Workers at Canada’s busiest port in Vancouver and at harbors up and down the nation’s west coast stopped work Saturday in a labor dispute that is likely to disrupt global freight transport. After months of failed talks, more than 7,000 terminal cargo loaders and 49 waterfront employers in 30 ports went on strike. Port automation, the rising cost of living and outsourcing are key issues behind the collective action led by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Union leadership “has not taken this decision lightly, but for the future of our workforce we had to take this step,” Rob Ashton, president of the union’s Canadian branch, said in a statement. He remained positive, however, about reaching a “collective agreement for the rights of (the) Working Class!” The union’s last contract expired on March 31. For its part, the BC Maritime Employers Association said it has “made repeated efforts to be flexible and find compromise on key priorities” without success. “We appreciate the assistance of federal mediators in supporting the parties and we remain open to any solutions that bring about a balanced agreement,” said the trade group, which represents ship and port owners and terminal operators. On Friday, the association had indicated that a possible strike would not affect cruise ships docking in Vancouver, Prince Rupert and on Vancouver Island. Members of the BC Maritime Employers Association transport goods across Canada and to the United States, including automobiles, coal, grain and containers. A strike would have repercussions in US and other markets that receive goods through Canada. Companies connected to the Port of Vancouver’s supply chain are scrambling to plan shipping alternatives because potential job action at West Coast terminals as early as Saturday could cripple almost $1 billion a day in Canadian trade. The International Longshore and Warehouse Workers issued 72-hour strike notice on Wednesday, putting its 7,400 cargo loaders at 30 West Coast ports, including Vancouver and Prince Rupert, in a legal strike position as of 8 p.m. on July 1. Shippers aren’t panicking yet, but they are looking for options to move their exports or imports around the port, although alternatives are limited and expensive, said Jordan Atkins, vice-president at the logistics firm WTC Group. “We are still optimistic that (a strike) will be averted,” Atkins said Thursday. “If it’s not, we have contingency plans in place to reroute cargo to get out of the country, either by rail to the East Coast, or by trucking it into the U.S. to another terminal. “We’ve got some staging locations in place as well. We’re preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.” B.C.’s $1-billion-per-year seafood sector would simply seize up with a work stoppage of only a few days, said Christina Burridge, executive-director of the B.C. Seafood Alliance. “The problem for us is going to be that the Lower Mainland has suffered a chronic shortage of cold storage for the last two, three years, and there’s nowhere to put fish,” Burridge said.A work stoppage would deal a serious and immediate blow to a Canadian economy already dealing with fragile supply chains, labour shortages and other economic concerns, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “It would be hard to think of a worse way to mark Canada Day,” said Robin Guy, vice-president and deputy leader of government relations for the organization.”A shutdown of our ports would fuel inflation, increase costs for Canadian families and businesses, and inflict serious damage on the Canadian economy,” Guy said. Bargaining was scheduled to continue Thursday with the B.C. Maritime Employers Association holding up an offer to engage in talks through a federal mediation process, although there was no word on developments in talks by Thursday evening. The high stakes involved will likely put “enormous pressure” on both sides to reach a settlement, according to trade expert Werner Antweiler, a professor in the Sauder School of Business at the University of B.C.”The Port of Vancouver is a piece of critical infrastructure for Canada,” Antweiler said. “Roughly a quarter of our international trade goes through ports in British Columbia. That’s including Prince Rupert, (but) we’re looking at about $800 million of merchandise every day.” Antweiler said many importers, including manufacturers, likely have a bit of a buffer in terms of existing inventory of materials, but if job action were to become prolonged, it “can really have an outsized impact on the entire economy simply because (ports are) so pivotal.” The critical nature of ports does give the union considerable leverage in the situation, Antweiler added. The International Longshore and Warehouse Workers union said in a statement that contracting out, port automation and the rising cost of living are their key concerns. Negotiations between the union and employers association were in a cooling-off period that ended June 21, with the union holding a strike mandate backed by a 99.24-per-cent vote in favour of job action.Federal authorities haven’t indicated a willingness to use their authority to step in to a labour dispute. Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, in a joint statement Wednesday, said they urged the sides to reach a deal through negotiations. And Antweiler said the resolution of a similar dispute at U.S. West Coast ports offers another positive sign that a deal might be possible here. In the U.S., President Joe Biden dispatched acting Labour Secretary Julie Su to encourage the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers and American Pacific Maritime Employers Association’s last-minute tentative agreement June 15 to cover 22,000 workers at ports from Seattle to Los Angeles. The Port of Vancouver alone handles some CAN$305 billion worth of goods annually, and contributes CAN$11.9 billion to the nation’s annual output. All the west coast ports combined handled 16 percent of Canada’s total traded goods in the year 2020, the port companies said.