Windfall from strike shrinks on the way to O/Os

by Carroll McCormick

MONTREAL, Que. – Intermodal owner/operators are earning more cash as a result of the Montreal strike late last fall – just not as much as they’d hoped.

Carriers applied a $50-per-container surcharge to shippers after the strike. But about 66 per cent of those fleets have only passed $20 or less on to the O/Os who actually fought for it on the picket line, says the Confederation des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN).

“The shipping lines received a notice from the local carriers that a $50-surcharge would be applied,” says Peter Raimondo, chair of the Canada/UK Freight Conference, which represents five shipping lines.

The surcharge went into effect Dec. 8. Since then, CSN has released a breakdown on how 16 Montreal-area, intermodal carriers have shared container revenues, both before and after the strike.

Beforehand, shippers were charging about $180 for a round trip and giving, on average, $99 to O/Os.

After the rate hike, O/Os were getting a $117 cut of $230, roughly. The average pay raise per container is $18, but the actual amount varies widely. Six of the carriers are paying $10 or less; four for $11 to $20; three between $21 and $30; three from $31 to $40. None are paying over $40.

What really angers the CSN is that carriers are keeping any of the money which, it argues, was won on the backs of the striking O/Os. Even more frustrating is that O/O’s share of the work has fallen from 55.2 per cent to a post-strike 49.5 per cent. According to the Quebec Trucking Association, the Association de transporteur de la region de Montreal determined that its members’ intermodal drivers got, on average, a 10-per cent pay hike after the strike.

Rod Sabbro, president of Transport Harlyn, says that the reality is more complex than saying that carriers simply announced a $50 surcharge, or that every intermodal carrier is now getting $50 more per container. Sabbro says Harlyn is getting, “about $50 per container.” It is tops in CSN’s book because it turns over $40 of the surcharge to its 60 CSN employees.

Sabbro says his O/Os are now earning $150 per round trip within a 30-mile radius, plus a 10 per cent fuel surcharge on top of their gross pay. Before the strike it was $125 and a five per cent fuel surcharge.

The union says wait times at the CN yards still need to improve from their current level. n


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