NO END TO CO-OP DISPUTE
Company rejects mediator’s report
Unifor and Federated Co-operatives Ltd. remain unable to see eye-to-eye, even after special mediator Vince Ready delivered his long-awaited report.
Unifor Local 594’s president said on Sunday that Ready’s report favours FCL’S position over the union’s — but that the union was still urging its employees to vote in support of the recommendations.
FCL and the Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC), meanwhile, said in a statement that while many recommendations by mediators Ready and Amanda Rogers were helpful, the “CRC has determined it is unable to accept all aspects of the report’s recommendations in their entirety and will need to make modifications.”
Unifor Local 594 president Kevin Bittman said the reason for recommending a favourable vote is because he wants locked-out employees to get back to work and establish a new collective agreement after more than 100 days on the picket line.
“Refinery workers entered Premier (Scott) Moe’s mediation process in good faith, only to be slapped in the face,” Bittman said.
FCL cited the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn as reasons for not accepting the recommendations.
“We must now also consider the stark world developments that are presently unfolding and their impacts to both our business and our ever-more critical responsibility to our multiple stakeholders,” the company said in a statement.
That’s despite Ready writing that “put bluntly ... implementation of our recommendations would result in significant cost savings for the Employer.”
On Sunday, the union said it was shocked by FCL’S decision.
“FCL CEO Scott Banda’s tactics get more disgusting by the hour,” Unifor national president Jerry Dias said in an emailed statement, calling on the premier to intervene.
“Scott Banda wants to use a public health crisis as bargaining leverage on his own employees.”
The union went into bargaining with the intention of maintaining the status quo from the previous collective agreement. From that perspective, “we’re a fair ways away from where status quo is,” Bittman said.
“We think this should be a good deal that gets us back to work and that’s why we pulled our picketers off the line on Friday.”
The report outlines eight recommendations following mediation between the two parties.
Pensions were the most contentious issue, with the union looking to maintain its defined benefit (DB) plan — funded entirely by the CRC — for certain members. The company was looking to move all employees to a defined contribution (DC) plan.
Ready recommended that DB members pay four per cent into the pension in the first year and eight per cent by the second, and that indexing be eliminated. The union proposed a merging of the current pension plan with an existing plan established by the Pulp and Paper Industry.
Ready said this would offer cost savings and financial certainty to the CRC and security for employees.
Part of the recommendations made by Ready is to adopt the “national pattern,” which would include an 11.75-per-cent raise over four years. Also, the master operator is recommended to remain in scope. The national pattern would also include changes to employee benefits such as increases to hearing aid coverage, and an increase in severance pay.
Ready wrote that CRC and FCL are seeking cost-saving measures as a way to safeguard against market volatility in the changing face of oil prices, demand “and the impending introduction of Clean Fuel Standards by the federal government.”
The union maintained that management’s desire to cut jobs and create efficiencies could directly affect the safety of workers. Ready noted the union’s position that “these efficiencies cannot create ‘havoc’ for its ‘members’ core work duties’, nor compromise safety.”
The employer also said there was an apparent surplus of employees in certain sectors. Ready said there was “no compelling basis” to keep employees on when there is insufficient work, and recommended eliminating a minimum staffing requirement currently in place.
“We checked all the boxes that the company said they needed in this round of bargaining,” said Bittman.