Scaffolding company claims harassment after ‘meet the scabs’ video

A scaffolding company which has continued to send workers to the Co-op refinery through the lockout says its employees are being harassed and victimized.

Brock Canada Inc.’s president, Joe Brickner, is claiming that some of its workers were featured in a video put up by Unifor last week claiming to show the full names of “scabs” or replacement workers along with videos of people walking into the refinery and photos which appear to be taken from social media.

In a media release, Brickner said its employees have been getting threats from picketers who tell the employees to “watch out” and say they know where the Brock employees live. He also said that a worker’s spouse is so scared they’ve moved out of their own home.

“We will not tolerate the behaviour of Unifor and will take the appropriate actions to protect our employees from the physical threats that are now being made against them due to the release of their names and personal information. We demand Unifor cease and desist from further actions on all Brock employees,” Brickner said in the release.

The company said some of the employees are expected to file police complaints, and the company will be supporting them.

Brock Canada called the actions of Unifor “unlawful and disgusting,” and said if it doesn’t stop, then the company will take further legal steps.

The company said it has been providing scaffolding and other services at the refinery for more than 25 years, and its tradespeople are part of the Carpenters’ Union local 1985.

Scott Doherty, the executive assistant to Unifor’s national president, admitted on Gormley that some of the people on the video are Brock employees.

Asked why the union considers them replacement workers, Doherty replied: “Because they’re doing the work that we would be doing in the refinery and have been and that makes them scabs. They’re doing work that our members would be doing if we weren’t locked out.”

Doherty said the Brock employees were identified on the video because they were doing work done by locked-out employees.

“They shouldn’t be doing our work,” he said. “It’s about putting pressure on people. We don’t want anything to happen to them. We want this dispute to end; that’s what we want.”