VANCOUVER, (July 26, 2005) — There’s a flash of light at the end of the tunnel in the month-long container trucker strike at the Port of Vancouver, TodaysTrucking.com has learned.

The owners of seven unionized container carriers that service the port met with Teamsters Union Local 31 this past weekend in an attempt to achieve a new agreement for about 250-300 Teamsters drivers. And there’s a chance any such deal may eventually initiate an end to the strike by other owner-ops being represented by the Vancouver Container Truck Association.

If a deal between the unionized companies and the Teamsters is ratified, the VCTA has promised to mirror that agreement and take it to a secret ballad vote with its own remaining drivers. Other union companies can also have the agreement added on to their existing contracts.

However, while the meeting between the trucking firms and the union is being described as productive, there still remains a few fundamental issues that still need to be worked out.

“This is something that we have never been able to get a commitment on before and were pleased that the Teamsters brought this with them to the table,” says Bob Simpson of Richmond, B.C.-based Team Transport Services.

There’s still a chance, however, that the strike could end even earlier. There’s rumours that VCTA lawyer Craig Patterson has been relegated to the sidelines, and some carriers believe the hiring of new negotiator Ken Halliday by the VCTA executive may expedite an agreement.

In fact, all the parties have scheduled a meeting for tomorrow afternoon, TodaysTrucking.com has learned. It’s the first time the two sides will talk since government-appointed facilitator Vince Ready failed to broker a deal between the container truckers and their carrier companies over a week ago.

“Our hope is that a potential Teamsters (deal) would lead to something beyond … and it still can,” Simpson said in an interview with TodaysTrucking.com this afternoon. “But now we have the VCTA back at the table with a new negotiator, so there’s hope that progress can be made there as well.

“Company owners are really spent. We know where our industry is at and what we have to spend. And hopefully, (the drivers) will come to see that,” he continues. “We’ve always believed that a lot of these people want to go back to work, but some of the violence and vandalism has intimidated them.”

Tensions escalated this past weekend as several trucks belonging to a container carrier were sprayed with bullets.

Police said that a red vehicle containing several South Asian men drove into the parking lot of Pro-West Transport just after midnight and that several shots were fired. But police were unwilling to officially link the incident with the truckers strike.