Jerry Dias, head of the Unifor National Union, after being taken into custody yesterday (Mon), appeared in front of a Co-op cardlock at Turvey Road and Fleet Street, to say that they are ramping up the boycott of Federated Co-operative including gas stations and stores.

Dias says they are encouraging the community of Regina and province of Saskatchewan to join with the workers to win a collective agreement.

He says they are dealing with a company that makes three million dollars a day and three years ago told the union that if they agreed to change the pension for new hires then the existing pension would be safe but he says now FCL wants to change the rules and will, in essence, gut the pension plan.

Dias also says he has not seen a police department behave they way they did on the picket line last night (Mon) and that it is a situation where the Mayor has to get involved because police can’t be acting as thugs.

Dias also stresses that they are not backing down and arresting him won’t weaken the solidarity of the members on the picket line.

Regina City Police say 14 union members were arrested for mischief Monday night.