Strikers have shut down a vital Great Lakes shipping artery for days, and negotiations are looming

By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A strike has shut down all shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway, interrupting exports of grain and other goods from Canada and the United States via the Great Lakes to the rest the world. Around 360 workers with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, walked out early Sunday in a dispute over wages with the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. The strike has bottled up ships in the Great Lakes and is preventing more ships from coming in. The Canadian government on Tuesday ordered both sides to return to bargaining with a federal mediator on Friday. It’s the first time that a strike has shut down the vital shipping artery since 1968.