STRIKE THREAT, LOWER TRAFFIC MAR SEAWAY OPENING

  The St. Lawrence Seaway, set
  to reopen March 31 after the winter, faces another tough year
  because of depressed traffic levels and the possibility of the
  first strike in 20 years on the Great Lakes, seaway officials
  said.
      Depressed grain exports, rising costs, and competing modes
  of transportation are all expected to result in only a marginal
  increase over last year's traffic levels -- and revenues -- on
  the 2,300 mile waterway, officials said.
      In 1986, a season that ran from April 3 to December 27, the
  seaway moved 37.6 mln metric tons of freight between Montreal
  and Lake Ontario and 41.6 mln tons on the Welland Canal,
  linking Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
      By comparison, in 1985 about 37 mln tons of cargo traveled
  through the Montreal-Lake Ontario section and 42 mln through
  the eight-lock canal.
      The waterway is expected to lose 9-10 mln Canadian dlrs
  this year, about the same as the estimated deficit for fiscal
  1986-87 ending March 31, said William Blair, an executive
  member of Canada's St Lawrence Seaway Authority.
      The seaway moves about one-half of Canada's exported grain.
  Those exports of the single most important commodity carried on
  the waterway have been depressed by world surpluses.
      The Seafarers' International Union, which represents about
  2,300 workers on the Great Lakes and the ocean coasts, has said
  it will likely go on strike this spring to protest employers'
  demands for wage rollbacks and other concessions.
      "It's 99.9 pct (certain)--I guarantee you a strike," Roman
  Gralewicz, head of the Seafarers' Canadian branch, has said.
      The Canadian government has called in a labor conciliator
  to try to hammer out a contract agreement between the two
  sides. The seaway authority said a walkout tying up ships on
  the Great Lakes would badly hurt traffic.
      "We haven't had a strike on the seaway for years...a
  prolonged strike would have a disasterous effect," Seaway
  Authority spokeswoman Gay Hemsley said.
      "These are the heaviest contract talks in the history of the
  St Lawrence Seaway," George Miller, vice-president of the
  Canadian Lake Carriers Association, an association of major
  Canadian shipping companies, said recently.
      The workers' current contract expires May 31. The
  association said it is asking for a five per cent cut in wages
  for the next three years, reduced crew levels and the power to
  restructure crew dispatching.
      The association said its members recorded about a 6 mln dlrs
  (U.S.) loss in each of 1985 and 1986 due to lower traffic and
  freight rates and increasing competition. The seaway said 1985
  was its worst year in two decades.
      Hemsley said the seaway authority plans to raise tolls on
  the Welland Canal by eight pct this year, compared to last
  year's 15 pct rise, while maintaining a freeze on tolls
  throughout the rest of the waterway.
      Canada is responsible for 13 of the seaway's 15 locks and
  about 85 pct of its revenues and maintenance costs.
      "We may see and hope for a steady upward climb...but we
  won't see a major increase for a number of years," Hemsley said.
      A Canada-U.S. delegation to promote the seaway to shippers
  in Western Europe should result in some increased traffic this
  season but the full benefits won't be felt for several years,
  Blair said.
  

