Westshore Terminals padlocks Roberts Bank

Westshore Terminals Income Fund (WTE.u-T) has issued lockout notices to union locals 502 and 517, which represent workers at the Roberts Bank metallurgical coal-shipping facility near Vancouver.

The move to shutter the doors at the facility, Canada’s biggest, comes after the unions notified the company of their intention to strike. The lockout will take effect on Oct. 6. Westshore had warned of labour unrest at the facility in early September.

The terminal is the primary export site for metallurgical coal produced by the Fording Coal Partnership. The partnership was formed earlier this year, and involves Fording, Westshore Terminals, Sherritt International (S-T) and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Teck Cominco (TEK-T) chipped in $125 million and its metallurgical coal assets for a 35% interest in the partnership. In all, Teck holds a 41% interest in the partnership thanks to a 9.1% interest in the Fording Canadian Coal Trust (FDG.UN-T), which owns the remaining 65% of the partnership.

The other owners of the Fording Canadian Coal Trust are Westshore with 9.1%, the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan (OTPP) with 23.4%, Sherritt International (S-T) with 6.1%, and Consol Energy with 6.8%. Fording shareholders, other than the OTTP hold 38.8%.

Meanwhile, Westshore says it continues to work on property and business interruption claims arising from the windstorm damage to Berth 2 at Roberts Bank. Earlier this year, two 4-story-high mechanical ship loaders berths were toppled by high winds. One of the loaders landed in the water; the other crashed into a ship that was being loaded. A third, larger tower was unaffected. Two people were injured. The berth resumed operations in August. Westshore figures its claims will be settled later this year.