Trucks stuck behind fences at Co-op refinery for more than nine hours

The lockout at the Co-op refinery turned into a lock-in early Thursday.

Seven trucks that pulled into the facility at around 3 a.m., were locked inside the facility until about 12:30 p.m.

According to a Regina Police Service spokesperson, a sergeant went to the site on Ninth Avenue North to evaluate the situation. After some discussion, the gates were opened and the tanker trucks were allowed to leave.

Earlier Thursday, a truck driver said Unifor members locked him and seven others inside the refinery.

Justin Wright said he got a text early Thursday that entry gates to the refinery were open.

As the owner-operator of a trucking company contracted by Co-op, he got out of bed, called a couple of his drivers and headed to the refinery.

“We came in through a gate that was totally unmanned (on Ninth Avenue North),” Wright told Gormley at about 9:30 a.m. “We all loaded and while we were loading, Unifor actually re-erected the fence, chained it together this time and (now they) have a couple of vehicles and probably a couple dozen picketers outside holding that fence so we can’t get out.”

Wright said seven trucks were stuck inside the refinery gates. An eighth was locked in at Co-op’s McDonald Street Terminal.

Wright said he didn’t have any communication with the picketers who were manning the fence.

“They don’t really like to show their face or speak any words,” he said. “We went right up and I witnessed them putting the chains up.

“I wasn’t really in the mood to talk to anybody, but one of the drivers who was here was like, ‘Really? You’re really going to chain us in?’ There was literally no response from any of the Unifor picketers.”

Blake Ratcliffe was one of the other truckers locked in.

While speaking to a reporter through the chain link fence, a union member in a pickup truck pulled up and started honking the horn in an attempt to silence Ratcliffe.

“As you can tell, Unifor is making our lives pretty miserable here,” Ratcliffe said.

He called Unifor’s tactics “quite scary” and was concerned about the safety of truckers while locked in.

“This place has been closed down for days. They’ve barricaded us (and) blocked us from coming in. We’re just trying to do our job (and) make a living,” Ratcliffe said.

Ratcliffe said he personally made two or three phone calls to police and waited hours for them to show up. It wasn’t until around 12:30 p.m. that the sergeant showed up and the truckers were released.

Wright was one of four owners of trucking companies who were to speak at a rally in downtown Regina on Thursday, but he didn’t make it. Truckers raised concerns about the way the lockout at the refinery is affecting their business and how they’re being treated by picketers.

The union’s actions Thursday left three of the proposed speakers locked in at the refinery.

“I’ve been doing this for 22 years and I literally just want to do my job,” Wright said. “Obviously financially now, it’s not just me but the 15 families (with employees at his company) and our 10 kids.

“I’m trying to get my trucks going so we can all make some money and go buy food.”

In a media release earlier Thursday, the Regina Police Service said it had not opened any of the gates at the refinery.

“Our officers seized 31 vehicles at the refinery complex last night, but our officers did not open any gates. Since last night, other vehicles have been moved in to block gates,” the release said.

Later Thursday afternoon, a group of officers in five police cruisers went gate to gate issuing parking tickets on vehicles along the picket line.

The tickets were for parking on public property other than a public highway.

A parking ticket issued by Regina police along the Co-op refinery picket line on Feb. 6, 2020. (Andrew Shepherd/980 CJME)

“I think it’s just to break us up. They’re obviously trying to intimidate us by issuing tickets,” said a Unifor member from Quebec who didn’t want to give her name.

She said parking tickets aren’t going to deter union members and actually danced the YMCA in front of officers while the tickets were being issued.

She accused police of being petty.

“If they think that issuing tickets is going to break the union, they’ve got a long way to go, man,” she said.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Andrew Shepherd