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14 January, 2008
A lockout by Canadian petroleum company Petro-Canada will hit the two-month mark on 17 January, with no talks occurring between the company and the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union since the start of the lockout. The lockout of 267 union members at an oil refinery in Montréal, Québec, is an attempt to reverse Petro-Canada’s own pattern-setting energy bargaining established at a company refinery in Edmonton, Alberta, on 13 May 2007.
The ICEM-affiliated CEP and Petro-Canada there agreed to a three-year contract for 300 workers. Since May 2007, the CEP has signed labour accords with other companies set by the Petro-Canada/Edmonton agreement, including Petro-Canada operations in Ontario province. The CEP established Petro-Canada as the lead company in its National Energy and Chemical Bargaining Programme for 2007-2008, nearly one year ago.
Managers at the Point-aux-Trembles refinery in the east end of Montréal are insisting on a six-year labour agreement, and they seek contract revisions that will reduce health and safety personnel. The company also seeks to erode workers’ rights concerning scheduling and assignments, and wants an accelerated training and progression system in which job safety will be jeopardised. Petro-Canada is attempting to operate the refinery during the lockout with 130 managers and scabs, contrary to Quebec’s labour law.
In 2007, under CEP staffing, the refinery experienced an average production increase to 130,000 barrels-per-day, from 105,000 b/d in 2006. In a statement immediately following the 17 November lockout, Petro-Canada said the lockout was necessary because the refinery was in a “constant state of standby” from the labour talks. The company later admitted it had been training managers since September 2007 to run the facility, apparently anticipating the lockout.
Local 175 rally, 9 January
“Running an oil refinery requires highly specialised skills and dedicated safety training,” said CEP President Dave Coles, who joined workers on picket lines and in a mass meeting on 9 January. CEP Local 175 “members are on the front lines of the fight to protect pattern bargaining, which is at the very foundation of our union,” added Coles.
In a protest in front of the refinery on 21 December, the CEP issued a warning to the Montréal community that 130 managers cannot adequately replace 260 skilled workers in a safe and hazard-free manner. The ICEM has joined the CEP in calling for support to the locked-out workers of Local 175, and on calling on Canada’s third largest oil company to adhere to terms it had initially negotiated in the current pattern settlement.