Port of Montreal employer submits ‘final’ offer to dockworkers, threatens lockout [Video]

The employers’ association at the Port of Montreal has issued the dockworkers’ union a “final, comprehensive offer,” threatening to lock out workers at 9 p.m. Sunday if a deal isn’t reached.

The Maritime Employers Association (MEA) says its new offer includes a three per cent salary increase per year for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase for the two subsequent years. It says the offer would bring the total average compensation package of a longshore worker at the Port of Montreal to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the contract.

The local of the FTQ-affiliated Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents the 1,200 workers, and the Maritime Employers Association spent two hours at the federal Mediation and Conciliation Service on Friday, without making any progress.

However, “not much has changed in this offer,” said Michel Murray, union consultant for the dockworkers’ union on …