As many as 7,400 at B.C. ports could walk off the job on Saturday. However, it is still difficult to say what impact there may be on Vancouver Island.
That’s from Nanaimo Port Authority president and CEO Ian Marr. The potential strike announced yesterday by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union of Canada centres around wages to meet inflation and job stability as more workers are being contracted out.
Marr says it is difficult to know how many workers this will affect in the Nanaimo area right now because the number of workers tends to fluctuate.
“The longshore workers who work at the port are based in Chemainus and they service all the ports on the Island,” said Marr. “We don’t actually directly hire them, they’re hired by the operators that we use so it just depends what’s going on at any given time.”
He adds there could be anywhere between 50 to 100 workers in the port depending on what ships arrive and when. He says many ships such as automotive ships and log ships come to and from the port and that influences the number of workers there.
However, he says any exports or imports that are coming on or off the island will be affected if the strike goes through.
“We’re doing auto imports, we wouldn’t be able to bring them in and what that does to sales across the island and ability for salesman to sell vehicles, just reduces the amount of inventory,” said Marr.
“The other stuff we do is log exports, similar to other ports on the Island. They would probably be delayed from going out. You might have some layoffs in that marketplace too.”
Marr adds he hopes the strike does not happen and negotiators are able to reach a deal.
“If it happens, it’s all about duration. If it’s short the impact could be lessened, if it’s longer you do start to see some downstream impacts over time,” he added.
More than $800 million worth of goods flow in and out of B.C. ports every day to go across the country.
With files from Wendy Gray, Vista Radio
