Update: Grain workers who were on strike in Vancouver are returning to work as early as Saturday (Sept. 28) morning after reaching a tentative four year deal on Friday evening. Read more here.
650 grain workers at the Port of Vancouver have been on strike since Tuesday, and now, workers at the Port of Montreal have served 72-hour strike notice. These port strikes come just weeks after an unprecedented dual rail strike/lockout. Moving anything in or out of Canada — and especially grain — carries a huge question mark right now.
Farmers are immediately impacted by these labour disruptions, first through stalled grain movement and shifting basis, and eventually by lower bids. But the longer a strike drags on, the more damaging the lack of movement becomes, both for farmers’ pocket books and Canada’s global reputation as a global supplier.
Stewart Oke, farmer from Alberta and director with Alberta Grains, says that this strike has already impacted grain movement at a critical time of year. If farmers can’t move grain, whether it’s a rail issue or a port issue, they don’t get paid. Two of these disruptions in a row is devastating, and every day a strike continues the supply chain gets more and more backed up.
In the coming months Oke, like many other producer group representatives, will be heading overseas on trade missions; he anticipates that the question of reliability of moving grain to port is going to be a question he faces from Canada’s customers.
Oke says that Alberta Grains has been asking the provincial and federal governments to intervene and push for a resolution, like the federal government did in the recent rail strike.
Host of RealAg Radio, Shaun Haney, also asked each of the farmers on the Farmer Rapid Fire their thoughts on the Port of Vancouver strike. Here’s what they had to say:
Lee Markert: More from a 40,000 foot view, it seems like it could be a certainly contentious issue. And there is a contentious issue…we’ve gone to our world customers once already in the last month, and sort of said, “Just bear with us.” And now you’re asking all these grain companies to go back to them again and say, “Yeah, I know we just got through this, but now you’re gonna have to bear with us again.” Put yourself in the shoes of the people on the other side of that desk [and it becomes] a little bit bit of a tired narrative… There are other options out there for these world buyers.
Chris Bauer: Well, in this industry, there’s always something and no matter which way you turn, there’s geopolitical problems at every corner. It doesn’t matter who’s in power or what the government is doing, or even though, you know, the lobby groups that are trying to get the most out of the you know, I feel like they’re trying to squeeze the industry at harvest time, where they know that, hey, we got to move the grain and this is just part of their process that they want to make the best for their union and and it’s just not a real great time for the rail strike, and it’s not a real great time for the port strike either. But I think things are all necessary, it’s just the timing is poor.
Aaron Hargreaves: Unions have a lot of power, and they go on strike, they put these rail companies on hold, like it cost them so much money every day, and it costs the whole Canadian economy so much every day. I did read a number once, but I can’t remember what it was like, just an insane amount of money to the Canadian economy every day they’re on strike. And, yeah, it’s frustrating for sure, I mean, that’s one frustration. The U.S. tariff on phosphate is one you could easily do another story on, I think Shaun, that’s a bad one too.
Steve Twynstra: In my previous career, prior to getting my fingers dirty farming here… I was involved in some international trading pulses and so exports have always been near and dear to me personally and when I hear anything about our reputation being damaged, and especially in this day and age when, if you’re a global buyer, it’s so easy just pick up the phone now and and source your product. It doesn’t have to be from Canada. It doesn’t have to be from western Canada or southwestern Ontario, if it’s IP beans or whatever. And so, you know, we have to be extremely cognizant that we have a reputation, and it’s so much easier to lose it than to gain it back again… I really feel sorry for the canola guys out west on the Chinese issue and so on, like they are collateral damage. It happened before. Now it’s happening again. And if you’re a grower in Western Canada growing canola, you have to be very concerned. It’s a good crop to grow rotational other factors, but if the marketplace is destroyed from political means, and there’s no support there, you have to question whether it’s a viable industry at the end of the day, and I’d hate to see Western Canada lose the canola industry or significantly have it reduced because of this.
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | All Podcasts
Please register to read and comment.