Deal ends lockout at refinery

Members of Unifor Local 594 overwhelmingly voted to ratify a deal with Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC) on Monday, sending more than 700 workers back to the job after a bitter lockout that gripped the city for almost seven months.

Kevin Bittman, president of the local, said 89 per cent of voting members supported ratification. That’s the same margin by which they rejected a deal in April, after the company forced a vote on what it called its final offer.

The only difference was the addition of a “return to work agreement” to protect members from termination based on their role in the dispute. It sets out an expedited process to deal with grievances about wrongful dismissal.

Bittman said there were fears the company would come after those active in the bitter dispute, which was marked by picket lines, arrests and court injunctions.

“There’s reports that they wanted to fire a whole bunch of people, and we were not going to go into that plant with them being able to fire people and take four and a half years to get through arbitration, because the process is broken in Saskatchewan,” said Bittman.

He dared CRC to try it on him.

“They’ve tried five times already,” he said. “So if they want to come after me more, come after me more.”

Bittman said the agreement will ensure a peaceful transition as Unifor members return to work over the coming weeks.

But the union couldn’t get the company to budge from its position on pensions, which called for contributions of four per cent from employees as of ratification. That’s set to go up to eight per cent effective Feb 1, 2022.

It could be 10 per cent or higher the year after that, according to Bittman.

The company’s final offer included the national pattern on wages, which amounts to an 11.75 per cent increase over four years, followed by negotiated hikes for three more years of at least one per cent.

Workers were locked out on Dec. 5 last year and have remained off the job since. The announcement that a tentative deal had been reached came on Thursday, as workers demonstrated at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building to call on Premier Scott Moe to impose a binding settlement based on a more favourable mediators report.

In a statement, the CRC welcomed the ratification vote, which it framed as a “much-needed balance between the company’s appreciation for our unionized employees and the fiscal realities of the refining sector.”

“This labour disruption was a difficult period in our history, but I believe that we will emerge from this a stronger team and organization,” said a statement from Gil Le Dressay, vice-president of refinery operations. “The union has been our partner in fuelling Western Canada for more than 75 years, and they will be our partner for generations into the future.”

Though the union took concessions on almost every element of the deal, Bittman refused to view it as a defeat. The union, after all, is still alive to fight another day.

This labour disruption was a difficult period in our history, but I believe that we will emerge from this a stronger team.