Tentative deal in bitter Regina refinery dispute

Arrests and threats of violence over 196 days of labour standoff

REGINA The long road to a tentative agreement announced Thursday between the Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC) in Regina and Unifor Local 594 has been marred by arrests, threats of violence and the worst weather the province has to offer.

It took 196 days.

Local 594 president Kevin Bittman freely admits the union has accepted every concession put on the table.

“We never received anything. All we did was get things taken away from us,” he said.

Yet, while speaking from under an umbrella amid drizzle outside the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, he still considers the agreement a union victory.

“This company tried to take a swing at this local, but they didn’t even put a dent in us,” said Bittman, who has long alleged the company was attempting to break the union. “We’re walking out of this with our heads held high.”

A vote is expected Monday. “This deal, if accepted by bargaining unit employees, along with the operational efficiencies our team has recently realized, will go a long way toward ensuring a sustainable CRC for generations to come,” said Gil Le Dressay, vice-president of refinery operations, in a statement announcing the potential deal.

A major breakthrough in negotiations was adding a return-to-work agreement. Bittman said grievances can currently take three or four years through arbitration. As such, an expedited review process has also been included.

“The system is broken. There’s not enough arbitrators,” he said. “It’s not right to have people getting fired or disciplined and taking that long to get their job back.”

While Unifor 594 favoured the recommendations made by special mediators, the company didn’t. Then in April, 89 per cent of union members shot down what the CRC termed its best and final offer. But that same deal is now largely what they’ll be asked to support.

CRC spokesperson Brad Delorey is hopeful the union will accept the deal. “I think it’s a deal that balances the appreciation for our unionized employees as well with the fiscal realities of the refining industry,” he said.

When that April deal fell through, the union upped its pressure on the government to impose binding arbitration, and most recently punctuated that call by circling the legislature with horns blaring. Still, the government resisted.

“Work was done by the parties, as it should be,” said Labour Minister Don Morgan. “It will be good to see that it’s put to rest.”

Ryan Meili, whose NDP Opposition had pressed the premier to take action to end the lockout, was similarly “very pleased to see, finally, this lockout had ended.”

Though he had no evidence for the claim, Bittman and Unifor national president Jerry Dias believe the government leaned on the company to accept a deal.

“The last thing Scott Moe needed was 700 locked-out workers on the street during a provincial election,” said Dias.

Regardless, they say the conditions that led to such a long dispute — the inability to effectively picket, establishment of a replacement worker camp on the grounds of the refinery — remain.

The bitter clash that over time saw picket line arrests and the homes of company managers hit with paint balls began Dec. 5, 2019, when workers were locked out after negotiations broke down.

Early in the dispute, a barricade at Gate 7, east of the refinery, became the site of daily rallies, attracting support from Unifor members and other unions across Canada, as well as some politicians.

Along the streets and roads skirting the refinery, Unifor members erected blockades preventing traffic getting in or out. Speaking in the frigid cold on Jan. 20, Dias vowed that after locking out their own employees, the company itself would be locked out.

“It’s time they had a taste of their own medicine,” said Dias, the same day he and six other union members were arrested as part of demonstrations at the CRC.

The union fortified the barricades, and brought in hundreds of members from around Canada to help on the picket line. The company brought workers from across the country too, flying in personnel and supplies by helicopter as well as setting up a work camp on site.

Those barricades, and the people within, became the target of a bomb threat in February. The police warned neither the company nor Unifor, earning ire from Dias.

“The police took the side of the employer,” said Dias. The police chief said the threat was determined to be unfounded.