Businesses prepare for ‘massively busy’ time to catch up after preliminary deal in BC ports
The past 13 days have taken a lot of patience for the folks at Aheer Transportation in Delta, BC, where truck drivers have been laid off and lots have been virtually silent due to the port strike.
With news of a tentative deal on Thursday, mechanics and dispatchers sprang into action to prepare to clear the backlog of shipments that had accumulated during the work stoppage, according to company CEO Shinda Aheer.
“For us right now, we’re already in a panic. … Tomorrow the floodgates will open and this will be wrapped,” he told CBC News on Thursday.
“It’s a jam that we all need to work together. We’re prepared for it. I think we’ll be extremely busy here in three to four weeks.”
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada and the BC Maritime Employers Association (BMEA) announced Thursday morning that they have entered into a four-year tentative agreement to end the strike. The terms have yet to be made public and both parties have yet to ratify the agreement.
With the union and employer reaching a four-year tentative agreement, BC longshoremen are back to work after nearly two weeks of strike. Now all eyes are on when goods and supplies can start moving again.
About 7,400 workers have been on strike since July 1, halting shipments in and out of about 30 BC ports, including Canada’s largest, the Port of Vancouver.
The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade says there are 63,000 shipping containers stuck on ships waiting to be unloaded in BC ports.
According to the BCMEA, work in the ports would start again with the PT crew from 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The news has already prompted forestry giant Canfor to announce it will resume operations next week at its Northwood Pulp Mill in Prince George, where some 450 workers were laid off over the strike.
Fiona Famulak, president of the BC Chamber of Commerce, said business owners fear seeing the supply chain move again.
“Manufacturers, in particular, are waiting for products, from raw materials to glassware to steel for rebar,” she said.
“They tell us that for every day of the strike they need three days to catch up… They will catch up.”
Dennis Darby, CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, said in a statement that manufacturers will spend the “next few months sorting through the damage and catching up.”
