The threat of industrial action is looming in both North America and Europe, which could impact and disrupt ocean freight services in the next few weeks.
Around 9,000 Canadian railway workers are close to striking after members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union (TCRC) and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City union (CPKC) voted for industrial action in May. No walk-outs have followed yet, as the unions await authorisation from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) before they can legally strike, and their decision is expected any time now.
If the strike is ratified and goes ahead, then ocean freight services will be affected to and from Canada and the United States, since large ocean freight volumes move internally by rail.
The United States has its own port workers labour dispute in progress, as The International Longshoremen Association (ILA), which has 85,000 members, has just suspended talks with port employers over new contracts. If this develops further and does not get resolved, then 36 East and Gulf Coasts ports could be impacted by walk-outs in the not so distant future.
In Europe, both Germany and France have seen recent 24 hour strikes affect port operations. German port workers held a ‘warning strike’ on Monday, which disrupted the key ports of Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Bremen and Emden, ahead of this week’s talks with the Central Association of German Seaport Operators. The previous negotiations over levels of pay ended unsuccessfully.
While France has witnessed a series of one-day port strikes recently, although President Macron’s recent call for a surprise snap-election has led to unions postponing two further June walk-outs and suspending them until September.
