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6 April, 2009
Oil-rig workers at Terra Nova off the Canadian province of Newfoundland ratified their first non-mediated collective agreement in March. And with it, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada is on track to link collective agreement expiration dates between onshore oil, gas, and chemical plants with its two North Atlantic offshore agreements.
Workers at Terra Nova, a consortium of seven oil companies led by Petro-Canada, ratified a two-year agreement by a 60% vote. The 180 workers will receive a 6.5% wage increase retroactive to 1 October 2008, and they will receive a 4.5% increase in October 2009.
Joe Gargiso, an Administrative Vice President for CEP who heads the union’s Oil and Chemicals bargaining, said the main significance of the agreement is that it expires in 2010 when the CEP’s National Energy Bargaining contracts come due. “Our goal is to line up the offshore agreements with the refineries and other energy installations across Canada,” he said. “And we’re now moving in that direction.”
The CEP’s other offshore contract, covering 450 union members, is at Hibernia, a North Atlantic platform owned by another consortium of oil companies including Petro-Canada, only led and operated by US based ExxonMobil. The collective agreement there expires on 1 July 2009.
Gargiso said the labour-management relationship there has improved markedly since workers made Hibernia the first North American offshore oil platform to unionise back in 2001.
Workers at Terra Nova, who organised in 2003, saw a first collective agreement take effect through a provincial mediator’s interest arbitration award in 2006. The same holds true at Hibernia, where a Canadian provincial government mediator determined a 38-month initial agreement in May 2006.
At Terra Nova, Gargiso singled out participation in a CEP Health, Safety, and Industrial Relations Fund, as well as wage adjustments ranging from one percent to 6.5% for 117 of the rig’s workers as highlights of the new, bi-laterally negotiated agreement. The CEP’s Fund requires employers to pay C$.03 per hour worked for this purpose. Workers won improvements in shift differential for night-time work, and improvements in training, travel expenses, and vacations.
At both Terra Nova and Hibernia, the CEP collective agreements cover workers employed by all service and supply operators on the two oil platforms.