Canadian Trucker Strike update

Latest news from what is turning out to be surprisingly semi-interesting shoreside pathos:

Manny Dosanjh of the Crazycontainer Drivers Association is not too scared of the port authority's promise to pull the port permits of every single non-union container driver. When interviewed by the CBC tonight he stated the painfully obvious: Crazycontainer Drivers Association members are irreplaceable. There are no replacement drivers. The pay is too low. That's why they are on strike. Go ahead and pull the permits. The result will be the same as a strike.

This could only happen in trucking.

 

Fun's over! Back to work!

While the union was preparing do defy a back-to-work order a settlement was reached. The Capitalist Pigs made some surprising concessions and the drivers agreed to go back to work. Details:

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2014/03/26/PortTrucking/

 

Let the undercutting begin!!

 

At least they had the balls to go for more money.

 

I heard a rumor that the strike has inspired the Feds to look at making changes to the TFW Laws to make it easier for trucking companies to hire them and only have to pay them 50% as much as a domestic driver and also make it easier to get rid of them if things aren't working out.

 

I bet you heard that a truck stop or on the CB.

 

You're too old school......facebook actually.

 

I never knew that you could hear FB, just read it.

 

Many people wondered why Longshoremen did not honour the truck drivers picket line. Cleverly, the unionized truck drivers did not picket the port gates! There was no picket line to cross and the longshoremen (some of whom are actually women) stayed on the job. With no pickets there was no legal means for the government to take action against the union. The union and its non-union brothers of the non-union truck drivers association succeeded in foiling both provincial legislators and port managers!

Interestingly, containers in the dock areas are shuffled around by truck drivers who are (unionized) members of Local 500 of the longshoreman's union. The Local 500 drivers are paid twice as much as the drivers that were on strike even though they are sometimes within touching distance. Whenever there is hiring at Local 500 it is safe to say that all the non-union container truck drivers (without exception) in Vancouver (and especially Surrey) are stumbling over each other to submit job applications to be unionized longshoremen. The longshoremen have a very strong union and there is no rate-cutting.

Tyee story about the misbehavior of the port authority (Port Metro Vancouver) during this strike:

Port resolution a huge win for Unifor