OTTAWA, July 29 (Reuters) - Dock workers in Western Canada have rejected a proposed labor contract that would have ended a dispute that has already impacted trade and could have more economic repercussions by disrupting operations at the country's busiest ports.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing about 7,500 dock workers, had been negotiating a new contract with the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) for months.
"The members of the ILWU Canada Longshore Division has said no to the terms of the settlement," the workers' union said in a statement early on Saturday and called on their direct employers to come to the table for negotiations.
The leaders of the dock workers union in Canada's Pacific region had last week backed the tentative contract deal with employers.
No details about the tentative deal were provided and ILWU did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for additional details.
The BCMEA did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Some 7,500 workers walked off their jobs for 13 days earlier this month over disagreements about issues including wage increases and expanding the union's jurisdiction to regular maintenance work on terminals.
The strike has upended operations at two of Canada's three busiest ports, the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, which are key gateways for exporting natural resources and commodities and bringing in raw materials. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Gokul Pisharody in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
