Supply Chain Scanner - Week of November 18, 2024

Weekly blog by Emily Atkins

 Disruption distraction – Canada’s strikes are harming our reputation

 
Labour disruptions have been in the headlines all too frequently this year. From earlier rail stoppages to the closure of both West Coast ports and the Port of Montreal, to the most recent Canada Post strike, labour unions and employers on the transport and logistics sectors have not been negotiating terribly well. 
Canada’s transport sector has seen 62 work stoppages in 2023 and 2024, involving close to 20,000 workers, according to the government of Canada. The cumulative effects are beginning to wear on Canadian businesses. Across the country and beyond our borders, the lack of stability and unpredictability wrought by frequent labour disruptions is raising questions about the ability of enterprises in our country to be good business partners.

Here’s a sample of comments from several key Canadian business organizations:

• “Strong supply chains across the country serve as the backbone of Canada’s economy. However, threats to these critical systems bring business and trade to a halt, sending the wrong signal to our key trading partners…Prolonged action would seriously harm Canada at a time when our international trading partners look to us as a source of critical minerals, energy resources and more.” – Daniel Tisch, President and CEO, Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) 
• “Unprecedented, simultaneous labour disruptions at the Port of Montreal and BC ports are causing severe harm to Canadian manufacturers, workers, and consumers. The manufacturing impacts cannot be overstated, nor can the threat of repeat supply chain disruptions to our country’s reputation as a reliable trading partner…We need the government to restore stability at our ports and ensure that goods flow reliably – our economy and credibility depend on it.” – Dennis Darby, President & CEO, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
• “The ongoing labour disruptions put a huge strain and additional costs onto our sector and are affecting Canada’s reputation as a reliable place to do business.” Chris Conway, CEO of Food and Beverage Ontario
• “A work stoppage of any duration or even the threat of a work stoppage at a port, major freight railway or other cargo handler causes serious disruption to Canada’s supply chains and harms the country’s reputation as a stable, dependable trading partner. The adverse impacts have ripple effects beyond the supply chain and endure beyond the work stoppage itself. Increasingly, Canada’s message to the world is not one of efficiency, affordability and reliability. Lately, and repeatedly, it’s been the opposite: Disruptions. Delays. Diversions.” – Keith Creel, President and CEO, Canadian Pacific Kansas City

All of these concerns are well founded. One lesson learned from the pandemic is that reliability is as valuable as a good price when dealing with foreign suppliers. The disruption of long, trans-oceanic supply chains thanks to pandemic lockdowns and lack of labour availability prompted a resurgence of nearshoring and re-shoring, to the detriment of suppliers at the wrong end of those long chains.
We cannot afford for Canada to become a country of last resort because buyers don’t trust that the products or raw materials they buy here will make the trip to their plants and warehouses in a timely manner. And as we continually suffer significant interruptions of ports, rails and mail services, we are already in the danger zone.

With the looming threat of a trade war with our biggest buyer south of the border, the last thing we need is to appear disorganized, chaotic and unpredictable to the rest of the world. Right now we need a cohesive, reliable transportation system that matches with Canada’s reputation as a stable trading partner. 

I’m honestly not sure what the remedy is here. We certainly aren’t about to see a 1980’s era Thatcheresque evisceration of unions in this country. But business groups continually demand government intervention in transport strikes. And they seem to get their way more often than not. Which, is a stop-gap measure, doing nothing to alleviate the larger problem.

So, what’s your take on the situation? Do you see a clear way to prevent the logistics sector from tarnishing our reputation with yet more labour disruptions? Join the discussion on LinkedIn! 
 

Join the conversation on Canada’s Logistics Community forum!

Emily Atkins
President
Emily Atkins Group

 

Emily Atkins is president of Emily Atkins Group and was editor of Inside Logistics from 2002 to 2024. She has lived and worked around the world as a journalist and writer for hire, with experience in several sectors besides supply chain, including automotive, insurance and waste management. Based in Southern Ontario, when she’s not researching or writing a story she can be found on her bike, in a kayak, singing in the band or at the wheel of her race car. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyatkinsgroup/