Vanport peace shaky; truckers could strike

VANCOUVER — It seems that a summer can’t pass without at least a few container truckers going on strike at the port of Vancouver.

About 140 owner-operators at Port-Team Transport and Pacific Trucking voted to shut down their trucks after talks aimed at settling a collective agreement broke off.

A strike, which would upset operations at the port, could occur as early as May 4, says CAW Local 2006, which is negotiating on behalf of most of the independent truckers that work the port (contracted to about 26 drayage carrier companies).

CAW National Representative Stu Shields says Port-Team and Pacific, which are owned by the same individual, wants a contract that’s "very different" than deals the union signed with four of the largest carriers.  

Some say unions have brought fragile peace to Vanport,
others call it ‘fragmented stability.’

He claims the only issue in dispute is a trip rate dealing with the short distance movement of empty containers.

"Every labor dispute on the Vancouver Port is a direct result of container trucking companies undercutting one another," said Shields, who alleges Port Team Transport intends to do the same.

Port-Team Transport and Pacific Trucking were two of the last carriers to sign onto CAW agreement in both 2005 and 2007, which was based on the government mediator Vince Ready’s port licence agreement drafted to end the crippling two-month trucker strikes of 2005.

In an exclusive interview with Today’s Trucking in 2006, owner Bob Simpson admitted he was begrudgingly forced to accept the unionization of his companies or risk losing his authority to operate in the port.

He said at the time that he wouldn’t mind if all port haulers were certified under the CAW, but independent truckers continue coming out of the woodwork "hacking at the rates" of newly unionized companies.

He likened the situation to being "trapped on the top floor of a burning building," and said the union movement at the port was "fragmented stability."


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