BC Port Workers Resume Strike After Union Caucus Rejects Mediated Deal

International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers wave at cars driving past while picketing outside of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association Dispatch Centre after a 72-hour strike notice and no agreement made on the bargaining table, in Vancouver July 1, 2023. Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press

Some 7,400 B.C. port workers are back on the picket lines after their union rejected a federal mediator’s proposed agreement that had originally ended the 13-day strike on July 13.

Rob Ashton, president of the International Longshore Workers Union, said in a July 18 statement that its internal caucus rejected the tentative four-year agreement and chose not to put it to a membership vote. Workers were scheduled to be back on strike the same day by 4:30 p.m. local time.