Dockworkers at the Port of Montreal have approved a strike mandate after more than a year of contract negotiations.

Longshore workers voted 97.9% in favor of granting their union executive the authority to call a strike if it chooses.

The union local, affiliated with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, would need to issue a 72-hour notice before its nearly 1,200 members could walk off the job.

As far back as May, a handful of transport companies began to reroute cargo away from the country’s second-biggest port over fears of potential job action.

Montreal dockworkers last hit the picket lines in August 2020 in a 12-day strike that left 11,500 containers languishing on the waterfront.

The parties remain in mediation, and the Maritime Employers Association says it hopes to hash out a deal at the table in the coming days.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.