UPDATE: Federated Co-operatives rejected the recommendations of the independent mediator.
Premier Scott Moe has no choice left—he must end this lockout with legislation.
UPDATE: Federated Co-operatives rejected the recommendations of the independent mediator.
Premier Scott Moe has no choice left—he must end this lockout with legislation.
Premier Scott Moe appointed highly respected mediators to meet with Co-op and Unifor to find common ground for a settlement.
The union proposed multiple compromises that would have met Co-op’s demands for millions of dollars in pension savings, including an offer to merge the refinery’s plan with a much larger pension plan operated for pulp and paper workers across Canada—removing all pension risk from Co-op.
The independents mediators Vince Ready and Amanda Rogers published their recommendations on March 19. They recommended increasing employee contributions to the pension plan to 8 per cent by 2022 and removing pension indexation going forward—a major compromise for workers.
The terms are not everything the union had hoped for, but we have agreed to them in a good faith gesture so refinery workers can go back to work.
These proposals would have saved Co-op tens of millions of dollars over the life of the collective agreement, but Co-op rejected the proposals and used COVID-19 as an excuse to extract even more concessions from oil & gas workers.
During these uncertain times when Western Canada needs a reliable fuel supply from a refinery run by skilled professionals, Co-op snubbed both the independent mediator and the Premier of Saskatchewan to prolong the lockout.
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