IUOE News Spring 2014

Safety
Project Labour
Agreements are key
for success
Wayne E. Mills,
President
I hope everyone came through the winter safely.
I will ask a question: who is responsible for your safety?
The cliché answer is: “you.”
Your employer is responsible for establishing safe work
practices and providing training to meet those standards, but
in the end, you are the best judge of your own safety both at
work and at home. You are responsible
for using the safe work
practices presented to you by your
employer.
If a task seems unsafe, speak up.
Often a simple change can make
your work safer, for you and everyone else on the job. We all
share the responsibility to create safety awareness and action
both on the job and at home.
Reality
“What is the work picture going to be in 2014?” is the question
I am currently being asked by members.
When we look at the Union work up in the North West area
(the Kitimat Modernization Project, or KMP), we see that the
earth works are winding down while the structural portion is
running flat-out. Cranes are the main call for Operating Engineers,
and with the project’s schedule planning to deliver “Hot
Metal” by early winter, that job will be all but wound up during
the course of 2014.
That KMP job is one of the best Canada has seen, mainly
for being a “full meal deal.” The reason behind this is simply
because the customer was committed to having it completed
using Building Trades workers only.
In the Fraser Valley, Surrey’s South Fraser Perimeter Road
is now open, and the Port Mann Highway 1 portion, which
provided a good deal of steady work for our contractors, is
almost complete.
The John Hart Dam on the Island is still in the negotiation
stages to try to ensure all work is done under a Building Trades
Project Labour Agreement (PLA); keep your fingers crossed
on that one!
PLA’s and LNG work in the North
The KBR Kitimat LNG Project Labour Agreement was
With the project’s schedule
planning to deliver “Hot Metal” by
early winter, that job will be all but
wound up during 2014
prepared specifically for this project, and is different to our
standard agreement; and yet the rats still came in, continuing
to eat up our jobs on the site prep on this big project, much as
they have been doing for years.
We started negotiating that PLA in April of 2011 and the
trades signed off on it in September of the same year. But this
PLA did not specifically include the site prep; that portion
went to a contractor of an “alternative” union, and the main
construction has not started yet. It is a long process for a PLA
to come to realization.
Over the past several months, the Building Trades Coalition
has been working on a number of PLA’s for LNG plants in
Prince Rupert. If our signatory contractors are successful,
their first project would start the end of 2015 and the second
one in the summer of 2017.
These dates are a long way off, and we do not know if they
will be done union or not at this point.
Between four and five thousand direct
hire construction jobs are called for on
each of these major projects, so we are
all trying our best to work with all
parties involved to corral this work
under PLA’s. Meanwhile, there have been preliminary talks
with the owners of LNG plants in Kitimat, and they seem to
be waiting to see what happens with the PLA’s in Prince Rupert
before making any moves.
With the work scheduled for the North in the next decade,
it will be an exciting time—but only if we can secure it for our
unionized contractors!
Dispatch System
President’s Message
Over the past several months the Local has been working
with our UnionWare software vendors to upgrade our dispatch
system, and that is about to come to fruition.
The District 1 Dispatcher, Brother Jim Flynn, Member
Representative Everett Cummings, and myself have been
working with the software developers and we should have the
new system “up and live” during the first part of April.
There will be a few weeks during which we will run both
systems together for testing and to iron out any bugs. Now
would be a good time for those of you that are booked in to
call and make sure all of your information (address, phone
numbers, e-mails and other contact points) is up to date, as
well as do your 30 day check-in, as per the dispatch rules.
In signing off, I would like to say a special thank you to the
Shop Stewards up at the Kitimat Modernization Project for
the hard work they continue to do, as some of the contractors
are a bit of a handful to say the least.
Take care everyone. Have a good spring, and may the frost
get out of the ground quickly so that everyone can get back to
work soon.
News March 2014 3