Montreal Longshoremen to Vote on Contract

Dockworkers at the Port of Montreal will vote later this month on an agreement with the port’s Maritime Employers Association on a six-year contract.

No date has been set for the vote by Local 375 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. About 1,000 union members have been working under an extension of a contract that expired at year-end.

Local 375’s contract is separate from the coastwide agreement between the International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance at U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports.

In a joint announcement of their tentative agreement, Local 375 and the employers’ association said they had agreed to not disclose contract details before the ratification vote.

The announcement said the employers’ priorities in negotiations were flexibility and “discussions of a job security program better suited to current reality.” The union’s priorities were reducing the pension plan’s deficit and “to create a work-life balance as well as maintaining and creating new jobs.”