February 2012

Tuesday, February 28th / 2012

Last evening we had another conference call with Building Trades Union Members across Canada and legal counsel regarding Bill 377.As you may remember Bill 377 is a Bill going for its second reading in the house that is being pushed by the non union sector to force all unions to open their books for them to scrutinize. This will force us to increase our staff and budget to accommodate such a request and let the non union sector see where we are putting our funds and then let them undercut us as usual. We have a web portal that everyone should log on and send an email to your MLA it is www.workersbuildcanada.ca , have your friends and family send off emails to. This is being pushed by the non union sector and we need to start pushing back.


Wednesday, February 15th / 2012

Due to the Canadian Conference and the International Quinquennial Conference being booked for July 13th to the 18th we will need to move the Union Golf Tournament date from Saturday July 14th to Sunday July 29th, I hope we will have a huge turn out with Members and friends and family who perhaps haven’t participated before. Remember it’s not only for golfers but for all members to show support and get together for some fun and solidarity.

We will also have to change the date of the Union Meeting scheduled for June 9th due to new International officer training down in the United States. We will move it to June 16th as per the motion at the last meeting and send out another reminder when we get closer.

Also at the meeting this past week the membership voted to put a portion or all the 81 cent raise due in May into the pension depending on the recommendation of our Pension consultant, as we all know the Market did not do as well as predicted so we need to make sure it is fiscally sound.

The membership also voted to let me enable a Light Industrial package that was brought to the floor by our Marketing Director Bill Spring, for more information on this you can contact Bill Spring.


Tuesday, February 14th / 2012

Happy Valentines;

I am passing along some information I have received about Bill 377 it is interesting and should get
All of our members contacting their Conservative MP‘s by email or letter to voice their opinions’.
This is your union dues that you receive back as a tax deduction at the end of the year that they
are waving in front of the public sector as a union subsidy.
I would be concerned if they don’t get the unions to open their books that they will be going after
that deduction to end, but that’s just my opinion.
 

Tuesday, February 7th / 2012

Sorry it won’t open the link once transferred but check into bill 377

Here’s a link to Bill 377 that the conservative government is trying to pass to have all Unions disclose all information to the public. A very transparent ploy to keep on weakening the Unions until they eliminate them altogether, in my opinion.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=41&Ses=1&DocId=5360179#OOB-6511868

 

Monday, February 6th / 2012

Here is the list of Transfers and Permits applying for Membership Feb.11/2012

 David   Mark Van Grimberghe – JM. Transfer from Local 95 has worked 4446 hrs for Local 110 with no missed time, 23,000 hrs in trade.  Tentatively, Accepted.
 John Navasca – JM. Transfer from Local 95 has worked 916 hrs for Local 110 with no missed time.  Was rejected Sept.10/2011 not enough hours, Tentatively, Accepted.
 Michael Berry – JM. Transfer from Local 95 has worked 1123 hrs for Local 110 with no missed time. His brother Chris Berry is a Member of Local 110.  Tentatively, Accepted.
 Ryan Murray Edwards – JM. Transfer from Local 95 has worked 3642 hrs for Local 110 with no missed time, 8152 hrs in trade. Son In-law of Member Janice Sampson.
Tentatively, Accepted.
 David Laffra – 1st Year Permit, worked 1212 hrs for Local 110 with no missed time. Tentatively Accepted.
 Stephen House – 1st Year Permit, worked 1823 hrs for Local 110 with no missed time. Tentatively Accepted.
 Gordon Griggs – 1st Year Permit, worked 5898 hrs for Local 110 with no missed time. Attended school Dec. /2011. Tentatively Accepted.
 Maxime Marchand – 1st Year Permit, worked 1707 hrs for Local 110 with no missed time. Was previously accepted came to the hall with his father paid dues and due to miscommunication missed paying $15.00 application fee and had to reapply. Tentatively Accepted.
 Daniel Butler – 1st Year Permit, worked 133 hrs for Local 110 in 2011 but has 4828 from 2006 with no missed time. I would like to see more hours in 2012 with no time missed. Tentatively rejected.
  Brandon Bregman – 1st Year Permit, worked 866 hrs for Local 110 with no missed. Tentatively Accepted.

All are tentative and will be decided by the membership

 

Thursday, February 2nd/2012

This morning Kevin Lecht and I went to Jacob’s Fab Shop here in Edmonton to take the Jacob’s Employee Safety Inventory (ESI). It is a metering test that will be implemented on their sites. It is a 99 question survey that is design to gauge the applicants risk and safety and Stress cultures and predicts your Safety Behavior on and off the job. It will be split up into three categories, Low Risk, Medium Risk and High Risk. The low and Medium would go to work while the High Risk person would need to do on the job Training to help the individual with high risk behaviors that Jacobs would like to eliminate from their work sites. These test results would not be made available to the Supervision and would only be known by the Safety department. No individual would be terminated on the basis of the survey results we were told.
Kevin and I both completed the test in less than 15 minutes each, it was very straight forward with questions that ask what you would do in certain circumstances on and off the job.
After completing the survey, you will receive a printout that the Safety Department will review with you and depending on your score you might have to do a little upgrading.
Remember this is Jacob’s pilot project and if it does as promised and reduces accidents so everyone can go home safely and enjoy their life and families we will all be better off.
As this system is implemented and we receive feedback from our members I will update this page.