CANADIAN LABOUR-MONTRÉAL:

BOYCOTT PETRO-CAN:

Since November 17, 2007 the members of SCEP Local 175 have been locked out of their workplace at the Petro-Can Montréal refinery. Labour organizations across the country are calling for a consumer boycott against Petro-Can and in support of the workers. First of all the notice from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).

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CLC BACKS PETRO-CANADA BOYCOTT:

2008-10-28 10:25
Please be advised that the Canadian Labour Congress has endorsed a National Consumer Boycott against Petro-Canada. The boycott is at the request of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) and is in support of the 260 locked out members of CEP Local 175 at the Petro-Canada Montreal refinery. Members of Local 175 have been locked out since November 17, 2007.

Please find a copy of the letter in support of CEP from the Canadian Labour Congress and the speech that President, CLC, Ken Georgetti delivered on October 28, 2008.

The support of your organization and membership is requested for these CEP members.

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And then a press release from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

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CUPE backs Petro Canada boycott id="SPELLING_ERROR_21" title="Avoid buying gas and heating oil from Petro Canada where alternatives exist while the company’s Montréal refinery workers are locked out" href="http://cupe.ca/updir/images/display/petro_canada_ottawa_080229_e-0.jpg" rel="lightboxset" alt="Avoid buying gas and heating oil from Petro Canada where alternatives exist while the company’s Montréal refinery workers are locked out">
CUPE announced support today for the CLC's call for a boycott of Petro Canada to support workers (CEP 175) locked out of the company's Montréal refinery since Nov. 2007.

The CLC is asking union supporters to:
****cancel their Petro Canada credit cards
****avoid buying gas and heating oil from Petro Canada where alternatives exist

Please also take five minutes to Email Petro Canada President Ron Brenneman to urge him to end the lockout. Edit the letter to tell him you're not buying gas at Petro Canada until he does.

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Please go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to PetroCan management.

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THE LETTER:

The actions of management at the Petro-Canada refinery in Montreal have dealt a devastating blow to your company's good name.

Just before Christmas, management at that plant locked out its 260 unionized workers, members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. They did this after trying -- in more than 30 bargaining sessions -- to provoke them into a strike.

It's bad enough that a company making billions of dollars in profits is picking a fight with a small group of workers who are asking for the same wage increase as their colleagues in other provinces. What's worse perhaps is that this lock out puts safety at the refinery and in the surrounding community in serious jeopardy as poorly-trained management workers attempt to carry on the business of the plant. (Indeed, management showed its disregard for safety early on in negotiations by calling for the elimination of the refinery's full-time health and safety position - one of the union's sticking points!)

As you know, operating an oil refinery requires highly specialized skills and dedicated safety training. Running it on a skeleton staff, inadequately trained and working extremely long hours without breaks, is a recipe for disaster. An inquiry into the explosion at the BP refinery in Texas in 2005, which killed 15 people, was unequivocal in its conclusion that fatigue and poor training were behind that tragedy.

I hope that you will intervene to end the lock out before matters escalate to that point.

CANADIAN LABOUR:

PETRO-CANADA LOCKS OUT WORKERS, PUTS COMMUNITY AT RISK:

Since last November 17th 260 workers represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union have been locked out by Petro-Canada management at the Pointe aux Trembles refinery in Quebec. This followed more than a year of heated contract negotiations. The refinery is presently being run by a staff of 130 managers and administrators. Since then the Quebec government appointed mediator, Robert Dupuis, has held one meeting between the company and the union. The company had the arrogance to add three more rollbacks to the 20 rollbacks already present in their previous "final offer", and they also withdrew their offer of a retroactive wage increase in the first year of a new contract.

Management is insisting on a six year, rather than three year, contract. The union says that they will accept this providing that they achieve full wage parity with other Petro-Can workers in Ontario and Alberta. The company, for its part, wants to break this "national pattern" and only offer such parity at the back-end of a contract. The company also wants clawbacks on various health and safety issues, training and senority rights, but the main point in contention is the efforts of Petro-Can to break the pattern of national parity at its various facilities across the country.

This issue is so important to the company that they, as the union points out, are willing to compromise the safety of the community in which the refinery is located by running it with managers that are overwhelmingly untrained, and with a bare skeleton staff. The union (see the highlighted link above) has called for a boycott of Petro-Can products on the part of consumers to express their displeasure over the callous disregard for safety that the company has shown. The online labour solidarity site, Labour Start, also has a petition where you can sign up to pressure the company to settle this dispute. Labour Start points out an an inquiry into a 2005 refinery explosion at a BP plant in Texas, whiuch killed 15 people, pointed out that fatigue and poor training (such as now occuring at Pointe aux Trembles) were behind the accident. So sign the petition and boycott Petro-Can !