No Surprise: Labor unrest looms in B.C. trucking biz

VANCOUVER — British Columbia Teamsters are taking issue with the construction business in this province and as a result the trucking industry is under threat of more labor unrest.

According to local radio news reports, Teamsters chief Don McGill claims the Independent Contractors Business Association (ICBA) is not living up to an agreement reached two years ago that would see trucking rates adjusted to compensate owner-operators for fuel and maintenance costs.

“Part of that agreement was the intent… over a period of time… for the ICBA contractors to come up within a dollar of the unionized sector rate.”

McGill claims the ICBA is squeezing owner-operators on the rates, and that the agreement is not being honored. But ICBA President Philip Rochstein told local reporters the Teamsters Union does not set rates for the trucking industry.

“Don McGill, I guess, is frustrated cause the majority of the industry is non-union and he has no control, no influence over the vast majority of trucking rates in the Province,” Rochstein said.

McGill says the attitude of the ICBA is that it will set the rates, and that is the attitude that resulted in a two-week strike in 2005.

The Lower Mainland has been a hot spot for labor strife in recent years. The drayage industry was rocked in 2005, when owner-operators shut down their engines in protest of rising costs and low rates.

The incident triggered a federal initiative to licence all drayage companies working the Port of Vancouver. The companies are required to pay independent drivers in accordance to a preset wage standard.

In recent years, the coastal region has also seen a longshoreman strike, a tug and barge workers disruption, and was arguably hit the hardest during a six-week rail strike in 2006.