Good day Brothers and Sisters
Local 110 has received another list of “Competitiveness Measures” from the joint Building Trades of Alberta and Construction Labour Relations Alberta BTA/CLRA problem solving committee.
Again this is a long list of roll backs in wages and working conditions. As I have previously I have informed the other Business Managers and the Executive Director of the Building Trades that Local 110 will not be rolling back our wages or our working conditions. The demands for roll backs in the form of one sided Project Labour Agreements (PLAs) are showing up daily.
I am proud to tell the membership and our industry that Local 110 have not agreed to any wage roll backs. However I am sad to report that a number of other trades in the Building Trades have not taken the same stand. Currently some of the larger trades started with a ten percent rollback of the total package. These cuts were hidden as much as possible by cutting into pension, benefits and trust fund contributions. Now some of the trades are looking at taking an additional four dollars per hour off of the base rate. This would bring the cuts to most trades between nine and ten dollars per hour. In my opinion this is a great devalue of the skilled trade industry.
A number of months ago the GPMC/NMC made some significant cuts to the compensation package for members of all trades working in the maintenance sector. Shortly thereafter a few of our contractors came to our Local requesting additional cuts to our maintenance package to bid for work with one client. Our Local made the choice to not accept these enabling requests. As we knew it would the contract was awarded to one of our contractors non-union arms. The base rate for insulators on this project is thirty three dollars per hour for ticketed journeyman. This contractor has not been able to fill this project due to the low rate and Local 110 has been and continues to be successful pulling people off of this project to help man union projects. Recently this client has contacted me regarding the issues of manning the work on the site. I have now been asked to meet with the client procurement team regarding next steps.
With the continuing attack on trades people in Alberta and the limited number of projects that are on the books for the next four to five years the future is uncertain, but with focus on moving forward and manning projects our Local will be stronger when the economy up swings again.
I will present the full list of “Competitiveness Measures” as it has been provided at our General Membership meeting November 4, 2017.
In solidarity
Kevin Lecht