Unionized workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway in Ontario and Quebec have voted their approval of the agreement that brought them in off the picket line.
Unifor, which represents about 360 Seaway workers across five locals in the two provinces, announced Thursday its members had voted to ratify a three-year agreement retroactive to April 1.
The maintenance, operations and clerical group of employees voted 85 per cent in favour, and the supervisory group 87 per cent in favour, of the agreement reached Oct. 29, Unifor said in a release.
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The agreement provides for annual wage increases of five, four and four per cent plus a $2,000 signing bonus, the union said.
The successful ratification vote follows a strike that ran Oct. 22-30 and halted grain shipments and all other freight traffic on the waterway.
The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., the not-for-profit organization in charge of Canadian seaway operations, said seaway staff and “marine industry partners” had worked since navigation restarted on the morning of Oct. 30 to clear a backlog of waiting vessels and the re-opening plan was “fully implemented” by Nov. 1.
The SLSMC said Thursday it would “continue to take measures to maximize the movement of vessels carrying essential cargo along the Seaway” in coming weeks, leading up to the end of the navigation season.
Expected closing dates for the 2023 season haven’t yet been announced. For its 2022 season, the Seaway closed on Jan. 1, 2023 on its Montreal-Lake Ontario section and Jan. 9, 2023 on the Welland Canal; both sections reopened for the 2023 season on March 22. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
