By Divya Rajagopal

(Reuters) -The Montreal Longshoremen’s Union rejected a last provide made for a brand new labour contract, resulting in a lockout being declared, the Maritime Employers Affiliation (MEA) and the union mentioned on Sunday.

The MEA mentioned in an announcement the lockout, which is able to impression almost 1,200 port employees on the Canadian port that dealt with 8.7 million metric tons within the third quarter of 2024, has been declared as of 9 p.m. japanese (02:00 GMT).

The lockout will additional sluggish Canadian imports and exports at a time the Port of Montreal was already working at partial capability and as West Coast ports are stopped attributable to a separate dispute.

The union representing longshoremen on the Port of Montreal mentioned the provide was rejected by 99.7% of members as a result of the employer refused to barter.

“If the MEA had respected the collective bargaining processes, solutions would have been found and a conflict at the Port of Montreal would have been avoided,” mentioned union adviser Michel Murray in an announcement.

Two terminals operated by Termont, the container terminal operator based mostly out of the Port of Montreal, representing about 40% of Montreal’s container site visitors and 15% of whole port quantity, have been shut down by the union’s strike, which started on Oct. 31.

Nevertheless, after Sunday’s announcement all longshoring on the port will probably be locked out. And solely important companies not associated to longshoring will proceed on the Port of Montreal.

The MEA mentioned that its last provide offered for a 3% wage improve per yr for 4 years and a 3.5% improve for the 2 subsequent years.

West Coast ports together with Canada’s largest port of Vancouver have additionally been principally shut down since Monday (NASDAQ:) attributable to a labor dispute, impacting exports of canola oil and forest merchandise.