Jerry Dias, the national president of the Unifor union was arrested on a Regina picket line after trying to blockade a refindery..Dias said he “spent a glorious seven hours in a cell” after his Monday night arrest..A total of 14 Unifor members were arrested at the Co-op Refinery in Regina but no Local 594 members were on site due to a court order issued on December 27 that restricted their ability to detain workers going in and out of the facility..Unifor National, however, was not part of the order..On Monday, members from Unifor National and other Local unions arrived to take over the picket line from Local 594 and were met with “extreme tactics” by police..“We are calling on the Regina Police to immediately de-escalate and stop their heavy-handed tactics aimed at inflaming tensions on a peaceful and legal picket line,” Unifor Secretary-Treasurer Lana Payne said Monday..A statement from Unifor said Regina police began arresting members after Unifor announced “members would peacefully halt vehicles from entering the Co-op Refinery”..“The union, of course, has the right to lawful protest,” said Elizabeth Popowich, Regina police spokeswoman..“But the company also has a right to do business and we’re trying to restore that balance. With the gates blocked by vehicles and by people, that’s not the current situation.”.A spokesman from the refinery said after the arrests that “the activity underway at the refinery is illegal”, referring to the union blockade..The court order issued in December specifically addressed detaining entrance to and exit from the facility stating “the restriction of access to or exit from the said premises, shall only last as long as necessary to provide information, to a maximum of 10 minutes, or until the recipient of the information indicates a desire to proceed, whichever comes first.”.“We are going to start today the escalation of our boycott of the Co-op gas stations, and stores, and we are doing this to urge the community of Regina and the province of Saskatchewan to join with the workers to win a collective agreement,” Dias said Tuesday morning. .Kevin Bittman, Local 594 President, said the situation in Regina wasn’t cut and dried..“We’ve been negotiating since February; we had 22 sessions of bargaining between February and December” he said in a phone interview January 14.. “We were happy with the status quo – we weren’t asking for anything – just to sign the new contract and keep going.”.Dias said Co-op negotiated a change in pensions three years ago for the previous agreement..“They said that if we agreed to change the pension plan for new hires then your pension would be safe,” Dias said during a media availability Tuesday morning..“Here we are two and a half years later with a company that has made $2.5 billion dollars since saying ‘we’re going to change the rules’ which will, in essence, gut the pension plan.”.Bittman said Local 594 was the only local unable to get a signed contract..“Of the 63 contracts that were up for renewal, 61 were ratified, one is close to being ratified and (the refinery employees are) locked out.”.The employees of the Co-op Refinery were locked out as of 5:00 p.m. on December 5, 2019..Story ideas? dmaclean@westernstandardonline.com Twitter @Mitchell_AB
