Negotiations to end Metro Vancouver grain workers strike stall

Negotiations to end a strike by grain terminal workers in Metro Vancouver have stalled, with the employers’ association saying it’s disappointed with the results of two days of talks. 

A statement from the Western Grain Elevator Association says the employer bargaining unit had increased its offer to settle outstanding issues, but that was rejected.

Picket lines went up at six grain terminals in Metro Vancouver on Tuesday after the negotiators for about 600 employees with the Grain Workers Union Local 333 said the employers’ group had not meaningfully engaged in a dozen days of bargaining. 

The statement from the Western Grain Elevator Association says the employers made a generous offer on wages “clearly ahead of the last six years of inflation curve.” 

Now, it says grain terminal companies have reached the end of their “financial ability to conclude an agreement that industry can absorb.”

The statement says it will now be up to the mediator to report to the Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon, who had directed the two sides to go back to the bargaining table with the help of a federal mediator. 

The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.