Business groups ask government for labour changes after end of B.C. port dispute
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PRINCE GEORGE — Business groups are still calling on the federal government to take action in the wake of the recently resolved British Columbia port workers dispute, arguing Ottawa must ensure such a disruption never happens again. But experts say the federal government is walking a difficult tightrope between the demands of the business community and protecting workers’ constitutional rights.
The union representing about 7,400 B.C. port workers announced Friday that members had voted almost 75 per cent in favour of their latest contract offer, ending five weeks of turbulence that stopped the shipping of billions of dollars’ worth of goods.
After the results were announced, federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said he was directing federal officials to review the entire case to avoid a port disruption of this magnitude from happening in the future. Larry Savage, a professor in the labour studies department at Brock University, says the Liberal government has been under intense pressure to settle the port dispute for weeks.
Business groups and some political leaders called for back-to-work legislation amid the dispute and say concrete action is still needed now that it has come to an end, with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business asking the feds to designate ports as an essential service and scrap its promise to ban replacement workers.
