MONTREAL — A monthlong strike by 1,000 independent truckers at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, has left an estimated $410 million worth of goods stranded on the docks, including huge shipments of imported clothing from Asia.
The truckers want higher rates to compensate for escalating fuel costs. The walkout is damaging about 150,000 small and medium-sized businesses across the country as the back-to-school season gets under way, the Retail Council of Canada said.
“Smaller retailers simply do not have the financial resources to make temporary alternative arrangements,” said Diane Brisbois, president and chief executive officer of the retail council. “We’re hearing from increasingly desperate small and medium-size retailers, particularly in B.C. and Alberta, who have merchandise sitting trapped on the docks. Sales are being lost, customers are irate and employees are worried about layoffs.”
Wholesaler Dino Galante, who owns YS Blu, estimated that he has women’s clothing from Asia valued at $400,000 sitting in Vancouver waiting to be shipped to his warehouse in Montreal. Figures have been converted from Canadian dollars at the current exchange rate.
“It’s a bit frustrating,” Galante said. “We work on a fast-track system where the shipments are taken by truck to warehouses in Vancouver, where they are broken up before being sent east.”
The shipments of fall clothing usually arrive in Montreal during the first week of July and are already three weeks late. Galante said he has about 220 independent retail customers and 20 majors across Canada that are waiting for merchandise, hoping they’ll arrive in time for b-t-s sales next month.
Local customs broker Omnitrans specializes in imported garments from Asia and deals with some of the major retailers.
“We’ve been able to clear shipments, but can’t move the goods,” said Omnitrans’ Steve Segal. “There’s something like 25,000 containers stacked up in Vancouver and some vessels are being diverted to Tacoma, Seattle and Portland, Ore.”
Some goods coming east are getting through because they’re loaded directly on rail cars in Vancouver and bypass the truckers. Businesses in Western Canada are suffering the most, said Stefano Saporetti, international freight director at Omnitrans.
“It’s the consolidation containers, which contain goods for six or seven customers, that are really suffering because those containers have to be trucked to warehouses for distribution,” Saporetti said. “One guy from Toronto got so desperate that he sent seven trucks out to Vancouver to try and pick up his shipment, and the trucks were smashed and the tires were slashed.”
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The federal government has been asked to intervene, but a spokesman for the Labor Department said the dispute should be resolved between the truckers and their employers.