Port Metro Vancouver truck drivers ready to strike again
Truckers met with federal and provincial transportation ministers
Container truck drivers say they're prepared to launch a strike less than a year after signing a deal to end a work stoppage at Port Metro Vancouver.
Last spring, more than 1,200 drivers went on a strike that crippled Port Metro Vancouver and left hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cargo stranded at container terminals.
A settlement was reached in March, but now truck drivers say they're not being paid the negotiated rates.
Truckers and their representatives met with both the provincial and federal transportation ministers on Thursday, and told them if the deal is not respected, another strike is imminent.
"If the deal isn't upheld, we'll have to do what we have to do," said Unifor's B.C. Director Gavin McGarrigle.
B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone and his federal counterpart, Lisa Raitt, did not speak with media after the meeting.
The truckers — both union and non-union — are giving the ministers two weeks to address the concerns or face another strike as early as Feb. 1.
"What our members are feeling out there is that they're being cheated out of their money," said Manny Dhillon, spokesperson for the United Truckers Association.
Both Dhillon and McGarrigle claim container companies have lobbied the federal and provincial governments.
"They've been on a lobby campaign very hard for the last nine months and they have been telling at both levels of government ... renege on the deal as you know we can't afford to pay it. So once again we have these container companies that want to play wild west," McGarrigle said.