Workers at Canada’s 2nd Largest Port Reject Deal

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has negotiated a deal with the Maritime Employers Association for 1,125 longshore workers. This was at the Port of Montreal after their agreement expired in 2018.

On Sunday, a seven-month truce agreed to by the two sides had ended. With that, shippers who were hit hard last summer by the strike were reprieved.

On the same day, Unionized dockworkers at Canada’s second-largest port rejected an offer from management, a union representative said. This raises industry fears of a new strike after experiencing work stoppages in 2020.

According to a spokeswoman for the CUPE in Quebec, the workers want to return to the negotiating table, which represents the dockworkers. Besides, she said an overwhelming 99.71% of the union workers rejected the offer.

The workers, reports said, have not formally asked to strike. Work schedules, according to CUPE, were one of the major issues in the talks.

During the summer of 2020, the workers’ 19-day stoppage cost wholesalers C$600 million ($479 million) in sales. That was over two months, based on Statistics Canada. This was in a recent statement from the Montreal Port Authority.

Furthermore, the authority warned that future stoppages could cause supply chain delays. It could also cause higher freight costs. Moreover, that’s right as the economic recovery and a broader reopening of the retail sector in Quebec and Ontario’s provinces get underway.

Canadian Pacific: Third Time Lucky

Meanwhile, Canadian Pacific finally succeeded in persuading a U.S. railroad operator to merge with it. Moreover, to create the first railroad operator to link all three major markets in North America.

CPR and Kansas City Southern said they had agreed to value KCS’s debt and equity at around $25 billion. Notably, the merger will still need antitrust clearance.

In September, KCS had rejected a $20 billion bid from Blackstone and Global Infrastructure Partners.

Blackstone was proposing to buy troubled Australian casino operator Crown Resorts for $6.2 billion at the weekend. This deal would offer Crown shareholders an exit from the company as money-laundering allegations have beset it.

Markets will also eye semiconductor stocks after a fire at a factory. This threatens to aggravate the current global shortage of chips. Japan’s Renesas Electronics own the factory.

Elsewhere, other stocks likely to be eyed later include GameStop. It is due to report its earnings for the three months through January. 

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