Dockers at the Port of Montreal are on strike on Sunday, as they announced, due to the impasse in negotiations for the renewal of their collective agreement.

The Union of Longshoremen of the Port of Montreal, a local section of the Canadian Union of Public Employees affiliated with the FTQ, gave a 72-hour strike notice Thursday morning.

Sunday’s walkout affects all terminals at the Port of Montreal until 6:59 a.m. Monday morning.

Since October 10, some 1,200 dockworkers in the country’s second largest port have been on overtime strike, which will continue after Sunday’s strike.

The union is also taking advantage of Sunday’s strike to hold an extraordinary general meeting with its members on issues that have not been made public.

In a press release released the day before, the Maritime Employers’ Association (MEA) affirmed that the strike also affected the Contrecoeur terminal.

However, “in accordance with the Canada Labor Code, the activities of grain ships will be maintained, as will those related to the supply of Newfoundland and Labrador, in accordance with the decision of the Canada Industrial Relations Board of July 23, 2024” , specifies the MEA press release. declared.

Last week, federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon proposed that the union and the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) use a special, time-limited mediation process to resolve the impasse.

The Maritime Employers’ Association says it hopes “that the upcoming discussions with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will be fruitful and will allow a return to the negotiating table in order to quickly reach a negotiated collective agreement.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which represents 97,000 members in all sectors of activity, including 21,000 in Quebec, is concerned about this latest conflict which affects the country’s freight transportation industry.

“It is time for the federal government to make ports an essential service, so that they remain operational at all times. This will protect our supply chain and our small and medium-sized businesses, and will make any industrial action like the one we see at the Port of Montreal impossible,” Jasmin Guénette, vice-president of National Affairs, said Sunday morning in a written statement. sent by email to The Canadian Press.