A tentative agreement was announced Thursday in the bitter
six-and-a-half month lockout of 750 Saskatchewan oil refinery workers at
the Federated Cooperatives Limited (FCL)-owned Regina complex. The
miserable, concessions-laden proposal has been recommended for
acceptance by Unifor, the union that organizes most refinery workers in
Canada.

Although the fine details of the agreement will not be
made public until workers vote on the contract on Monday, it is clear
that the agreement approved by Unifor is a sellout that will meet all of
management’s sweeping concession demands.

For many weeks, Unifor
has made no secret of the fact that it has capitulated to every one of
the cuts to pensions, jobs and work rules ruthlessly demanded by the
company. Local union President Kevin Bittman told reporters as much
earlier this month, saying, “Right now we’ve actually offered the
company everything that they’ve asked for, and the only thing that we
request is that they don’t fire 100 people. What we had going into this
bargaining is pretty much toast.”