Mackinnon directed the Canada Industrial Relations
Board to order the resumption of all operations at the ports of Vancouver and
Montreal and move the talks to binding arbitration following days of closure at
the two ports.
“There is a limit to
the economic self-destruction that Canadians are prepared to accept,” MacKinnon
said. “In the face of economic self-destruction there is an obligation to
intervene.” The move to end the
stoppages comes after the government stepped in to end
halted operations at Canada’s two main railways in August.
The International
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 514, which represents workers on
Canada’s west coast, said it will be planning on legally challenging both the
Canada Industrial Relations Board’s order to end the job action and the
minister’s forced arbitration.
“The union will launch a charter challenge based on
interference with the constitutional right to free collective bargaining and
the right to strike as previously upheld in the Supreme Court of Canada,” the
ILWU said.
The Canadian Labour
Congress said in a statement, “The government is sending a dangerous message:
Employers can bypass meaningful negotiations, lock out their workers, and wait
for political intervention to secure a more favourable deal.”