VANCOUVER, (Aug. 11, 2005) — After vowing to stay out of the trucker labour battle on the Lower Mainland, the BC Trucking Association has no choice but to jump in the ring after port officials started applying a new licence provision to carriers not involved in the dispute.

The BCTA says the requirement has the potential to cause significant damage to hundreds of BC carriers as well as create further disruptions at the Port of Vancouver.

The licence provision was implemented by the Vancouver Port Authority as a way to get 1,200 striking independent container haulers back to work. After negotiations between the truckers and their carrier companies failed to reach an agreement for nearly six weeks, the VPA announced it would require carriers to obtain a licence in order to work the port. By signing the deal, carriers would also be forced to accept a new trip rate-based contract — including fuel surcharges — for the striking owner-ops.

While the original VPA provision was supposed to be only for 90 days — in order to allow a “cooling off” period for a longer-term settlement both sides could agree on — port officials quickly amended the requirement to mirror a two-year deal drafted (and subsequently rejected by the carriers) by mediator Vince Ready. The government’s Order in Council supported the plan.

Not seeing much choice, most of the carriers involved in the dispute have begrudgingly accepted, and truckers have slowly started to move containers out of the port.

But now BCTA-members that own their own trucks and employ their own drivers are also being forced to accept the two-year provision the VPA crafted for the contract-based fleets. Only carriers with collective bargaining agreements are exempted.

In a letter to Transport Minister Jean Lapierre and the VPA, BCTA President Paul Landry blasted the government for “inexplicably” accepting the provision change forcing all carriers into a two-year deal that was never ratified. “Moreover, mandating a two-year agreement appears to negate the requirement for a federal-provincial task force whose mandate is to deal with the underlying causes for this business dispute,” he wrote.

While only 1,200 owner-operators contracted to 40 or 50 companies were involved in the dispute, hundreds of other fleets in long-haul operations, with entirely different business models and compensation agreements, have now been hauled into the conflict, says Landry. “(This) makes no sense whatsoever,” he writes. “Surely the federal government does not expect a trucking company that has contracted with independent contactors for service based on hourly rates (including wait times) to convert to trip rates?

” … Surely, the federal government does not intend for trucking companies serving the Lower Mainland ports with employee drivers to fire them and sell their equipment in favour of independent contractors?”

The net effect, says Landry, is that non-union companies who do not sign the agreement will not be allowed to service the port. “The licensing system has created a form of sectoral bargaining that will make port trucking confrontations even more likely, difficult, and complicated in the future.”

The BCTA is urging the Order in Council of Transport Canada to quickly eliminate the requirement for trucking companies to sign the VPA’s licensing agreement-specifically exempting long-haul carriers, those who operate their own equipment, and fleets that pay their contractors hourly.

“Forcing companies into the independent contractor model has the potential to cause significant disruption to hundreds of stable companies,” says Landry. “Also the federal government has established a precedent that has not been lost on independent contractors everywhere.”