 Vancouver Port truckers strike and in the face of new challenges that undermine their livelihoods, port truckers will be mounting a convoy Saturday to demand better protection for their members.
"We do not want another port crisis," says Paul Johal, President of the Vancouver Container Truckers Association, Local 2006 of the Canadian Auto Workers, "but we will not go backwards. We believe the Ready report that resulted from the 2005 dispute should be extended while we look for permanent solutions."
The cavalcade is scheduled to leave the Highway 91 truck pull-off between Highway 10 and 64th Avenue, Delta, at 10 a.m., proceed, along Highway 91 over the Alex Fraser Bridge, west on Highway 91, north on Knight Street, and east on Hastings to Cassiar and then to the port. A smaller group of trucks will take Johal and Sinclair to the Vancouver Port Authority offices at 999 Canada Place to deliver a letter proposing immediate meetings to avert a renewed problem at the port.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) negotiated in 2005 with the assistance of mediator Vince Ready, is set to expire on August 3, 2007. The truckers are demanding the Ready MOA be extended for twelve more months, that an effective enforcement plan be established, and a moratorium on new entrants to the industry be applied equally, to all new licensed trucks, not only new owner operators.
Truckers have also been calling for better enforcement by the Port of Vancouver of Ready's Agreement as well as real enforcement mechanisms in any new agreement. "We need enforcement in practice, not just on paper; without that, any agreement is meaningless," Johal added.
"The current proposal from the federal government and Port of Vancouver simply allows a company to pay an owner/operator the lowest rate; only fuelling the undercutting that led to a strike two years ago," Johal warned. "We were off the job for over a month in 2005 to stop this race to the bottom; we're not willing to sit back and let it deteriorate again."
"If the federal government is concerned about labour peace at the Port of Vancouver, then the government needs to come to the table with real and workable solutions that will protect port truckers from undercutting and ensure efficient operations at our ports," added Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour President.
Sinclair noted that the Port Authority has been granting more and more licenses for company trucks using drivers paid at lower hourly rates, undercutting long-established owner operators who have been denied new licenses.
Johal added that the Port of Vancouver reservations system has been completely unworkable. "It's been a nightmare for both drivers and employers, it needs to be eliminated."
"Truckers were hopeful that full implementation of the Ready Agreement could have helped establish long-term labour peace at the Port," Johal stated. "Instead, the Port of Vancouver has done little to enforce the Agreement and now wants to roll the clock back to the same terms and working conditions that created the problems in the first place."
"Owner/Operators will be mobilizing on July 7th to demand that the government listen to their solutions and replace the Ready Memorandum with a system which will serve both the Port Authority and the workers we represent," Johal concluded.
The convoy will commence 10:00 am at Highway 91 at Highway 10 and conclude at Highway 1 and Hastings St.
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For more information contact:
Paul Johal, President, VCTA/CAW Local 2006, 604-518-5008
Geoff Meggs, B.C. Federation of Labour, 604-220-3095 or 604-430-1421
