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Last night we discussed the @Unifor594 @CoopRefinery lockout with family friends & they asked a question we’ve heard a lot: why isn’t the truth about all this more known to the public? Short answer: it’s complicated. But let me try...
First, Co-op has billions of dollars profit to work with & they’ve made clear they will spend as much as needed to bust this union. Billboards, radio ads, social media, an entire PR agency devoted to a smear campaign against the workers. No expense is too great for their mission.
Meanwhile, Unifor has less funds & less resources. Local radio stations won’t play Unifor ads due to the threat of losing Co-op businesses/community investment dollars. Labour laws & court injunctions prohibit them from trying to explain their side to the public as they picket.
Second, Co-op has no fear of dishonest & misleading messaging. Eg: Unifor offered to remove all pension liability from the company & contribute 9% to their DB, but Co-op rejected the offer & the billboards still claim Unifor is unwilling to contribute, which has never been true.
Another example: Co-op’s 2nd “best and final offer” listed several of what they called “enhancements” to the Ready report that were just additional concessions. Co-op’s taking advantage of the fact that this is a hard topic & the average person won’t take time to dig into it.
Which brings me to my last point: bargaining involves a lot of painstaking details & at the heart of this dispute is a DB pension that’s really difficult to explain in a way that is short & sweet & easy to digest. Some people w/ DB pensions don’t even understand their DB pension.
If you read the independent articles such as those written by @rankandfileca, or compared info on Unifor’s website to what’s being simplified in the mainstream media or lied about on Co-op’s website, you may have more questions. You may suspect there is more to this story.
The Ready report was also a great doc that completely called out Co-op’s bullshit, but the articles that dissected it in good detail were long & those that just attached the report itself lost the message by hoping people would read the full doc on their own. (Note: you should).
The fact is most people aren’t taking time to investigate this topic. We’re all guilty of just reading the headline or letting our biases influence what we read and believe. I legitimately question whether @PremierScottMoe and @SaskMLA even understand the details of this dispute.
But this is the truth: the odds are grossly stacked against these workers & it impacts their entire lives. They wanted to keep what they had, & now they’re willing to meet in the middle, but Co-op won’t stop. Pay attention. If this corporation succeeds, who will be next?
