STRIKE THREAT, LOWER TRAFFIC MAR SEAWAY OPENING
The St. Lawrence Seaway, set
to reopen March 31 after the winter, faces another tough year
because of depressed traffic levels and the possibility of the
first strike in 20 years on the Great Lakes, seaway officials
said.
    Depressed grain exports, rising costs, and competing modes
of transportation are all expected to result in only a marginal
increase over last year's traffic levels -- and revenues -- on
the 2,300 mile waterway, officials said.
    In 1986, a season that ran from April 3 to December 27, the
seaway moved 37.6 mln metric tons of freight between Montreal
and Lake Ontario and 41.6 mln tons on the Welland Canal,
linking Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
    By comparison, in 1985 about 37 mln tons of cargo traveled
through the Montreal-Lake Ontario section and 42 mln through
the eight-lock canal.
    The waterway is expected to lose 9-10 mln Canadian dlrs
this year, about the same as the estimated deficit for fiscal
1986-87 ending March 31, said William Blair, an executive
member of Canada's St Lawrence Seaway Authority.
    The seaway moves about one-half of Canada's exported grain.
Those exports of the single most important commodity carried on
the waterway have been depressed by world surpluses.
    The Seafarers' International Union, which represents about
2,300 workers on the Great Lakes and the ocean coasts, has said
it will likely go on strike this spring to protest employers'
demands for wage rollbacks and other concessions.
    "It's 99.9 pct (certain)--I guarantee you a strike," Roman
Gralewicz, head of the Seafarers' Canadian branch, has said.
    The Canadian government has called in a labor conciliator
to try to hammer out a contract agreement between the two
sides. The seaway authority said a walkout tying up ships on
the Great Lakes would badly hurt traffic.
    "We haven't had a strike on the seaway for years...a
prolonged strike would have a disasterous effect," Seaway
Authority spokeswoman Gay Hemsley said.
    "These are the heaviest contract talks in the history of the
St Lawrence Seaway," George Miller, vice-president of the
Canadian Lake Carriers Association, an association of major
Canadian shipping companies, said recently.
    The workers' current contract expires May 31. The
association said it is asking for a five per cent cut in wages
for the next three years, reduced crew levels and the power to
restructure crew dispatching.
    The association said its members recorded about a 6 mln dlrs
(U.S.) loss in each of 1985 and 1986 due to lower traffic and
freight rates and increasing competition. The seaway said 1985
was its worst year in two decades.
    Hemsley said the seaway authority plans to raise tolls on
the Welland Canal by eight pct this year, compared to last
year's 15 pct rise, while maintaining a freeze on tolls
throughout the rest of the waterway.
    Canada is responsible for 13 of the seaway's 15 locks and
about 85 pct of its revenues and maintenance costs.
    "We may see and hope for a steady upward climb...but we
won't see a major increase for a number of years," Hemsley said.
    A Canada-U.S. delegation to promote the seaway to shippers
in Western Europe should result in some increased traffic this
season but the full benefits won't be felt for several years,
Blair said.
 Reuter
