by Tom Price

Over the last few decades shipping and stevedoring companies have moved container servicing off the docks and, they hope, away from ILWU jurisdiction. But ILWU Canada and the workers at Canadian Intermodal Services on Mitchell Island, off Richmond, British Columbia, think otherwise, and on Sept. 27 provincial labor authorities certified warehouse, maintenance and clerical Local 522 as the bargaining agent for the 65 workers at the site.

The union and the workers’ organizing team spent some months discussing the benefits of forming a union with the workers and asked them to sign cards authorizing union representation. They had plenty of reasons.

“You watch your friends get screwed over, and you know it’s just a matter of time before it comes to you,” bargaining team member Shane Karleen said. “For the employer to think his workers are a dime a dozen is one thing, but to let them know he thinks that is quite another thing, and that’s what happened.”

Safety concerns and lack of respect fueled the organizing. Equipment in the shop is not properly maintained. A container lift’s anchoring chain broke recently and only the operator’s skill saved a disaster.

“These machines are in bad repair and we’ve been lucky no one has been killed,” said Karleen, who co-chairs the facility’s safety committee.

Apprentice mechanics aren’t getting training and don’t have journeymen to supervise them. New hires are getting paid more than more senior workers.

“A couple people quit over that,” Karleen said. “They were training people who were making more money than they were.”
Once 45 percent of the workers signed cards, the union could ask the province for a representation election.

“We were only looking to get 42 people signed up,” ILWU Canada First Vice President Bob Ashton said. “When we originally applied [for certification] we had over 60 percent signed, but the employers added 23 names on us and that dropped us down below the required 45 percent.”

Meanwhile more workers had signed up, so the union withdrew its first application and reapplied the same day.

“We asked the company who the new people were, they told us they had put in the clerks, apparently hoping those people would vote no,” Ashton said. “But the majority of them voted yes, so it worked against them. They gambled and lost.”

One hundred percent of the workers turned out to vote, and 70 percent of them voted “yes” to forming a union.

The workers include mechanics, welders and clerks—the union managed to secure the whole operation except for administration staff. They work on containers sent by the shipping companies to Mitchell Island for repair and modifications, making between $13 to $25 an hour, with no pension.

While the union and the rank and file worked hard to organize, they also had help from provincial labor laws that ensure union rights. These include a timeline that requires the boss to sit down with the workers and bargain in good faith. Workers in Canada have fought hard to get these rights. However, the Conservative provincial government gave the employers a break by abolishing the automatic recognition that used to follow a 100 percent card signup, giving the employers time to intimidate workers before the required election.

“Now you need a vote even if you sign up 100 percent, that’s a lot easier on the employer,” Ashton said. “They’re cutting back, trying to lay people off, trying to put the fear into them so they’ll apply for a decertification vote. They have the ability to do those things under the provincial code.”

There were rumors the company would close down the repair facility and convert the yard to a self-storage facility. But when Ashton and the committee sat down with the employer Nov. 7, they changed their tune.

“The first question I asked was ‘I understand you’re closing down your operation, opening up a storage rental place?’” Ashton said. “They said no, they have hired a new financial officer and will stay in business. We have started bargaining and we believe they will bargain in good faith.”

The two sides will meet again Nov. 21.

“They have to give a little, they have to make sure they’re looking after their employees,” Karleen said. “The owners should realize that we’re spending the best parts of our lives making them rich.”