No clear path forward to end CRC lockout

Stalemate continues in bitter dispute as union rejects ‘best and final’ offer

As a labour dispute grows five months old and a rejected final offer is the only one on the table, there is no end in sight for the lockout at the Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC) at the same time the oil industry falls into dire straits.

Speaking on Thursday, a day after Unifor Local 594 gave thumbsdown to the company’s offer, the CRC’S Gil Le Dressay, vice-president of refinery operations, insisted that’s still their “best and final offer.”

“It’s better than what they’d get at ESSO, Shell or Suncorp so we’re trying to align ourselves competitively with the industry,” he contended.

Le Dressay said the offer was made prior to the crash in the global oil market and that things had “become more dire.”

“It’s still on the table, but there’s some new circumstances we’re trying to manage,” he said.

The future of oil and a transition into renewables is on the horizon for Le Dressay, who said that transition was part of the impetus to lower costs at the CRC.

He expects in the next 10 to 15 years for refineries to start closing.

“The ones that will be good enough to survive will be the ones that get their costs and their house in order,” he said.

Kevin Bittman, president of Unifor Local 594, said that never came up in bargaining or during mediation.

“They never once told us of a plan to transition out of gasoline and diesel,” said Bittman. “When we asked what the plan was, they had none.”

Le Dressay said the company is not in a competitive position given the current contract between the company and the union.

But Bittman refutes that claim. Given that Unifor members work at most of the nation’s refineries, the Local 594 bargaining committee gave special mediator Vince Ready reports on what those other contracts looked like.

“The Ready report draws us right into the middle of the pack,” he said. In March, 98 per cent of the workers voted in favour of those recommendations. The union has been calling on the province since February to impose binding arbitration.

“We’ve given a tonne, and it’s never been enough for the Co-op,” said Bittman.

Judy Fudge, a professor of labour studies at Mcmaster University, said given the CRC’S ability to maintain operations, there’s little incentive for it to give way to the union’s demands.

“They’re playing hardball,” said Fudge.

And given the company’s ability to use replacement workers and still ship its product, the union doesn’t have many choices outside of appealing to the government.

It appears that the government is accepting the employer’s decision, which looks like it wants to break the union.

“There’s not really a lot that it has, even reverting to those tactics (such as the blockades used this winter) they’ll just get fined. If they break an injunction they’ll get jailed,” she said.

“They don’t really have much leverage.”

Fudge suggested that without the province taking a stronger stance and intervening to get the union members back into the refinery, it appears to be in the company’s corner.

“It appears that the government is accepting the employer’s decision, which looks like it wants to break the union,” she said.

When asked to comment on the lockout and the next steps the government could take, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety said, “At this time we will not be doing an interview.”

On Wednesday, the premier said he would be asking the labour minister to reach out to both sides.