Unifor members put up a barricade at the Sherwood Co-op Home Centre and gas bar in Regina on Thursday morning.

Administrative offices are also on the site at Winnipeg Street and Ninth Avenue North.

According to texts to 980 CJME, the fences were removed Thursday afternoon.

It was the latest development in the ongoing labour dispute at the Co-op refinery, a dispute that now is into its sixth week. Similar blockades were put up at Co-op locations in Regina and Weyburn.

Unifor picketers have fenced off the Coop Home Centre and gas bar on Winnipeg St and 9th Ave. The union says this is the latest step to escalate pressure on the company. pic.twitter.com/4YZxDCfXDW — Adriana Christianson (@AdrianaC_JME) January 16, 2020

“Sherwood Co-op is funding our lockout. So we took it to them and we locked them out of their store today,” Kevin Bittman, president of Unifor Local 594, said early Thursday.

“They use their profits to lock us out and fly helicopters over our picket lines.”

Bittman said people could buy their home supplies elsewhere. He was asking them to call Sherwood Co-op to get them to apply pressure on refinery management to return to the bargaining table.

In a statement, the company called this blockade, along with the ones that happened on Jan. 10 in Regina and Jan. 13 in Weyburn, “illegal.”

Co-op is asking the union to drop its condition for negotiations to resume — a promise from the company that current defined-benefit pensions will never be changed.

The company says the current plan is not competitive with others in the refining industry.