CEP: 'Kicking Gas At Petro-Canada'

Urged on by Canada's energy workers, global unions are queuing up to "Give Petro-Canada A Kick In The Gas."

The well-placed boot in question may help to settle a protracted labour dispute in Ontario.

This March, Petro-Canada signed a national collective bargaining agreement with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) [Syndicat canadien des communications, de l'énergie et du papier (SCEP)]. But unresolved local issues forced Petro-Canada workers at refineries in Edmonton, Alberta and Oakville, Ontario, a lubrication facility in Mississauga, Ontario, and at terminals in Oakville, Ontario and Port Moody, British Columbia, to launch a strike in early April.

The Edmonton and Port Moody facilities have since reached agreements and returned to work. Approximately 470 workers remain on strike. To date, the company has maintained its position of job cuts, wage freezes and increased hours of work for those CEP members, and has refused to apply at the Ontario sites the same conditions that settled the disputes elsewhere.

Among those pressing Petro-Canada to resolve the Ontario dispute are the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the CEP is affiliated at the global level, and the Algerian oil and gas union FNTGPC. Algeria is strategically important to the company. Outside Canada, its extraction activities are concentrated in Algeria and neighbouring Tunisia.

The CEP is now seeking an all-out labour boycott of Petro-Canada. As well as extracting oil and gas, Petro-Canada styles itself "Canada's Gas Station". It is the country's second-biggest retailer of petroleum products, with filling stations across Canada. So a major aim of the "Kick In the Gas" campaign is to hit Petro-Canada's retail trade, and petrol stations in various parts of the country have been picketed.

CEP President Brian Payne says the company's behaviour, including its use of motorcycle gangs to intimidate the strikers, is "outrageous."

"We will bring the full weight of the labour movement down on Petro-Canada," Payne insists. "Petro-Canada agreed to ... a settlement that is now in effect for about 10,000 workers across the country - and now it is refusing to apply it to this one Local."

The company is also using guerrilla tactics to try to intimidate the workers, Payne reports. "Scabs [strikebreakers] are being escorted across the picket line by an infamous motorcycle gang and members are saying they have been issued death threats."

PICKETING PETRO-CAN
The company's behaviour is "outrageous," says the Canadian energy workers' Brian Payne. (photo: CEP)

"Corporate greed is one thing," says Payne, noting that Petro-Canada made 897 million Canadian dollars in profits last year and record first-quarter profits again this year. "But this type of petty and mean-spirited discrimination brings a whole different perspective to Petro-Canada's corporate identity. And we plan to make sure consumers are aware of it."

Awareness of the dispute is also growing outside Canada.
The 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) is in "total solidarity" with the CEP campaign, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs wrote to Petro-Canada's President and CEO Ronald Brenneman.

"I cannot understand how Petro-Canada can reach a national agreement with the union and then refuse to apply that agreement to the Ontario operations," Higgs added. "Reports of company intimidation of strikers are deeply disturbing and are in contravention of Conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labour Organisation."

photo: CEP

Higgs urged Brenneman to "return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith with the CEP a fair and just agreement that will bring an end to the strike in Ontario."

Brenneman has now also received a protest from Mohammed Bedreddine, General Secretary of Algeria's National Federation of Oil, Gas and Chemical Workers (FNTPGC).

Bedreddine, who had been contacted by the ICEM over the Canadian dispute, told Brenneman of his union's support for the Canadian strikers and its outrage over "discriminatory practices directed against workers at the same company."

Urging a "rapid and equitable resolution" of the dispute, Bedreddine made it clear that Petro-Canada's dealings with the CEP would have an impact on the FNTPGC's approach to company operations in Algeria. "This is our union method, as you will find out in the future . . . in the oilfields of Tamadanet in Algeria that Petro-Canada plans to develop," Bedreddine wrote to Brenneman.

Praising the support from the Algerians and the ICEM, the CEP's Brian Payne said: "A globalised oil and gas industry requires a globalised labour movement, and we hope Petro-Canada will realise there are consequences, even beyond Canada's borders, for its anti-union actions in Ontario."