Regina Pats trade scoring leader and captain Tanner Howe
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Tanner Howe was was the third youngest captain in the Regina Pats' history.
The line of trucks waiting to get into the Co-op refinery has waxed and waned over the past few days, as each truck is held up by picketers blocking the entrance. But some truckers are saying the union’s tactics are violating a court order sent out last week.
The order said the union could stop vehicles trying to get in and out of the refinery for a maximum of ten minutes to provide information on the dispute with the refinery, or until the driver declines the information, at which point they should be allowed to “proceed without interference.”
But truckers say they’re being stopped for the full ten minutes, regardless of whether they tell the picketers they want to proceed through or not.
Over about an hour on Monday afternoon, six trucks were let into the Co-op entrance on McDonald Street, each stopped for about ten minutes. And at least one truck was seen waiting with the driver’s window up and a picketer continuing to read from a paper outside.
Videos sent to 980 CJME, seem to support these allegations.
In one video the picketer tells the driver that they’re allowed to pass him information for ten minutes. The driver said “if I want to hear it,” to which the picketer replied “And if you don’t then I just stand here and talk.”
In the other video another picketer tells the driver he’s not allowed to leave before the ten minutes are up, and when the driver explained the wording of the injunction, the picketer replied “It is worded that way, but we need our time to communicate our message to you.”
The driver works for Justin Wright, who owns Lowridin’ Carriers Ltd. The driver in the video declined to share his name.
Wright said the injunction isn’t being followed by the picketers, even when his drivers brought a copy of the order with them.
He said every driver is having this problem and it’s frustrating.
“We’re kind of caught in the middle of this battle between the union and the employer. As a third party with my own contract, I have no say in this, I have no vote at the table I don’t even get to go to the table. I’m just trying to do my contractual duties and I feel like I’m being used as a pawn,” said Wright.
Wright said he’s lost a lot of money over the nearly month of the strike, saying it’s “not fun to talk about how much.”
There are about 400 drivers around dealing with this, according to Wright. He said the patience the drivers have shown in the last month of the strike is amazing.
“My drivers, they’re not against Unifor, they just want to cross and do their job. And the injunction is set in place that they are allowed to cross if they don’t want to listen to the information. These drivers have virtually been there day in and day out for almost 30 days. They’ve heard the stories and they’re sick of hearing it over and over, they just want to get to their work.”
Kevin Bittman, is the head of Unifor’s Local 594 at the refinery. He said he hasn’t heard of any drivers kept waiting even after they said they wanted to continue on and hasn’t seen drivers not listening to the union members, but he didn’t deny it was happening either.
Bittman called the caveat in the injunction, an “interpretation” of the order.
“For us, we see part of that order as we have ten minutes to communicate with them and so that’s what we’re doing,” said Bittman.
Bittman said he’s fine with what’s happening on the line right now.
Bittman maintains that the majority of the drivers are on Unifor’s side, that they’re waiting and listening to the picketers and that some have even walked the line with them.
The refinery could try to bring action against the union, claiming it’s breaking the order. To that, Bittman said he doesn’t have any control over what the company does, and when it was pointed out that he has control over what happens on the line, Bittman simply said “yes”.