Canadian Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon said yesterday that he would step in to end the shutdown of workers at two of the country's largest ports. However, aggrieved dockworkers vowed to take the matter to court.

McKinnon directed the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to order the resumption of all operations at the ports of Vancouver and Montreal, and to refer negotiations to binding arbitration days after the two ports were closed.

McKinnon said, "There is a limit to the economic self-destruction Canadians are prepared to accept." "In the face of economic self-destruction, we have an obligation to intervene."

Before ending the shutdown, the government intervened in August to end the shutdown of two major railways in Canada.

The International Wharf and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 514, which represents Canada's West Coast workers, said it would plan to file a legal challenge to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board's order to end the strike and the minister's mandatory arbitration.

"The union will launch a charter challenge based on interference with the constitutional right to free collective bargaining and the right to strike previously upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada," ILWU said.