Local union workers are speaking out against the Lima Refinery's decision to seek out-of-state contractors for their turnaround this fall.
For about six weeks this fall, the refinery will be bringing in workers for inspections, cleaning, and replacing equipment. Lima Building & Construction Trades Council president Rick Purdue says that having out-of-state contractors coming in puts local workers at risk of missing out.
"A lot of our members right now or out of work or having to travel for work, so that would be a big portion of the hours that they would be able to spend in the community," said Purdue. "They are going to have to leave the state to go to work, or go somewhere else to work right now, because of Cenovus' decision.
Purdue also hopes that local workers may still have a spot to work at the refinery: "For them to bring in 3000 people - I’m waiting to see if that really happens," said Purdue. "Hopefully we can get some of our people in if they can’t fill the whole call, and we can get some people out there to work."
Your Hometown Stations received a statement from the refinery's parent company back in March that reads:
We have started planning for a turnaround in the fall of 2021, which is critical for safe and reliable operations and will include inspections, cleaning and replacing equipment. Much of this work requires specialized contractors and we conducted a thorough selection process, which included unionized contractors. This temporary work is specialized and most of the qualified workers are based outside the local area. This has been true for our turnarounds whether workers are represented by building trade unions or not.
Contractors are selected based on a number of criteria, including safety, technical expertise and related experience. We hired contractors for this work who best met our criteria.
I would add that our permanent refinery workforces at Lima and Superior are unionized, as is our embedded maintenance contractor at Lima. Our Superior Refinery rebuild project in Wisconsin as well as the West White Rose offshore project in Atlantic Canada are predominately using building trade union contractors. We are also currently hiring a new process operator class at Lima, which will be local residents and permanent employees, represented by a union.
Cenovus and the Lima Refinery are invested in a long-term relationship with the community. Our employees and contractors are key to our safe and reliable operations.
