Vancouver, British Columbia-based shipbuilder Seaspan has
apparently averted a strike by its tugboat crewmembers, at least for the time
being, by agreeing to enter federal mediation/arbitration.
Following extensive discussions with the Canadian Labor
Minister Kellie Leitch, Seaspan announced June 3 that it has signed a
Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Canadian Merchant Service Guild,
agreeing to enter mediation.
This announcement comes after more than eight months of
collective agreement negotiations between Seaspan and the Guild, which began
Oct. 21, 2013.
Seaspan has also been negotiating with International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents deckhands and cooks on Seaspan
tug crews.
As part of the agreement, Seaspan says it will also defer
unilateral implementation of a new collective agreement, which was scheduled to
take effect June 9. However, the membership of the Guild, which consists of
about 200 captains, mates and engineers on Seaspan tugs, went ahead with a
previously planned June 4 strike vote, with a “very clear majority” casting
ballots in favor of a strike, according to Capt. Mike Armstrong, the Guild’s
western branch president.
That being the case though, the Guild hasn’t served Seaspan
with a strike notice and has told its members to continue performing their
duties as usual for the time being.
“The Negotiation Committee is in favor of continuing to
explore the use of mediated arbitration to resolve this dispute,” Armstrong
said in a memo to Guild members following the strike vote.
The new seven-year contract would give tug crew members
annual one percent pay increases the first four years, followed by 1.5 percent
raises the next three years. But among the sticking points, the union says, are
Seaspan’s desire to gain more flexibility to contract work out, the ability to
revise shift schedules and to slash benefits costs by more than half.
On June 3, ILWU Local 400 voted unanimously in favor of
striking, however the local’s president, Terry Engler said he was hopeful that
discussions with the labor minister and Seaspan would lead to an agreement.
