Unifor Local 594 has rejected Federated Co-op’s final offer.

The result of the vote was announced Wednesday afternoon. 89% of members voted against the deal.

Bittman says it was not a deal members felt comfortable accepting.

“They doubled the concessions from the special mediator’s (report) and put a lot of jeopardy with the return to work (plan),” Bittman said. “We knew that the members were going to vote to reject that. It wasn’t a deal that was fair for our members.”

Local 594 president Kevin Bittman says the next logical step would be for Premier Scott Moe to intervene and implement the mediators’ recommendations that were announced back in March. Unifor membership voted 98% in favour of the recommendations.

Bittman said members would like to return to work and support local economy.

“With the COVID crisis going on, the economy is going to need every bit of stimulation, and 730 people spending $50 million a year into the economy is exactly what Saskatchewan needs right now.”

Bittman said there’s no feeling that jobs will be lost due to the lockout among the membership.

“In the history of lockouts and strikes, there’s always and end to it, so it’s just a matter of finding the deal, and the problem right now is the company never wanted to find that deal,” Bittman said. “Typically in collective bargaining, you need two sides to bargain collectively to try and get to that agreement, and right now, we’re bargaining with ourselves, which is never a good scenario.”

Meanwhile, Federated Co-op says business will resume as it has for the last five months with replacement workers in place. FCL says the workers have been able to keep orders filled and there will be fuel for farmers during the 2020 season.

The lock-out began back on December 5th.