Container-truck drivers strike

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

A man walks between transport trucks waiting to deliver cargo at Port Metro Vancouver's Center container facility in a May 10, 2013 file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

A labour leader in the centre of the Metro Vancouver truckers' dispute worries the job action will give Canada's largest port a "black eye."

The issues for container-truck drivers serving Port Metro Vancouver are better pay, standardized rates that would prevent drivers from undercutting each other and long delays for truckers at terminals.

The union, Unifor, had reached a tentative deal with its employers last week, but members voted 98 per cent against the agreement over the weekend.

Union spokesman Gavin McGarrigle says the unregulated industry has created a race to the bottom, where workers undercut each other and nobody makes any money.

He says the industry needs a stable bargaining relationship and agreements that are backstopped by the government and the ports, noting the dispute is the third in 15 years and could give the port a bad reputation.

Pickets went up in front of the officers of several employers Monday.

The dispute involves more than 1,000 truckers, most of them are part of the non-unionized members of the United Truckers Association, which went on strike last month for similar reasons.