Good day Brothers and Sisters

Currently we have a number of companies that had started bring workers back to the Fort McMurray area with plans to have as much of the workforce back on site in the next few weeks. Unfortunately the situation in Northern Alberta has changed again and workers are again being removed from sites and camps across the North and being transported back to Edmonton and Calgary. Currently Local 110 has 168 Members that are in camps or being moved to evacuation points. Blacksands camp was evacuated with no injuries but the camp itself has been destroyed by fire.

The current camps that are being evacuated are:

• Syncrude Facilities South of Fort MacKay
• Suncor Facilities South of Fort MacKay
• Millennium
• Borealis
• Hudson
• Ruth Lake
• Mildred Lake
• West Ells
• Baseline
• MacKay River
• Black Sands Lodge
• Brion Energy – MacKay
• Grizzly Oilsands – Thickwood
• MacKay River Lodge on Aostra
• Marathon Oil – Birchwood
• Noralta
• Poplar Creek – also called Birch
• Southern Pacific – STP MacKay
• Sunshine Oil Sands – West Ells

Update: 5:30 p.m.

 

 

The safety of our people is our top priority.

 

At the direction of the Province, Suncor is moving workers from our MacKay River operations as well as lodges on the AOSTRA road to lodges north of that region. At this time, we are not relocating people from Base Plant, or the Borealis, Hudson or Millennium lodges.

 

Personnel who are being relocated will be relocated to a lodge at the Fort Hills site.

 

Instructions for personnel working at Base Plant and staying at a lodge along AOSTRA road are as follows:

 

Day shift (Base Plant)

• Personnel currently on day shift and staying at a lodge along AOSTRA road will catch a bus from site, for relocation to a lodge at Fort Hills.
• If you are expecting to travel home, bussing and flights are continuing.

 

Operations Night Shift (Base Plant)

• Collect your bag, check out of the lodge, board a bus to a lodge at Fort Hills.

 

Turnaround Night Shift (Base Plant)

• Collect your bag, check out of the lodge, board a bus. You will not report for your shift on site. You will be bused to a lodge at Fort Hills where you will check-in.

 

MacKay River

• All non-essential personnel will be moved to a lodge at Fort Hills.
• Essential personnel are conducting an orderly shutdown of MacKay River.

 

Assistance will be available at the lodges to direct personnel appropriately.

 

Air quality at Base Plant is being continuously monitored and remains good and below advisory levels; N95 dust masks are available for people if they have concerns, but both the particulate and Carbon Monoxide (CO) readings are within acceptable limits.

 

We understand this is a stressful situation, but we are prepared. The safety of our people remains our top priority.

We have a small amount of Scaffolders and Insulators on site now, assisting on bringing the plant online. There were meetings last week with the Turnaround group, they may be bringing on a limited workforce towards the end of the month. There are more meetings this week for the Maintenance outages and the other works on site. 

 

The limited workforce is due to the availability of camp rooms. Until people are allowed back in their homes, all personnel, for all sites, are staying in camp. 

 

We will update when we know more.

With the evacuation of all of the local residents from Ft Mcmurray, we would like to get some contact information as to their wherabouts. 

 

Could LOCAL RESIDENTS ONLY please email the following address. 

 

AlumafiresSCL@outlook.com 

 

 Please include the following information;

 

Name

Contact info (Phone number)

Where you are located now. (Calgary, Edmonton, Ontario etc)

Where you will be (quite a few are in transit)

When you will be available for work

 

Once again, we are looking for information for LOCAL RESIDENTS ONLY.

 

Thank you 

Good afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

The Government of Alberta has posted Debit Card Relief Funding information for Ft. McMurray Evacuees:

http://www.alberta.ca/emergency.cfm

Please note that many Ft. McMurray evacuees are "those most in need" – such as families in evac centres – and need this emergency assistance immediately. If you are able to wait a day or two before applying for your Ft. McMurray Debit Card Relief Funding, this will help "those most in need" to receive this emergency assistance as soon as possible.

In Solidarity,
Brother Kevin Lecht

Good afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

The Canadian Red Cross has posted Alberta Fire Evacuees emergency financial assistance information:

http://www.redcross.ca/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/latest-news/canadian-red-cross-to-give-alberta-fire-evacuees–50-million-in-immediate-financial-assistance

"Thanks to the generous outpouring of support from Canadians, Canadian Red Cross will provide immediate financial assistance totalling $50 million to more than 80,000 people displaced by the Alberta wildfires. Adult evacuees registered with Red Cross will receive $600 each and children will receive $300, so families and individuals can buy what they urgently need during this difficult time."  

In Solidarity,
Brother Kevin Lecht

Local 110 is sad to announce that Sister Brenda Burgess passed away on May 9, 2016.  Sister Brenda has been a long time Local 110 member since February 25,1980.

A Celebration of Life will be held Monday, May 16, 2016 at 10:00 am at the Glenwood Funeral Home, 52356 Range Road 232, Sherwood Park, AB.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Canadian Lung Cancer Research Foundation.

Local 110 Officers, Staff and Members extend sincere condolences to all of Sister Brenda’s family and friends.

Due to the wildfires in Fort McMurray and the evacuation of our employees, the Aluma payroll department will be processing pay for our craft workers as follows:

–       Employees will be paid for hours worked during the week of May 7th

–       The next regular pay date is May 12^th. Employees will receive pay for hours worked up to and including

May 7^th.

–       Travel out subsidies will not be paid at this time.

–       Pay will be direct deposited as usual.

–       For those receiving manual cheques, you can pick up your cheque at the Edmonton Aluma Office

anytime after May 11^th. If you are unable to pick up your cheque, please contact 780-743-5011 to arrange for mailing. The Edmonton Office is located at 304-69 Avenue NW, Edmonton, AB.

–       Payroll will be issuing a Record of Employment (ROE) for those with interrupted earnings. Service
Canada has provided Fort McMurray evacuees with a special reference code 4812012016030516 to quote when filing a claim online. It is recommended that you file immediately.

–       Your ROE will show Reason Code “K – Other” with the comment “Fort McMurray Wildfire Evacuation”.

–       You do not need your ROE to initiate your claim

–       ROEs will be electronically filed with Service Canada by Aluma’s Payroll department by mid next week.

As the situation changes, we anticipate those affected will be brought back to work. You are encouraged to keep in contact with your local union for future updates. If you have any questions relating to your pay or any other concerns, please call the main office line at 780-743-5011.

Shell recently released an update on the re-start of operations.

 

We have been able to safely restart production at a reduced rate at the Shell Albian Sands mining operations due to improved conditions, including air quality and weather. 

On May 3, operations at Albian were suspended to focus our resources on the safety of our people, their loved ones and the wider community.  These critical response efforts included providing shelter at Albian Village work camp and evacuation from our air strip for displaced employees, contractors and community members.

“Safe restart is important to our company and staff to allow us to contribute to the recovery efforts of the Fort McMurray area,” said Zoe Yujnovich, Shell Executive Vice President, Oil Sands. “Safely resuming some of our operations will help us continue to provide fuel to the firefighters, ambulances, planes and others dedicated to the response efforts.”

We will fly in and fly out staff to help resume operations over the coming days and weeks. Locally based employees may choose to support operations only if they are willing and available.

Background

• The Albian site remains safe and secure. The fire has turned direction away from our site.
• Air quality at site is being continuously monitored and remains at a safe level. We will continue to monitor.
• Our Albian village camp was opened to the public and sheltered more than 2,000 evacuees between May 3 and May 7. There are currently no evacuees being sheltered at Albian Village.
• More than 8,000 individuals were evacuated from the Albian Aerodrome on more than 80 flights between May 3 and May 7, via multiple airlines who have generously allotted planes and staff.
• Shell emergency response teams on the ground in Fort McMurray continue to support local and provincial fire crews and we are donating fuel to first responders in the region.
• An employee donation program has been set up with the Canadian Red Cross to be matched by Shell and the Alberta and Canadian governments.

Regards,

 

Ron Harry

Good Morning,

 

Latest information we have from Suncor regarding the return to work for the Turnaround and Maintenance

 

Turnaround

 

• Return date Management/Supervisor Wednesday May 11 or May 12
• FM and DFL May 12-13
• Camp Noralta (subject to change)

 

Maintenance

 

• Expectation for the Maintenance team is to return to site(boots on the ground) on Monday May 16
• Camp Borealis (subject to change)

 

Suncor has assigned Travel Coordinators to arrange travel to site from either Calgary or Edmonton.  We have sent out a blanket email late yesterday to all Turnaround employees that we have email addresses for and approximately 50 have responded so far.  We have no email addresses for approximately 38 workers and will call them this morning.  Following that we will send communication out to all Maintenance personnel to provide an update on their return to work which is expected for Monday May 16^th.

 

We also need to contact all workers who have taken the recent call to confirm their location and coordinate Suncor flights from either  Edmonton or Calgary in order to coordinate a mobilization and orientation date.

 

Once we know the status of all workers availability to return to work we will advise if additional workers are required to fill out the crews. 

 

Sincerely,

Ron Richards, Vice President