Business groups continued to call on the federal government to take action in the wake of the recently resolved British Columbia port workers dispute on Saturday, arguing Ottawa must ensure such a disruption never happens again.
But the federal government is walking a difficult tightrope between the demands of the business community and protecting workers’ constitutional rights, labour experts said.
“On one hand, they obviously don’t want to offend the very powerful business community. On the other hand, they don’t want to alienate the labour groups they’ve been courting for years,” said Larry Savage, a professor in the labour studies department at