Regina police say drivers stuck inside Co-op’s loading terminal at the refinery have been released.
Justin Wright, along with co-workers, had been locked inside the gates since early Thursday morning.
“I’m part of a couple of text groups and I received a text just before three o’clock in the morning that the gates were open. I rushed down here personally, called a couple of my drivers to come down and grab some of our trucks and try to get some fuel,” Wright said.
“We weren’t dispatched by anybody; we just knew we needed to get some fuel in our trucks and get it out to our customers.”
To say Wright was frustrated would be an understatement.
“I’m just a contractor. I really don’t have a fight in this… I don’t get to go to the table, I don’t get to have a vote, I just want to try to do my job,” Wright said.
The sooner Unifor and Co-op gets the back to the table, the better says Wright.
“It’s my understanding, and respectively so, Co-op does not want to go back to the table until the illegalities of Unifor stop. I wouldn’t want to bargain with a bully,” Wright said.
Regina police were removing vehicles from the site overnight, however, they say their officers did not open any gates. It remains unclear as to how the gates were opened.
“We’ve had this happen earlier in the dispute where trucks were behind a fence, behind a barricade and had a conversation and they were left to go,” said Scott Doherty, executive assistant to Unifor’s national president.
“I don’t think there is any validity to this to feeling, although I’m sure they are playing it out and that somehow they were forcibly confined.”
Wright said he asked Unifor picketers to let them go without any luck until police stepped in.
“I asked them personally at the gate if I can leave and they’ve all just kind of laughed or snickered,” Wright said.
“Nobody has really said a word; they just look at you and walk away.”
A division of Unifor represents some Global news employees.