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Ottawa tables legislation to send striking Port of Montreal workers back on the job
Federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi has tabled back-to-work legislation to force more than 1,000 people back on the job at the port.
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CBC News ·
Posted: Apr 27, 2021 10:29 AM ET | Last Updated: April 27
More than 1,000 dock workers walked off the job at the Port of Montreal on Monday. They have been without a contract since 2018. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)
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Bill C-29 imposes the return to work at 12:01 a.m. the day after the legislation receives royal assent. Any party that violates a provision of the act would face a fine of up to $100,000 per day of violation.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the longshoremen, called the move “an affront to all workers in the country.” The port workers have been without a labour agreement since December 2018.
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Ottawa “is playing the employer’s game by legislating a return to work and violating the rights of workers to bargain collectively and to strike,” Marc Ranger, CUPE’s Quebec director, said in a statement. “It’s shameful for a government that calls itself the defender of the middle class.”
By Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press on April 27, 2021.
Striking dockworkers from the Port of Montreal walk the picket line during the first day of a strike in Montreal on Monday, April 26, 2021. Federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi has tabled a bill to put an end to the strike involving 1,150 dockworkers at the Port of Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
OTTAWA – Federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi described a strike at the Port of Montreal as a “matter of life and death” as the Liberal government tabled Tuesday controversial back-to-work legislation aimed at getting 1,150 dockworkers back on the job.
Yet while opposition parties and the union representing the dockworkers all rushed to criticize the measure as a failure on the part of the government, the legislation appeared poised to pass with support from the Conservatives.