Good day Union Family

The Boilermakers Lodge 146 has been in Collective Bargaining for a new shop agreement with Cessco for an extended period of time, and now the company has locked out the employees, all members of Boilermakers Lodge 146.

Currently, I do not know the issues that have led to the Lockout, nor do they matter. A Lockout, the same as a Strike, is a breakdown of the Collective Bargaining process. It results in uncertainty for the workers, the union, the company and clients, and in the end no matter the outcome it will damage relationships. Local 110 strongly advocates for an orderly Collective Bargaining process and to that end we hope for a speedy resolution to this Lockout.

To this end, Local 110 will provide signage to any member that wishes to attend the picket line in solidarity to end this Lockout. Additionally, some of the officers and myself will be attending the picket line, at 7310-99 street, on Thursday July 2, 2020 over our lunch break, to show support for the bargaining process. Hopefully, some of our members will join us, I will bring extra signs.

There are some who feel this is not Local 110’s issue. True, Cessco is not a signatory contractor to Local 110, and they have used nonunion companies for their mechanical insulation needs for almost a decade. Also, Boilermakers Lodge 146 is not affiliated with the Building Trades of Alberta and they were resistant to helping with our organizing efforts against the companies that were doing insulation at these shops. However, these are issues that can be worked on in the future, for now the focus needs to be on putting as much pressure as possible on both groups to get back to the table and bargain fairly.

In solidarity

Kevin Lecht                                                                          

Business Manager