{"id":17853,"date":"2019-12-18T09:15:51","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T14:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/co-op-refinery-employees-locked-out-over-protracted-pension-dispute-140540"},"modified":"2019-12-18T09:15:51","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T14:15:51","slug":"co-op-refinery-employees-locked-out-over-protracted-pension-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2019\/12\/18\/co-op-refinery-employees-locked-out-over-protracted-pension-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-op Refinery employees locked out over protracted pension dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Courtesy: <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kelsey Rolfe<\/span> | December 18, 2019<\/p>\n

Eight hundred unionized employees of Regina-based Co-op Refinery remain locked out after contract negotiations stalled.<\/p>\n

The refinery, which is part of Federated Co-operatives Ltd., locked out members of Unifor Local 594 on Dec. 5. Unifor said Co-op is demanding major concessions on the employees\u2019 defined benefit pension.<\/p>\n

Currently, the DB plan is fully funded by Co-op, but the company wants employees to begin paying 11 per cent of total contributions. It also wants to reduce the benefit multiplier from two to 1.75 per cent and cut the indexing maximum for retirees from five to three per cent.<\/p>\n

Read: Eacom Timber workers reach agreement with pension, benefits improvements<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott Doherty, Unifor\u2019s executive assistant to the national president and the union\u2019s lead negotiator, says the concessions are in contrast to the company\u2019s promise during the last contract negotiation two years ago. At the time, both parties agreed all new employees would join a new  defined contribution plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we did that, [Co-op] said that they were never going to come after our defined benefit pension plan. This round of bargaining, that\u2019s what they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doherty estimates between 600 and 650 union members are still in the DB plan, with the remainder in the new DC plan, which has a contribution rate of four per cent for both employee and employer.<\/p>\n

Read: VIA Rail, Unifor collective bargaining includes strengthening pension plan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

During the current round of negotiations, the union suggested that DB plan members be allowed to move into the DC plan, says Doherty, noting the option wasn\u2019t available under the existing collective agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe employer\u2019s position from the get-go was to eliminate the DB plan entirely . . . and that\u2019s where they wanted to go, but we weren\u2019t prepared to go there,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we were prepared to say, on a one-time basis, it does make some sense that some of our younger members may choose to go to a DC plan and take care of their own retirement fund if they chose to do that. But we were always saying we needed the protection, and the choice had to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doherty says Co-op agreed to the one-time ask, but also came back with proposed changes to the DB plan. \u201cIt was almost like they said, \u2018We get it. Some people want to stay in a DB plan. We\u2019ll allow them to choose to stay. . . . But if they choose to stay, here\u2019s the conditions going forward,\u2019 which is essentially gutting the DB plan. So that\u2019s not really a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: University of Saskatchewan support workers closer to strike over DB pension changes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Co-op implemented the lockout, it said in a statement that the purpose was to \u201censure the safety and reliability\u201d of the refinery so it could remain operational and \u201cprotect the Western Canadian fuel supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate statement on Dec. 15, the company said Unifor\u2019s call for a boycott \u201ccomes as no surprise, but it is disappointing.\u201d The company also disputed the union\u2019s claims as misleading and said it had offered a fair deal, including an 11.75 per cent wage increase, a performance bonus plan and \u201cpension choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CRC is only asking that employees now begin to pay into their pension like almost every other Canadian with a company-provided pension plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Border officers\u2019 union calls for 25-and-out pension<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kelsey Rolfe | December 18, 2019 Eight hundred unionized employees of Regina-based Co-op Refinery remain locked out after contract negotiations stalled. The refinery, which is part of Federated Co-operatives Ltd., locked out members of Unifor Local 594...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}