Strike threatens to shut St Lawrence Seaway this week

THE St Lawrence Seaway, the international waterway linking Montreal to Chicago, though more importantly to US and Canadian bulk ports on the Great Lakes, is threatened with a strike this week.

Unifor, a Canadian union with 460 members belonging to five locals that work along the Seaway, has served 72 hours notice of a strike that could begin Friday afternoon at 12.15pm eastern standard time, reports American Shipper.

Unifor said a key issue is staffing levels at the locks as the Seaway moves to automatic mooring, eliminating lock attendants.

The St Lawrence Seaway Management Corp said it still optimistic that a strike could be avoided and that talks were ongoing. There has not been a strike on the waterway since 1968.

The Seaway announced earlier this year that, as part of a US$487 modernisation programme, it plans to install a hands-free mooring system that would use vacuum pads to hold ships in place as they are raised in lowered in locks instead of ropes or wires. 

The union said: "Having no personnel at the dock, however, leaves the ships vulnerable to a mechanical failure and the real possibility of an environmental disaster." 

The Seaway has been retrofitting locks to operate automatically, and eliminating staff that run them, Reuters reports.