In mid-June the CEP informed Petro-Canada that its members in Ontario--at the Missassauga and Oakville plants--would return to work under the same contract that the other Petro-Canada locals had already accepted. The company responded with what it called a "framework to end the strike." This "framework" contains contract concessions such as increasing the hours of work, allowing supervisors to operate refinery equipment, and a wage freeze for workers in the Lubeplex section of the Mississauga plant and for all workers at the Oakville terminal.

When the strike first began a Petro-Canada Council bargaining chain was set up by the CEP so that workers employed by the company in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia could bargain for a national contract together. The union bargaining chain, however, broke down within weeks after the walkout began when CEP members at the Alberta and British Columbia plants returned to work without having won pension parity. CEP members in Quebec decided to accept the company offer without going on strike.

Lively discussions are occurring on the picket line here in response to the company's latest concessionary demands with strikers expressing different opinions on what to do next. Mike, an operator with 23 years in the Mississauga plant, told the Militant he was ready to go back to work for the concession contract because "when the other locals went back to work the solidarity was broken and it pulled our hearts out and we were left alone." He added, "Why do we have a government that lets scabs cross our picket lines while we are on strike? There should be laws to protect us especially given that the federal government of Canada owns 18 percent of Petro-Canada shares, which makes it the largest single shareholder."

Ron Ashley commented, "Even if we go back with a concession contract we can hold our heads up high because at least we put up a fight and that's what counts." Another striker, John, disagreed, saying that he would vote against going back to work.

Over the past few months, unionists have organized rallies at the main Petro-Canada terminal in Toronto, handed out leaflets on their strike to commuters at the central railway station in Toronto, hung banners from overpasses on highways in Mississauga, and has called for a boycott of Petro-Canada retail gas stations. According to union officials, over the May 21 national holiday weekend picketing at gas stations resulted in 112 Petro-Canada stations running out of gas completely. Other stations ran out of the cheaper grade regular gas and to keep their customers happy were forced to sell their higher priced premium gas at the lower regular gas prices.

Ashley told the Militant that the union has filed charges with the Ontario Labor Relations Board against Petro-Canada that accuse the company of "bargaining in bad faith and unfair labor practices." On June 30 he was pushed aside by a car crossing the picket line. The company has won an injunction against the union reducing the amount of time scab vehicles can be held up on the line to five minutes.

Tom McEwan, a refinery operator with 24 years service is concerned about safety since the refinery is now being run by scabs at what most strikers think is up to about 50 percent of pre-strike production levels. McEwan said that it took him four years to train as a qualified operator and get his compressor ticket issued by the Ontario government qualifying him to operate high pressure vessels. He explained that a few weeks before the strike began Petro-Canada brought in supervisory staff from its other plants across the country and ordered the workers to train the supervisors on how to operate the equipment. He said, "We trained these salaried personnel for only three weeks and now they are operating complex equipment in the refinery where hydrogen gas is injected into process vessels at 3,500 pounds of pressure at 400 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit!"

According to its web site, Petro-Canada has assets "in excess of $8.4 billion" and "is the largest Canadian-owned oil and gas company" in the country. It owns retail and wholesale gas and propane operations nationwide and its petroleum-based stocks of lubricants, greases, and white oils are sold on "seven continents."

Bev Reynolds, a stationary engineer who has worked at the Mississauga plant for 26 years, said that the refinery produces 40 percent of the world market supply of white oil. Only two other refineries in the world produce this highly purified oil; one in South Korea, the other in Texas. White oil is used in the food and cosmetics industry. Reynolds described the Mississauga refinery as the "flagship of Petro-Canada's operations and the most profitable" because it not only produces white oil from petroleum based stock but through using a hydrogen filtration process can simultaneously produce automotive lubricants and greases from the same base stock.

Tom Moore, a blender at the Mississauga plant and president of the union local, told the Militant that Petro-Canada made $897 million(Can) in profits last year and that first quarter profits for this year were a record $358 million. He said that given these enormous profits, meeting the union's demand for better pensions would have amounted to a "drop in the bucket" for the company.  
 
 
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