By Robb M. Stewart
OTTAWA–A key trade route connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean is set to reopen Monday after a tentative deal was struck to end a week-long strike by Canadian workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway.
The non-profit company that operates the Canadian side of the seaway reached a wage deal Sunday with Unifor, the trade union representing 360 workers who operate lock systems, bridges and other infrastructure along the Canadian side of the seaway.
The agreement is set to be ratified by employees in the coming days, but workers are set to return to work Monday morning and St. Lawrence Seaway Management said it will begin a recovery plan and start passing ships progressively.
Talks resumed Friday after an impasse was reached last weekend and workers walked off the job on Oct. 22 just after midnight.
Unifor said details of the agreement will first be shared with its members and made public once a deal is ratified.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is an important trade corridor on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. The strike forced U.S. Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development, the company that handles the U.S. side of the seaway, to close two locks in New York, and meant that no ships on either side of the border could enter or transit the seaway. The walkout marked the first strike-related closure of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway system since mid-1968.
“We have in hand an agreement that’s fair for workers and secures a strong and stable future for the seaway,” St. Lawrence Seaway Management President and Chief Executive Terence Bowles said.
Industry groups in Canada had been calling on the federal government to step in to help resolve the labor dispute. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce estimated that after one week, the impact of the strike reached an estimated 900 million Canadian dollars (US$648.7 million) as the flow of goods through the seaway was halted.
Ships carry important exports through the seaway such as grain, iron ore and potash, fuel for transportation, fertilizer for crops, gypsum and cement for construction, as well as other goods connected to factories and farms in Canadian provinces and in the U.S. Midwest.
According to U.S. Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development, a recent economic impact analysis of commerce through the seaway found that in 2022 the waterway handled more than 36 million tons of cargo and supported more than 24,000 jobs in the U.S. and 42,000 in Canada.
U.S. employees on the seaway remained on the job through the strike, and have been working on maintenance projects at U.S. locks until shipping traffic resumes.
The walkout was the second strike to affect a major part of Canada’s shipping network this year. Workers at British Columbia ports on the country’s west coast shut down cargo facilities there for almost two weeks in July, affecting trade and weighing on the activities of manufacturers and other businesses.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at [email protected]
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