Regina police help negotiate van passage during oil refinery lockout

As the cold weather deepens on Tuesday, the relationship between Unifor and management at Regina’s Co-op oil refinery remains frosty.

Members of the Regina Police Service had to play the role of negotiators Monday night, as Unifor members stopped a van carrying what the driver said were safety supplies into the refinery site.

Members of the union who work at the refinery have been picketing since Friday, after Co-op management locked them out from work. The two sides’ bargaining dispute is over pensions and compensation union members will get when they retire.

Picketers held up the van for two hours, but eventually let it pass into the refinery area after intervention from police.

Unifor Local 594 president Kevin Bittman said they found items other than safety supplies — items he deemed non-essential — inside the van.

He thinks the whole incident was meant to provoke union members into violent acts.

“They just chose to try to use that to incite our membership. But our membership is strong and they’re not going to fall into that kind of trap,” he said.

Bittman said Co-op management had first told the union of its intention to bring the van onto the refinery site on Monday afternoon. But he alleged management didn’t reveal the contents of the van.

He lamented the current state of the labour dispute between union members and management.

“We’re supposed to have co-operative values, and we’re so far away from that, it’s not even funny,” he said.

Police constable Lauralee Davies confirmed the van passed by picketers peacefully,

“We’re happy when it’s a resolution. It’s peaceful and agreeable by both sides. We didn’t have to get involved with moving people or moving vehicles or anything,” she said.

Davies confirmed people working inside the refinery made the call for service to police.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick