Unifor completely blocks off refinery in dispute escalation

Nearly a dozen Co-op-branded semis lined up on Fleet Street illustrated the Unifor point Monday morning, when the national president stood in front of a crowd of picketers to announce they were blocking off all the Co-op refinery gates.

Jerry Dias said the workers had been locked out of the refinery, so now the Co-op would be locked out too.

“As of now, the scabs that are in the facilities can leave, the management that are in the facilities can leave, but no one will be going in,” said Dias.

Dias said it’s all in a bid to get the Co-op executives back to the bargaining table, because the dispute will only be settled there.

In an email statement, the refinery said the union “continues to use illegal blockades as a bullying tactic.” The company said the actions Monday “represent yet another violation of the court injunction” the company got in December.

Dias maintains that the latest actions don’t violate that injunction, which gave the picketers only 10 minutes, at most, to hold up vehicles heading into the refinery.

Dias said it was Unifor Local 594 against which the injunction was ordered, but the local is no longer the group at the head of things.

“The national union is now the group, legally, that is doing the major blockade. So, we’ll deal with that in court, because our argument today is that we’re not violating any injunction at all,” said Dias.

According to Dias, the refinery has been trying to use the police and the courts to break the union and get people back to work, but he said that won’t happen.

“The Co-op makes $3 million a day in profits. They’re not going to make $3 million today (and) tomorrow doesn’t look very good either,” Dias said to a chorus of cheers behind him.

When asked whether he’s concerned about the effect a blockade like this might have on communities which rely completely on the refinery for gas and oil, Dias put the responsibility on the refinery’s management.

“They can fix this immediately and they are choosing not to, so they should be ashamed of themselves for putting these small communities in such peril,” said Dias.

The refinery has said before that it will go back to the bargaining table, but said the union needs to drop its demand that nothing about the pension plan can be touched.

In another move, Unifor released a new video showing replacement workers at the refinery. It’s the second time the union has issued a video in which it attempts to identify those workers.

In a statement, the refinery called the blockading “bullying tactics”, and accused the union of violating the injunction.

“It’s abundantly clear that Unifor has no respect for the rule of law,” read the Co-op’s statement.

A spokesperson, Brad DeLorey, said later in the afternoon the blockades hadn’t shut down the refinery, saying a few trucks had gotten through and the refinery still delivers product by rail and pipeline.

DeLorey said the company is pursuing all legal options to deal with the situation.

Truckers feel like ‘pawns’ stuck in middle

Trent Pregizer was one of several truck drivers blockaded from getting into the refinery.

He said he showed up at about 5:30 Monday morning, and there were two trucks ahead of him not moving. By 8 a.m., they were all still waiting to get in.

“I’d taken extra time off at home to deal with some things, and then came in to work thinking it would be the regular 10-minute wait it was the last time I was at work. And instead I find out that this is going on,” he said.

Had it been a regular day without the prolonged blockade, Pregizer said he would have been going through Swift Current on his way to Fort Macleod, Alta., to drop off the fuel he was set to haul.

“For sure it’s frustrating,” he said. “We’re definitely caught in the middle and we’re being used as pawns to control Co-op, whether it’s at the refinery or at the retail (locations). We’re the guys that supply their products, right?”

Pregizer said he and other contract truck drivers he has talked to just want to do their work, without impediment.

“If we’re not moving any of (Co-op’s products), then everyone is suffering on both ends,” he said, “and it’s definitely a pressure tactic by Unifor, I’m pretty sure.”

Regina police monitoring the situation

In a statement Monday after the Unifor blockade was set up, the Regina Police Service said its role in a labour dispute is to keep the peace and ensure everyone’s rights are upheld.

In this case, police said, union members have a right to picket and the Co-op has a right to conduct business. As a result, the police are monitoring the situation to make sure those things happen.

“Avoiding escalation and working out disagreements peacefully is the responsibility of both sides involved in this matter, and police involvement should be a last resort,” the police statement read. “In immediate matters of public safety and emergency, we encourage anyone involved to call police and the Regina Police Service will investigate further.”

The Regina Police Service has been closely monitoring the situation at the Co-op Refinery. A statement about our role in the dispute is included below. #YQR pic.twitter.com/lu3jaRSvkw

— Regina Police (@reginapolice) January 20, 2020

— With files from 980 CJME’s Evan Radford