MONTREAL — The Port of Montreal employers association has presented the dockworkers union with a “final and comprehensive offer,” threatening to fire workers at 9 p.m. Sunday if an agreement is not reached.

The Maritime Employers Association says its new offer includes a three per cent annual pay rise for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase over the following two years. It says the offer would bring the total average compensation package for a dockworker at the Port of Montreal to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the contract.

“The MEA accepts this significant compensation increase in light of the availability required of its employees,” he wrote in a press release Thursday afternoon.

The association added that it is asking dockworkers to give at least an hour’s notice when they will be absent from a shift (rather than one minute) to help reduce management issues “that have a major effect on daily operations.” “.

The Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal, which represents almost 1,200 port workers, launched an unlimited partial strike on October 31, which paralyzed two terminals representing 40 percent of the port’s total container handling capacity.

On October 10, a total overtime strike began that affected the entire port.

The union has said it will accept the same raises given to its counterparts in Halifax or Vancouver: 20 per cent over four years. It also deals with scheduling and work-life balance. The workers have been without a collective agreement since December 31, 2023.

Only essential services and activities not related to port transportation will continue at the port after 9 pm on Sunday in the event of a lockout, the employer said.

The ongoing dispute has had major impacts on Canada’s second-largest port, which moves about $400 million in goods each day.

On Thursday, Montreal Port Authority Executive Director Julie Gascon reiterated her call for federal intervention to end the dispute, which has left all container-handling capacity at international terminals “crippled.”

“I believe the best deals are negotiated at the table,” he said in a press release. “But let’s be realistic: there are no negotiations and the government must act by offering both sides a path to true industrial peace.”

Federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a statement Thursday, before the lockout notice, criticizing the slow pace of talks at the ports of Montreal and British Columbia, where more than 700 unionized dockworkers have been laid off since November 4.

“Both sets of talks are progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a worrying lack of urgency on the part of the parties involved,” he wrote on social media platform X.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.