August 6, 2023. After 36 days of striking – interrupted by a sudden, brief, 1-day walk-out that ended with a Facebook post– the International Longshore Warehouse Union’s (ILWU- Canada) rank & file finally voted for ratification of a new Labor contract with the British Colombia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA), the organization which represents the shipping companies’ doing business in the Canadian Pacific Ports (Maritime Portals). This action sent 7,400 dockworkers and longshoremen back to work for at least the foreseeable future.
It was reported that 75% of the membership voted for the deal after coming back to the table and reversing the previous Committee vote (the trigger for the 1-day walk-out), that had been near unanimous in rejecting the BCMEA’s, government brokered proposal. Under the circumstances, 25% dissatisfaction seems to suggest more of a suppressed minority than a wholehearted endorsement. Whether there is any actual residual bitterness with the deal is yet to be determined.
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Now What?
Although the vote brings clarity for the future, it will still be weeks or months before the mess of redirected containers, along with other fright can be resolved. An early estimate of the financial toll is tallied at about $12b. This is in cargo that had been stalled and was accumulating on the water, by the rail cars, and by the trucks. Over time the cost will be dispersed among the consumers. How inflationary this is will be determined by whether $12b is a good or bad guess. But some re-arrangements will be permanent with, as an example, some of the freight that was redirected to American ports will not be coming back to the Port of Vancouver.
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A legacy of Covid, inflation, and Profit Gouging.
‍By all accounts, the negotiations were tense, and originated more from Labor’s resentments stemming from the COVID crisis. The perception by the Union being that the workers were making all the sacrifices and accepting all the danger posed by Covid infection being designated Essential Workers. All this while the employers were profiting handsomely from the crisis, benefitting from the restrictions and disruptions that created shortages, thus driving prices up. For example, Maersk, the world’s largest container shipper saw Q1 revenue in 2021 rise by 30% over 2020. Price gouging in this sector is a bonafide accusation. Some costs will be distributed to consumers, and we’ve already felt the inflation. But the major losers are the small to medium size distributors who saw their shipping charges nearly quadruple overnight. There will be a shake-out. 
Labor’s other argument that the provisions in the deal did not protect the workers from the fickleness of inflation was defanged by the fact that the last contract ratified in 2016 actually kept the union well ahead of inflation.
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A+A Price Supply Chains
‍From the fire back into the frying pan as the saying goes, or at least back to a simmer. The labor contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) – the union representing dockworkers in Atlantic & Gulf Coast marine terminals, and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMA) which represents the 36 self-same terminals – ends on September 30, 2024.
All of A+A Price Firestarters are imported through Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports, where labor relations are historically far more harmonious. Negotiations were entered into this past February. Regardless, we have exceedingly reliable supply chains that have been nurtured and strengthened over the years importing from Europe. Our manufacturing and retail customers have reliably been delivered our Odorless, Hydrocarbon Firestarters and our 100% Natural Wood Firestarters for their customers.

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