Unifor refinery workers picket Co-op annual meeting in Saskatoon
As company officials and board members gathered inside Saskatoon’s TCU Place for the Federated Co-operatives’ annual general meeting, dozens of picketers walked the streets outside.
“Local Co-ops are profiting from scab labour at the refinery,” said Unifor national president Jerry Dias, as dozens of Unifor Local 594 members picketed for hours Saturday and returned on Sunday.
“Local Co-op boards need to reign in rogue executives such as CEO Scott Banda before more damage is done to the Co-op brand.”
The action came days after members set up a picket line at Co-op’s facilities in Yorkton and in the midst a tense labour dispute, which began on Dec. 5 when the refinery — a major source of FCL’S revenue — locked out workers after its union issued a strike notice.
As the Yorkton picket line was going up Wednesday, Dias and 14 union members made their first appearance via a lawyer in a Regina courtroom on mischief charges.
Dias and the members were arrested on the Regina picket line taken down earlier this month when the national union blocked fuel trucks from entering the Coop Refinery Complex (CRC).
Unifor has also twice been fined for what a judge called repeated breaches of an injunction ensuring access to the refinery that was issued in December.
Neither Co-op nor Unifor will discuss the details of mediation currently taking place in Regina, although pensions are a major point of contention between the two sides. Unifor Local 594 has said it is willing to have members contribute six per cent toward their defined-benefit pension plan, while FCL has asked for 11 per cent.
More talks are scheduled for early March.