This year was the 49^th Canadian Conference and was held in St. Johns Newfoundland. Local 137 did an excellent job of hosting the conference and making all the delegates feel welcome.

Local 110 sat a total of six delegates at this conference, Ronald James (Jim) Adams, Ralph Bunker, Derek Stock, Patrick Sullivan, Patrick Tilley, and myself. I would like to thank all that attended for representing Local 110 and for their professionalism in doing so.

At this conference it was reported that the work outlook is good in almost all of the Canadian Locals. They should be holding at almost full employment and some may have the opportunity of requiring travel card members to help fill their manpower requirements. This is excellent news for all Locals in Canada, however this will slow the ability for Local 110 to obtain travel card members and fill the manpower requests here in Alberta. As such our Local will have to look outside the box and find a made in Alberta solution to filling the manpower needs of our contractors.

Also at this Conference there was the election of officers for the Canadian Conference and I am proud to say that I am the new President of the Canadian Conference. I take over from Louis Duguay Business Manger Local 131 who has held the position for over a decade. I hope that I will be able to make a similar contribution.

With changing technology all contractors and clients are trying to find ways to have more onsite productive time. One way they are starting to attempt this is moving away from traditional classroom orientation to online site orientation.

Some of our contractors have been requesting our members to complete online orientation for some sites before the member is able to report to the site. As a Local we understand that this is a client site requirement. However this does not remove the company obligation to pay the members for their time spent doing the online orientation.

Most of the online orientations that I was required to complete have been less than two hours to complete and the company has added the two hours onto the members first pay check. However I have been informed that some of our members have recently been told that they will not be paid for the time taken to complete orientation. If you have been required to complete an online orientation and were not paid or have been recently dispatched and informed that you will not be paid for online orientation please contact the Business Agent for the area and provide a written statement regarding the situation.

It has been announced that Jacobs has secured the maintenance work for the Insulators, Boilermakers, Labourers, Millwrights and Pipefitters at the DOW Prentiss project, located North East of Red Deer.  

Jacobs anticipates that they will be mobilized with most of the workforce in place by July 6, 2015 with about 60-70 total craft workers on site. This will open up a number of long term maintenance opportunities, as well as short term turnaround opportunities, for the members of Local 110 in and around the Red Deer area.

The agreement that Jacobs will be working under at the DOW Prentiss project will be the same GPMA that covers Jacobs at the DOW Chemical Fort Saskatchewan project. The agreement will be changed to reflect the addition of the DOW Prentiss project and the new agreement date will be June 8, 2015. This agreement can be found at the GPMC/NMC website gpmccanada.com.

Jacobs taking over such a major scope of work at a traditionally nonunion project is something all members should take pride in. The members are the ones that have made this opportunity possible by showing our professionalism in quality, productivity and safety.

Skyhigh Canada Ltd. has become a signatory contractor to Local 110.

Skyhigh has taken over the maintenance contract at the Plains Midstream plan near Fort Saskatchewan and already has a number of Local 110 members on site, with hopes of expanding the crew in the future.

Anytime a company partners with the union it is truly a team effort and everyone involved should be proud of this accomplishment. However I would especially like to thank Mike Cassidy. His efforts working from the management side, to smooth out the bumps in the process, made this partnership possible.

Local 110 is sad to announce the passing of Brother Larry Kshyk.

Local 110 was notified that Brother Kshyk passed away May 20, 2015

Relatives and friends may pay their respects this Sunday, May 24, 2015, from 1:30pm until 3:00pm with the funeral service to follow at 3:00pm at Park Memorial Chapel, 9709 – 111 Avenue, Edmonton, In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta.