There was another meeting Thursday night concerning the out-of-state hires for the turnaround at Cenovus, and union workers are still feeling unheard.
LiUNA Local 329 and other building trade unions held a town hall meeting and passed the invitation to management at Cenovus as well. Four empty seats lined the front of the room at the meeting where they would have sat.
The union workers have been trying to have an open dialogue with the people who decided to hire out-of-state workers for their maintenance turnaround this fall, but they say that the management at the refinery have refused to engage with the workers that their decision will be impacting the most.
Although the union workers know that the refinery’s decision is final, they are going to continue to put pressure on the company.
Tim LuceWireman, the business manager for Laborers Local 329 says, “The next part of this is what about the next shutdown, the next turnaround. Will they again bring in workers from other states to replace Ohio workers, and will that economic impact be felt by the whole Lima community and Allen County and all the state of Ohio?”
The group of building trade unions will be meeting again in the next couple of weeks and have started a campaign called “Ohio Jobs for Ohio Workers”. You can find the full meeting on their Facebook.
