The Port of Montreal employers association laid off nearly 1,200 dockworkers Sunday night, halting traffic at the port.

The Maritime Employers Association (MEA) is calling on federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon to intervene in the dispute to resolve the impasse at Canada’s second-largest port.

“Various economic and maritime actors across the country have made the same request in recent weeks to move things forward,” the MEA said in a statement. “Like the MEA, everyone wants this conflict to be resolved so that Quebec and Canadian companies can no longer be held hostage and rely on predictable and uninterrupted operations at the Port of Montreal.”

Julie Gascon, executive director of the Montreal Port Authority, warned of the economic consequences of a prolonged conflict.

“So right now there are, of course, 1,200 (dock workers) who are not working, but there are also all the truckers, the pilots, all those who supply the ships, all those who support the Port of Montreal,” he explained Gascon.

Gascon says that’s especially problematic given that Montreal is “the cornerstone of the world’s third-largest economy.”

“We serve 65 per cent of the Canadian population and 75 per cent of Canada’s manufacturing capacity,” he told CityNews. “This is affecting our reputation, our ability to be seen as a preferred partner for trade, and that is what shipping lines are looking for. They are looking for certainty. They want to know if there will be capacity and if their ships will be loaded or not.

“And right now we can’t give them any of those three things, so they go somewhere else.”

The employers association in Montreal said it initiated the lockout at 9 pm ET Sunday night after unionized workers voted to reject a contract offer presented last week.

A spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) says members voted 99.7 per cent to reject the proposal.

“We are in a lockout situation because the employers don’t want to negotiate,” said Michel Murray of CUPE Local 375, the dockworkers union. “We have made numerous offers to sit down, but they refuse to respect our right to collective bargaining. Our main issue is on the table: the conciliation calendar. We say to the maritime company: ‘You want a long-term contract, you want a long-term collective contract, we have to fix the schedule and sit at a negotiating table.’

The union has said it will accept the same pay increases given to its counterparts in Halifax or Vancouver: 20 per cent over four years.

The workers have been without a collective agreement since December 31, 2023.

“In terms of contract negotiation, this has been going on for over a year now,” Gascon said. “From the Port of Montreal’s perspective, of course, the latest pressure tactics are now closing the Port of Montreal. Of course, this has been going on for a few weeks now as we are culminating in a lockout. So from the Port of Montreal’s perspective, we want the conflict to be resolved so we can get back to work.

“The Port of Montreal is not the employer and we do not have the same decisions that are made. “What we need to see is a resolution.”

The lockout in Montreal comes as employers and the union representing supervisors are also involved in a labor dispute in British Columbia, where dockworkers are also locked out, resulting in a paralysis of cargo container traffic in terminals on the west coast of Canada.

“The government has tools and we have options, but it is their decision,” Gascón said. “They have been working with both parties for the last year negotiating that the federal mediator has been accompanying both parties. Therefore, it is up to them whether they want to intervene or not.”