There has been another twist in the British Columbia ports labour dispute.

Wednesday night it was announced by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada they had cancelled the 72-hour strike notice threatened the night before.

A statement posted on the union’s website did not offer any reason for the revised decision.

University of British Columbia Business Professor Mark Thompson has his thoughts on why this is happening.

“My initial reaction is that the union withdrew the notice because they see the settlement is within reach, which would be the optimistic perspective. Pessimistically, maybe they were afraid what the government might do to them,” Thompson tells CBC Radio.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office says Justin Trudeau spoke earlier on Wednesday with BC Premier David Eby about the dispute and yesterday convened the government’s incident response group, which typically meets at times of “national crisis”.

He’s asked members to pursue all available options to ensure the stability of supply chains and to protect Canadian jobs and the economy.

A week ago, both sides in the dispute agreed to a mediated tentative agreement to end a 13 day strike. On Tuesday night, union leaders reversed course and announced a resumption of the strike. That prompted Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan to announce his displeasure and hint at back to work legislation.