Like many industries, Canada’s ports work “symbiotically” with oil and gas
Mark Gordienko and about 6,000 of his colleagues have their collective finger on the pulse of Canada’s economy.
As longshoremen, warehouse staff and others working ports big and small all along the West Coast, they see – and feel – fluctuations in the country’s economic health first-hand.
What Gordienko and others see and touch every day are the very things Canadians use and enjoy in their lives every day. These include imports, such as every consumer product imaginable, from foodstuffs to industrial products, cellphones and cars. And exports, such as forest products and raw materials.
Gordienko, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and his members are at the economy’s frontline, loading and unloading the ships that connect Canada with the world of trade and commerce.
Distributed among 10 locals, they provide the muscle connecting British Columbia ports such as Stewart and Prince Rupert, Nanaimo and Vancouver to the likes of China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan – although “muscle” may be the wrong word in a age where technology and machines have replaced brawn.
“When I started, there was still lots of manual labour around, working with eight men down below and doing things by hand,” says Gordienko, who worked the waterfront for 40 years before he was elected union president in 2012.
“Today, it’s mostly very heavy equipment picking up big containers. Even the forest products have become heavily automated from what they were when I started.”
Containers, he says, have changed everything. Even forest products such as wood pulp are being moved in larger and larger bundles, and there are rarely dockworkers unhooking and stacking goods below decks any more.
Vancouver’s main port is the fourth largest in North America, and it boasts that it’s the continent’s most diversified waypoint, handling automobiles, bulk cargo, packaged cargo, container vessels and cruise ships. It facilitates trade with more than 160 countries, and handled 135 million tonnes of cargo borne by more than 3,000 ships in 2013.
Traditionally, Gordienko’s members are the first to feel downturns in the economy because of lower volumes at the docks, but for several years now West Coast ports have been working at capacity. Any downturns have been short-lived and have not significantly affected employment.
On the contrary, “we’ve had a pretty steady building of employees the last number of years,” he says.
In fact, through most of his career, the total annual working hours of Gordienko’s union membership have remained fairly con-
NO ONE DENIES THERE ARE ISSUES IN ALL NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT THAT DEMAND ATTENTION... BUT NO ISSUE IS BLACK AND WHITE, AND PETROLEUM IS NO EXCEPTION.
stant at around 4.5 million. In 2014, however, working hours hit 7.7 million, the sixth straight record year.
Gordienko attributes the string of increases to a number of factors, not least of which is a general shift in trade to the exponentially growing markets of the Far East.
Then there’s oil and gas, a “cornerstone” of the Canadian economy that has generated revenue and employment across a range of sectors for decades.
While most of his membership does not work directly in the industry, virtually everything they do is somehow linked to it. Pipeline projects bring added work to ports such as Prince Rupert, where two project cargo vessels recently brought in loads of pipe and specialty equipment headed for Fort McMurray, Alberta.
“It’s about the general wellbeing of the economy,” says Gordienko. “If the oil and gas industry isn’t working, then what is going to be working?”
Gordienko and his vicepresident, Rob Ashton, feel so strongly about the petroleum industry’s importance to the economy and his members’ welfare that they have joined a campaign – Raise Your Hand Canada, sponsored by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
The campaign aims to inform the public about the importance of oil and gas to the economy and addresses some of the issues confronting the industry. It includes television and print advertising.
Ashton says he and Gordienko have been faced with a rising tide of misinformation about the energy sector in general in recent years; joining the petroleum producers’ campaign was a natural move for them. Petroleum and ports have a symbiotic relationship, he says.
“The oil and gas industry is a great thing,” says Ashton. “It means our country’s living, it’s growing, it’s producing family-supporting jobs for Canadian citizens.”
No one denies there are issues in all natural resource development that demand attention, he adds, but no issue is black and white, and petroleum is no exception.
“It’s just like anything in this world. Yes, there are some issues, but they are getting worked out.”
Ashton, who began longshore work fresh out of high school in 1994, says he wouldn’t have joined the petroleum industry campaign if he didn’t believe it was doing everything possible to ensure its methods are environmentally sound.
Still, he says, everyone involved – government and industry alike – can do better. And they will, he’s sure of it.
Find out more about the Raise Your Hand campaign by visiting raiseyourhandcanada.ca