Port Metro Vancouver truck drivers ready to strike again

Container truck driverssay they're prepared to launch astrike less than a year after signing a deal to end a work stoppage at Port Metro Vancouver.

Last spring, more than1,200 drivers went on astrike thatcrippled Port Metro Vancouverand left hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cargostranded at container terminals.

A settlement was reached in March, but now truckdrivers say they're not being paid the negotiated rates.

• Vancouver port strike stops 90% of container truck traffic

Truckers and their representatives met with both the provincial and federal transportation ministers on Thursday, and told them if the deal is not respected, another strike is imminent.

"If the deal isn't upheld, we'll have to do what we have to do," saidUnifor's B.C. DirectorGavinMcGarrigle.

B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone and his federal counterpart, LisaRaitt,did not speak with media after the meeting.

The truckers both union and non-union are giving the ministers two weeks to address the concerns or face another strike as early as Feb. 1.

"What our members are feeling out there is that they're being cheated out of their money," said MannyDhillon, spokesperson for the United Truckers Association.

Both Dhillon and McGarrigle claim containercompanies have lobbied the federal and provincial governments.

"They've been on a lobby campaign very hard for the last nine months and they have been telling atboth levels of government ...renege on the deal asyou know we can't afford to pay it. So once again we have these container companies that want to play wild west,"McGarriglesaid.