Local 594 and the Lost History of Oil Worker Unionism
For months
the CRC had prepared for this moment by establishing a scab camp on property
adjacent to the plant in Regina’s north end. A helipad was also set up to help
the company bypass picket lines it knew would disrupt the entry of supplies,
workers, and fuel trucks needed to carry product to market. And so began what
will likely be remembered as an historic labour dispute between North America’s
only co-operatively owned oil refinery and a union that, for decades, helped to
shape the face of refinery unionism in Canada.
the CRC had prepared for this moment by establishing a scab camp on property
adjacent to the plant in Regina’s north end. A helipad was also set up to help
the company bypass picket lines it knew would disrupt the entry of supplies,
workers, and fuel trucks needed to carry product to market. And so began what
will likely be remembered as an historic labour dispute between North America’s
only co-operatively owned oil refinery and a union that, for decades, helped to
shape the face of refinery unionism in Canada.
Despite the CRC’s casting of Local 594 as a Toronto-based union in an
effort to undermine the union’s credibility in Saskatchewan, 594’s
origins are unquestionably local and rooted in the rich history of the
province’s co-operative and labour movements.