REGINA -- Two months of job action could be moving towards the finish line.
Unifor and Federated Co-operatives Limited are heading back to the bargaining table on Friday morning.
"We're hopeful and I'm optimistic that we're going to get a deal done over the next couple of days,” said Scott Doherty, Executive Assistant to the National President, Unifor Canada. “Co-op has come to the table and we're going to take that as a good sign, but obviously this has been a long dispute and this has been a bitter dispute.”
At the start of the week, the two sides seemed far apart with Unifor digging in along the picket line and Co-op adamant it wouldn't bargain until the blockade ended.
On Thursday, Unifor agreed to take down the fences and move the vehicles blocking the entrances and exits at the refinery.
"The gates will be open so the vehicles can go in and out and we'll be respecting the order and dealing with it with just picketers,” Doherty said.
According to the Refinery, the "meeting is being held based on the mutual understanding that Unifor will follow Justice McMurty's final court injunction order, allowing all vehicles entry and exit from the CRC."
While the Unifor and co-op are working towards a new collective agreement, the union held a rally on the steps of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building on Thursday to call on Premier Scott Moe to step in and appoint an arbitrator to make sure a deal is reached.
Something NDP MLA Trent Wotherspoon agrees with, "Certainly there are concerns with respect to public safety, there's hurt to our economy, we've called on the Premier to act with a special mediator to bring the sides together and get a deal done at the table," he said.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Premier says they haven't received a formal proposal from Unifor for binding arbitration and believe both sides need to reach a settlement at the bargaining table.
Bargaining is expected to resume on Friday morning at 9 a.m. it will be the first negotiations between Unifor and Co-op since September.
