Good day Union Family

As I posted previously, International President James McCourt has directed all Locals throughout our organization to suspend all Membership Meetings and Elections until further notice. Since that original notice I have followed up with our International Vice President Wade Logan about when Local 110 would be able to resume meetings, since the Province of Alberta has started to lift restrictions regarding COVID 19. The answer that came back from the International is that the restriction on General Membership meetings will be lifted when all Locals can safely hold meetings again.

When I received this response, I was surprised and frustrated. Meetings are an important part of keeping the Membership informed and helps the Officers receive valuable feedback from the Members, as well this being an election year for our Local there is usually increased attendance. I did consult with Business Managers of other trades in Alberta and the Officers of Local 110, a number of ideas were put forward about how Local 110 may have been able to have meetings again. One with the most interesting ideas, was that Local 110 could go forward to the Alberta Courts to push for the right to have Membership Meetings without International approval. I did take this idea forward to legal council and it was not recommended and was not likely to succeed due to the powers of the General President under the International Constitution.

Currently, Alberta is seeing increased COVID cases, but fortunately the Local has not been informed of any cases through out our membership. The health and safety of our membership is one of the main principles that our Union was built on and we will continue to keep this in mind in everything we do.

Until we have the clearance from the International to have General Membership meetings, our Executive board will continue to meet with social distancing, and I will continue to provide updates through our Facebook pages, Business Managers Updates, and Blast Emails.

If there are any questions, comments, or discussions please contact me or the Business Agents, at the Union hall, or by phone, or Email.

In solidarity

Kevin Lecht                                                                   

Business Manager