Walkout and lockout notices issued at Co-op Refinery

Both the Unifor 594 executive and the Federated Co-operative Limited have issued notice that their workers would be off the job site at the Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC) come Thursday unless a deal is reached.

After voting in favour of a strike Tuesday morning, Unifor 594 issued a 48-hour strike notice to the company.

As a response, the Federated Co-operative Limited issued a lockout notice.

“It is vital to the safety of our operation that we control the timeline of labour action as our highly skilled management team assumes control of the refinery’s operation,” said Gil Le Dressay, vice-president of operations at the CRC.

The lockout notice will take effect at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

In a statement posted on the Federated Co-operatives Limited website, the company indicated it was disappointed by the strike notice.

Kevin Bittman, president of Unifor 594, said the company wants the union to make concessions in regards to pensions, something Bittman claims it did three years ago as well.

“Three years ago, we gave major concessions that all new hires would be on a defined contribution plan and now they’re telling us that we have two choices — we can either all switch to a defined contribution plan or we can stay on our defined benefit plan but they’re gutting the defined benefit plan and making us pay 11 per cent into it,” Bittman said.

Bittman said the employees are tired of the company and its unwillingness to budge on concessions.

“The workplace is very toxic right now and they’re tired of being bullied,” Bittman said. “The membership right now is saying, ‘At this point we’re just done.’ ”

Bittman said if the union signed the current deal, it could take $15,000 to $20,000 on average out of workers’ pockets.

Bittman said the company’s plan to replace the union workers with other workers should be a concern to many.

“It takes years of experience and training to do our jobs, not hours and days like they have that they’re going to try and run that place,” he said.

The CRC said it has put offers in front of the Unifor 594 executive but no counteroffer has been received.

About 720 workers will be affected by the job action.