Canada ended port strikes in the country’s biggest ports in Vancouver and Montreal on Nov. 12. Port workers went on strike on Nov. 4 after raising concerns over wages and working conditions.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon ordered to end the strike and impose binding arbitration. “As the economic losses threaten the country and begin to mount, it is up to the government to ensure that … we can get on with the economic life of this country and avoid layoffs and other carnage,” MacKinnon said during a press conference, according to a Reuter’s report.
International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 (ILWU), representing dockworkers on strike, said it will file a legal challenge to the minister’s orders.
“We will not forget how these employers and this federal Liberal government have attacked not only the ILWU but all of labor,” ILWU Local 514 President Frank Morena said.
