Load and unload the ships that carry almost everything you own. Union work, hard to get into, hard to leave.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$68,000
Casual, part of the year
$40,000
Full union member with overtime
$106,000
Job Bank's national median is $32.81 an hour, about $68,000 a year at full-time hours. The page is titled Dockworker and covers the whole group. On the west coast, full union members working steady shifts and overtime clear well past the top of that range.
$19 to $25 an hour
But only for the shifts you actually get called for
The honest problem with year one is not the rate, it is the hours. Casuals take what is left after the union members are dispatched, which can be a few shifts a week.
Over $100,000 is normal
Full members on container terminals with overtime and premiums
This is one of the highest-paying jobs in Canada that needs no diploma or licence. The catch is how long it takes to get in.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
There is no school for this and no tuition. You buy boots, a safety vest and a hard hat, and you pay for a federal port security clearance, which is a background check with a fee usually under $200. Safety training is provided by the employer or the union training centre. The cost here is time rather than money: getting from your first casual shift on the call board to full union status can take years, and income is unpredictable until then.
The cost is time, not money. Getting from your first casual shift to full union status can take years.
Union pension
One of the main reasons people wait years for a spot.
Extended health, dental and vision
Overtime and shift premiums
Ports run around the clock, and night and weekend work pays more.
Seniority protection
Once you are in, dispatch and layoffs follow the seniority list, not a manager's opinion.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
There is no programme to apply to. You get on a list, you take shifts, you wait.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Helpful but not always required. Being 18 or older and physically capable is.
Get a port security clearance
Weeks to months
Working inside a marine terminal means a federal background check. A criminal record can end the plan here.
Get onto the casual list
The wait can be months or years
Casual hiring is run by the union hall or the employers' association at each port, and openings are posted rarely. Watch for them and apply the day they appear.
Work casual shifts
1 to 5 years
You show up to the dispatch hall and take whatever work is handed out. Gangs, lashing, driving, hold work.
Union membership
Varies by port
Enough hours and seniority moves you onto the union board, which is when the pay, the pension and the steady hours start.
Physical education
Lashing containers and working a hold is heavy, repetitive work.
Shop or technology
Terminals run on machinery, and the operator jobs pay the best.
Math
Load planning, weights and stowage.
English
Safety instructions on a busy dock have to be understood the first time.
There is no certificate that makes you a longshore worker. What there is instead is a closed hiring system. At the west coast ports the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada is the bargaining agent for the people who load, unload and check cargo, and it represents over 7,200 members across twelve local chapters. Montreal, Halifax, Saint John and the Great Lakes ports have their own unions. Every one of them controls dispatch, so your path in runs through the hall, not through a company's careers page.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Container crane operator
The top of the ladder on a container terminal, and the highest paid.
Reach stacker and top pick
Heavy container-handling machines. Training is usually done in house.
Forklift and mobile equipment
The most common first ticket, and it gets casuals called more often.
Lashing and checking
Cargo securing and tallying. Steady work on every vessel that comes in.
A clean criminal record
Port security clearance is not negotiable, and this is where most people fall out.
Heavy equipment experience
Construction, warehouse or farm machinery time gets you into the operator queue sooner.
Somebody who already works there
Ports are word-of-mouth places, and knowing when the casual list opens matters more than your resume.
A second income for the first year or two
Casual hours are unpredictable. Plan for it.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
You call the dispatch hall or check the board to see if you are working, and which shift. On the dock you might be lashing containers on a ship's deck, driving a truck between the crane and the yard, working in a hold, or running a piece of heavy equipment. Shifts are normally eight hours with set break times, and a vessel on a tight schedule means overtime is offered constantly. It is outdoors, in whatever the weather does, beside machinery that will not survive a mistake. Ports run day, afternoon and night shifts every day of the year.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada has represented dock and warehouse workers in British Columbia since 1948 and now covers more than 7,200 members across twelve autonomous locals plus three affiliated organizations.
Most Canadian ports hire casuals only when the list opens, which can be years apart. People check the union website daily for the notice.
Modern vessels calling at Canadian ports can carry well over 10,000 containers. A crew of longshore workers moves them one crane lift at a time, around the clock, until the ship is turned around.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.