Unifor members across the country are stepping up to support the locked out members of Local 594 with secondary pickets at Co-op gas bars and grocery stores.

Information pickets have been conducted at Co-op retailers in Campbell River, Victoria, Abbotsford, Langley, Ladner, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg. More locations are being added daily.

“Federated Co-op’s greedy attack on pensions has motivated Unifor members in communities large and small to get out and promote a boycott,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Co-op members need to know that their local co-op is directly benefitting from scab labour and concession bargaining at its refinery.”

Local Federated Co-ops are the owners of the Co-op Refinery in Regina, where nearly 800 members of Unifor Local 594 have been locked out since December 5. Negotiations hit an impasse when FCL demanded massive concessions on pensions, despite massive profits and an explicit commitment during the last round of bargaining to maintain current benefit levels.

Unifor’s national boycott campaign has been supported by radio and television ads.

Any member of the public can take action by visiting boycottco-op.ca and sending a letter to Co-op managers. On January 7, Unifor announced that the campaign would escalate in the coming weeks.

With Local 594 members covering 21 different job classifications locked out, refinery operations are being attempted by a much smaller group of managers and unqualified replacement workers, jeopardizing both safety and production.