IUOE News February 2015

District Four
Northern ingenuity
will help us survive
coal downturn
Herb Conat and Wayne Kemp,
Business Representatives
Conat
Kemp
Major projects are being projected for the Northwest region of
the province and are extremely close to proceeding. Fairview
Terminal, LNG both in Prince Rupert and the Kitsault Mine,
are some of the projects that are waiting for the start date.
Business Manager Brian Cochrane has been in the forefront
of securing this work and multiple other projects for the
membership: Project Labour Agreements, Craft Certifications,
Site C, LNG, Mining projects, and protecting our rights
against Provincial or Federal Governments,
Labour Boards, Temporary
Foreign Workers, and the new Buzz
word “Open Managed Site”.
These past several years Brian has
been leading the organization, preparing
the membership for upcoming
projects, securing employment and protecting the rights of
the membership of tomorrow.
With spring just around the corner, the new Municipal
regime has kept their promise and the streets of Prince George
seem to, in most parts of the city, have had timely snow clearing
done. That said, our paving contractors have been under
attack by non-union and rat-union companies going after the
City’s paving contract.
Prince George needs to adopt fair wage and procurement
policies like the City of Burnaby has. These policies level the
Prince George needs to
adopt fair wage and
procurement policies like
the City of Burnaby has.
playing field for the Industry, and help secure local companies
with the expertise to bid on contracts and be successful.
In return we all benefit from members working and the
citizens of Prince George knowing the paving will be done
correctly and on budget.
The Coal Industry in the North has come to a screeching
halt and therefore some of the signatory equipment shops
have had to adapt again.
However, being from the North and living
in the North we are never surprised by the
ingenuity of our membership and signatory
companies in shifting gears and adopting
back into the Forest Industry and lessening
the layoffs to a bare minimum or in most
cases not at all. Truck shops in the District
have been steady and are actively seeking Journeyman
mechanics to hire.
The number of Collective Agreements up for renewal is
less than last year. The leitmotif for bargaining last year was
retention, but with the slowdown in the Industry it may reconcile
that initiative with an increase to the labour pool.
In closing, we would like to thank the Shop Stewards and
safety committee members who assist the members, and the
Business Representatives who make the workplace more
respectable. Work Safe!
Fifty IUOE Local 115 Brothers and Sisters
were in attendance at the BC Federation of
Labour Convention on November 27th, 2014
to cast our vote for the new BC Federation
of Labour President. Longtime President
Brother Jim Sinclair stepped down to retire
after serving for 15 years. The margins
were close in the vote which saw Irene
Lanzinger win by only 57 votes (2,249 votes
casted) over her incumbent. IUOE Local 115
endorsed Irene Lanzinger.
Thank you to those members who came
out to vote as the outcome would have
been extremely different if they were not
there.
18 News March 2015