KeeSean Johnson emerging as a top Riders receiver
7h ago
Roughriders receiver KeeSean Johnson's success isn't a surprise to his teammates.
Unifor is once again escalating its attempts to put pressure on Federated Co-operatives Limited in its ongoing labour dispute at the company’s Regina oil refinery.
Members of the union are barricading Co-op properties in Weyburn, located at highways 39 and 13, on Monday.
Those include the Co-op Gas Bar, the company’s CardLock and a neighbouring restaurant called Main Track Cafe.
Unifor’s lead negotiator, Scott Doherty, says retailers are part of Co-op ownership and have a role to play in getting negotiations back on track.
“The reason we’re doing this is to say, ‘Step up and talk to your board of directors and talk to your people that run your Co-op and get them back to the bargaining table,’ ” Doherty said.
“There’s no reason for us to be inconvenienced. There’s no reason for this to happen across the country.”
Doherty acknowledged the barricades have the cafe caught in the middle. But he said that union members might be able to help out by eating there and thus possibly offsetting business losses.
“We’re going to go and reach out to them. And hopefully they’ll be feeding our 100 or so people that are there that need to get fed,” he said.
As of Monday, the barricades in Weyburn are the only ones that have been set up, Doherty confirmed. They’ll remain up until 6 p.m.
The union started the tactic on Friday, when it put up fences and parked vehicles at a cardlock and refinery office building in Regina.
The Co-op issued a media release Monday about the union’s move to erect barricades at Co-op properties.
“Instead of using these aggressive tactics, we encourage Unifor to drop its insistence that bargaining can only take place if FCL agrees to never make changes to the current, 100 per cent employer-paid defined benefit pension plan,” the release said. “That plan is costing Co-ops across Western Canada, including (Weyburn’s) Prairie Sky Co-op and its members, hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain.
“Changes have to happen, and FCL has stated clearly that it’s willing to find a path to a deal once Unifor removes its demand for no changes to the pension plan.”
— With files from 980 CJME’s Joseph Ho