Truckers vent frustration with both union, police
A symphony of air horns bellowing from a convoy of more than 80 semi-trucks driving through Regina, around City Hall and the Regina Police Service (RPS) headquarters, echoed through the downtown on a Thursday morning that also heard drivers’ complaints of being locked in at the refinery lockout.
The protesters were truckers, lease holders and others who have been unable to fill their trucks amid the labour dispute at the Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC), where locked-out Unifor workers erected barricades and effectively brought fuel transportation by truck out of the refinery to a halt.
No one from Unifor had responded to requests for a response as of late Thursday afternoon, but on Wednesday a spokesman blamed any fuel shortages on the CRC management.
Frustrations which have been simmering for more than two months are close to a boil, as the truckers have called on city police to enforce the letter of law, including an injunction limiting how long pickets can delay truckers at the refinery.
During the rally, the protest was met with its own objectors, as one man sat down in the middle of the street in front of one truck at Victoria Avenue and Smith Street. Meanwhile across town near the blockades at the CRC, a man in a black Camero spun his tires at a group of pickets, sending gravel and dirt their way.
Signs on the front grills of the truck convoy conveyed the frustration: “We need work;” “Let us do our jobs; “Git ’er done RPS;” “Bray pull down the wall;” and “Get out of Tims and do your jobs!”
Some seven truckers who planned to join the rally instead found themselves temporarily locked inside the very fences they were protesting against.
Among those locked inside for several hours was Justin Wright, who said he has lost “tens of thousands of dollars” since the barricades went up in mid-january. He said truckers received a group text around 3 a.m. alerting them that gates to fuelling terminals were “open,” so some rushed to the refinery to get fuel. He said, once on site at the CRC, a familiar Co-op security guard who was “on our side” let them pass.
Wright said he rallied two of his drivers who hopped in their trucks and took off for the refinery, with Wright driving a friend’s truck who wasn’t able to go himself. At the 9th Avenue North entrance, Wright and the six other drivers entered the refinery — only to subsequently find themselves locked inside until around noon.
“In my opinion I’m being illegally detained,” said Wright, while still inside the CRC. As a shipper, receiver and handler of dangerous goods, Wright said the drivers would not have been able to abandon their trucks and cargo and walk away.
Regina police spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich stressed that no Regina police officers opened any gates but officers did clear the area of vehicles — seizing 31 — early Thursday morning.
“We were seizing vehicles and someone may have seen that as an opportunity, but Regina Police Service members did not open any gates,” Popowich said.
After the seizures, more vehicles moved in to fill the gap and block gates. By Thursday afternoon RPS officers were again ticketing and towing vehicles around the CRC.
Mike Schick was also stuck in the CRC at the Mcdonald Street terminal and missed his date to speak at the rally in front of City Hall, which began around 10 a.m.
“It only took me 10 maybe 15 minutes to load and when I went to leave I was blocked in,” he said. “It started with just cars and then the picketers grabbed the fences and put them back up.”
Like many of the 400 truckers, lease operators and owners of the 26 companies contracted to haul fuel at the CRC, Schick has lost money. He estimates his 35-person, 13-truck company, K & M Trucking, has lost well over $200,000 during the labour dispute, which began Dec. 5 when the CRC locked out Unifor workers.
“We’re not even willing participants in this. The refinery issued lockout notice, Unifor issued strike notice, we didn’t issue anything,” said Schick. “We’re caught in the crossfire.”
According to Heather Day, president C.S. Day Transport, truckers contracted to haul fuel at the CRC have lost between $2.2 to $2.5 million in gross revenue since the blockade began Jan. 20, and collectively throughout the lockout, which began Dec. 5, losses approach $10 million. She said the truckers respect the role of unions, but contended some tactics “are crossing the line,” and the drivers are caught in the middle.
Wright agreed: “We’re just a game piece on this chess board, unfortunately being abused by one side.”
Amid the dispute, fuel pumps in parts of Manitoba ran dry. Federated Co-operatives Ltd. put fuel limits on Cardlocks in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba on Wednesday.
According to Kelly Romas, director of marketing for Red River Coop in Winnipeg, the company’s 35 gas bars and five Cardlocks in Winnipeg, Kenora, Selkirk, Stonewall and Dryden, Ont. all experienced shortages or outages on Thursday.