Voting on employer’s final offer underway at Co-op

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After an administrative error by Co-op Refinery that delayed voting by three days, Unifor Local 594 members have begun voting on the company’s final offer. 
 
Mail-in voting was supposed to close on April 17, 2020 but that deadline has been extended to April 24.
 
Only days after snubbing the recommendations of provincially appointed mediators that would have brought the lockout to an end, Co-op Refinery submitted a so-called final offer to the union. 
 
The company’s offer tables a number of concessions that go far beyond the compromise of the mediators’ deal, leading the Local 594 bargaining committee to recommend members vote to reject it.
 
“Co-op’s greed knows no boundaries,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “The final offer is a good example of what we’ve seen for months from this unethical employer: major concessions and an insult to the highly skilled men and women that should be operating the refinery today.”
 
Undeterred by the bargaining committee’s rejection, Co-op used the provincial labour board to force a vote on the offer, something the company can only exercise once.
 
“Co-op wants to use the crisis to stoke fears about the economy and extract more concessions from refinery workers,” said Kevin Bittman, Local 594 president.
 
Results are expected to be published the week of April 27, 2020.