The News
The International Longshoremen’s Association and the Halifax Employers Association have reached a tentative three-year labor agreement at the Port of Halifax, according to the Journal of Commerce. The deal runs through 2028 and still needs ratification, FreightWaves reported.
Neither side has disclosed the terms. FreightWaves wrote that the deal would give port customers “a more predictable operating environment” if ratified.
It covers three ILA locals: Local 269 longshore workers, Local 1341 freight and steamship checkers, and Local 1825 gear repair and maintenance workers, according to FreightWaves.
The details
Halifax’s last contract expired at the end of 2025. The round before took longer to close. That agreement covered 2022 through 2025 and was not ratified until mid-2023.
The parties announced that deal as tentative in April 2023, more than 15 months after the previous contract lapsed, per a joint statement. They withheld the terms until members ratified it.
It raised wages 4.5%, 5%, 4% and 3.75% over four years and dealt with container terminal modernization, attendance and flexibility in ordering labor, FreightWaves reported.
Halifax is a mid-sized gateway whose cargo reaches well past Atlantic Canada. FreightWaves described it as serving central Canada and the US Midwest.
The port handled 502,000 TEU in 2025, down 1.4% from 2024. The port said the drop came mainly from fewer one-off vessel diversions in the fourth quarter.
PSA runs the main container terminal. CMA CGM, MSC, Ocean Network Express and Atlantic Container Line serve the port, along with regional carriers Eimskip and Tropical Shipping, according to FreightWaves.
The Halifax deal came about a week after Montreal’s employers and union settled on a five-year contract, JOC reported. There, an arbitration tribunal set the terms.
The Montreal agreement covers 2024 through 2028 for more than 1,200 longshore workers, the Maritime Employers Association said. The federal government sent the dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board after several strikes and work stoppages.
MEA President Nicola Dolbec said the agreement “provides the stability needed” after “a period marked by uncertainty.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is pushing port labor reforms, JOC reported.
The federal government used Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to push disputes toward binding arbitration eight times between June 2024 and August 2025, a Senate committee report found. It had been used sparingly in the 40 years before that.
The committee called for an expert tribunal to judge whether a stoppage threatens the national interest. It also proposed letting cabinet order binding arbitration when talks fail.
Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske said the report “sides against workers and in favour of employers.”
What’s next
Neither side has announced a ratification date. In the last round, ratification came about two months after the tentative deal, and the terms were released only then.
(Photo: Quintin Soloviev / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
