Striking workers were picketing Wednesday in front of the Enbridge Gas Dawn Hub, one of the company’s largest integrated natural gas storage facilities, for the first time since 1974.
“It’s a once-in-a-generation thing, I would hope,” said Stacey Renaud, the unit chair with Unifor Local 999, which represents more than 100 workers at the storage, transmission and operations at Enbridge Gas facilities in Ontario. “We did not want to do this.”
While the union recently stated it wouldn’t let inflation eat into its members’ wages, there is a bigger issue at play, the Unifor member said.
“We’ve had a problem out here for years with morale,” Renaud said.
He said the workers have been butting heads with managers for several years but stressed this conflict wasn’t an Enbridge-created issue.
A lot of the managers at the site, he said, are carryovers from its former owners, Union Gas.
“We do have great front-line supervisors,” he added.
During previous contract negotiations, several issues were raised with management, Renaud said, including a lack of reliable supervision.
“We have an extremely high rate of turnover in our master control room, especially among our supervisors,” Renaud said.
He said it takes a new employee about four years to become fully qualified in the master control room. Of the nine people currently working in that job, five are brand new, Renaud added.
Renaud also suggested that company management had ignored suggestions from staff on how to improve morale.
“So I guess the one way left, at the moment, since no one is listening is money,” Renaud said. “I hate to say it, but there is a bit of a bullying attitude with the local management out here.”
With respect to the other contracts ratified by unionized Enbridge employees, Renaud said the Dawn Hub “is a completely different animal.”
He said there are far more skilled trades there, including millwrights, boilermakers, pipefitters and compressor operators.
Andrea Stass, Enbridge’s manager of external communications and media relations, said the wages and benefits offered by the company reflected the “highly skilled” workers at the company’s storage and transmission operations.
“This, as is the case for any role at Enbridge, is recognized in their base pay, pension and benefit programs, which are agreed upon at the time of hire and take into account required skills, education, and job duties,” she said .
Contract negotiations involve items such as annual increases to base pay to account for cost of living, which impact employees in much the same way regardless of role
“It is for this reason that we believe it is important that our proposal is consistent with other agreements recently ratified by Enbridge Gas members of Unifor, and reflects our core value of respect for individuals,” she added
“Enbridge has been recognized as a top employer and has very low employee turnover, less than two per cent.”