Union Hall Open Additional Hours Starting September 12, 2015

Posted by Kevin L on

Commencing September 12, 2015 the Union Hall will be open from 8:00am – Noon on Union Meeting Days. Staff will be on hand to assist with payments, questions concerning dues and pick up of referrals.

Please note: as per Section 6, Article 1,  Dispatch will not be open with the exception of Emergency calls. Only referrals issued Monday through Friday will be available for pick up.

Business Agents will also be available, but for limited appointments only as they will be attending Executive Board meetings. To schedule an appointment with the agent in your area, please contact the Officers’ Administrative Executive, Shannon T, at the Edmonton Union Hall (780) 426-2874 or via email – shannont@insulators110.com

Family Fun Fest 08/29/2015

Posted by Kevin L on

Good afternoon!!

This Saturday, August 29, 2015 from 10:00am – 5:00pm, we will be hosting our first Family Fun Day here at the hall! We will be having a Show and Shine and Motorcycle Scavenger Hunt. Prizes for the best Antique Car, Hot Rod Truck and Best Cruiser, Custom or Sport Motorcycle!! First, Second and Third Prizes for the scavenger hunt!!

Activities for the kids will include a bouncy castle, face painting, soccer kick, football throw, and VP Dan Annett will be helping the kids to make pinwheels!!

Kids! Take a guess at how many Gold Fish are in the Jar to win the jar!! (don’t worry moms and dads, it’s just the cracker kind!)

Hot dogs and hamburgers, as well as pop, water, tea and juice will be provided, Agent Johnson will be doing the BBQ-ing!

There will be a Silent Auction, Bake Sale as well as a DUNK TANK!!! Come dunk Business Manager Kevin Lecht, President Pat Sullivan or Agent Casemore.

Any proceeds from the silent auction will go towards the Gordon Lafferty Memorial Football Scholarship Fund through the University of Alberta.

We will be selling 50/50 tickets in support of the Kid’s Christmas Party. Proceeds from the bake sale will also go towards the Kid’s Christmas Party!!

The first 100 people will receive a FREE Local 110 T-Shirt and there will be Special Edition Local 110 Show n’ Shine Stickers!!!!

We are so very excited to be hosting the first of what we would really like to see become an Annual Event!! Come on out and have a day of fun with your Family and your fellow Brother’s and Sister’s!!

 

Local 110 Eight Week Insulator Pre Trades Program

Posted by Kevin L on

Recently Local 110 completed the first eight week insulator pre trades program. The class started out with fifteen students that had limited to no experience in the trade.

Over the eight week period Local 110 Training Coordinator Dan Annett provided the students with equivalent training as Alberta Insulator Apprentices would receive from Nait or Sait, with additional focus on safety, material installation and Local 110 pride and history. In addition to the in class training and extensive hands on training in Local 110’s shop each student completed H2S alive, OSSA fall arrest, OSSA confined space and monitor, OSSA elevated work platform, OH&S asbestos removal, CSTS 09, standard first aid, and fire stop Level 1. With all the training provided these starter apprentices now have the skills to be productive assets on site and have a positive start to becoming long term members of Local 110.

The plan for this program was to provide the pre apprentices with not only the basic skills required of an apprentice for our trade but to also give them the technical training so that they would be able to challenge and pass the Alberta Industry Training (AIT) first year insulator provincial exam. As of today we have not had any of the pre trades people write the AIT first year exam however with all the students completing our final exam with marks above 80% they should have no problem advancing their apprenticeships.

At the end of training Local 110 was able to graduate thirteen students and provide them with apprenticeships and jobs with our signatory contractors.

The top pre apprentice for this intake was Cameron Stav, for his accomplishment Local 110 PITT fund provided him with a full set of tools as per the Insulator Provincial Collective Agreement.Thank you to Doug Johnson Edmonton BA/PITT Fund trustee for taking the time to pick out and purchase tools for not just a job but a career.

With the success of this first pre trades class Local 110 will be continuing the program. Our next class will be starting mid-September 2015. If interested please contact Training Coordinator Dan Annett or Client and Contractor Liaison Kyle Matuk at the Edmonton union office.

 

2015 Presidents, Business Managers and Business Agents Meeting

Posted by Kevin L on

This year’s Presidents, Business Managers and Business Agents Meeting, was held in Baltimore Maryland.

All of the speakers were excellent and informative, with clearly a large amount of Canadian content added to the program. With the expansion of the ISAVE program from the USA into Canada, a number of Canadian locals are having success with expansion of their commercial markets and government relations. The LMCT has now launched a Canadian web site to help show case mechanical insulation in Canada. www.insulatorscanada.ca

There was an informative presentation from the Department of Labor, reviewing with the officers the requirements and process for proper documentation and disclosure of all union financials. Including all plans and the members who were paid out from the plans, wages for staff and officers, expenses, rental costs, maintenance costs, political action funds, and consumables just to name a few. This was a clear look at what Bill 377 is bringing to our Canadian Locals and unfortunately for a local the size of Local 110 a full time accountant is required on staff to insure compliance. With the way the information is presented on the Department of Labor website this information is not being compiled to show any extra transparency to union members, this is an information page for anti-union organizations to know where unions are the weakest and focus their attacks.

Held on the first night of this meeting was the Florence Bernard/Alta Miller Scholarship awards dinner. This year Local 110 did not have any of our applicants win scholarships. So we need our members to flood the international with applications for these scholarships so that Local 110 can have a better showing next year.

Lastly at this meeting General President James Grogan stepped down taking his retirement. The General Executive board made up of all the International Vice Presidents voted to have James "Buddy" McCourt step in to the role of General President and to have Greg Revard take over for Mr. McCourt as General Financial Secretary. Mr. Revard was previously the International Vice President for the Central States Conference. We all wish Mr. McCourt and Mr. Revard the best in their new positions and thank Mr. Grogan for his years of service to our International and all he was able to accomplish for the betterment of the North American Labour Movement.

Golf Tournament

Posted by Kevin L on

On July 18 Local 110 held the annual Golf Tournament at Legends Golf course. Our event was well attended with 95 golfers and 112 people attending the dinner. A good time was had by all and most people walked away with a prize.

A big thank you to all the staff for their work on this event dealing with all the organizing set up and tear down. As well thank you to Northern Agent Doug Casemore for spearheading the event and Edmonton Agent Doug Johnson for running his “Doug Dog Hot Dog Stand”. An extra thank you has to be given to Administrative Executive Shannon Tilley who made sure everything was delivered and ready on time, as well as putting in a number of volunteer hours after work to make sure this event would be a success.

The top team of the day:

Ben Puff

Darrell Chichak

Andrew Rmkhelawan

Greg Budd

Longest Drive:

Women- Crystal Wakaruk

Men- Wade Logan

Longest Putt:

Women- Cecilia Wakaruk

Men- Darryl Clouston (Doc)

Closest to the Pin:

Women- Crystal Wakaruk

Men- Aaron Gregson

50/50: Wade Logan

Unfortunately there was one incident on the day. On the way to golf in our tournament journeyman member of IBEW Local 424 Jennifer Horne was involved in a single vehicle accident just North of Fort Saskatchewan. She has sustained a number of major injuries and is still being held in the intensive care unit at the UofA Hospital. Our thoughts are with her at this time and hope for a speedy recovery.

New Contractors

Posted by Kevin L on

Good day Brothers and Sisters

Over the last few months Local 110 has had an influx of new companies signing voluntary recognitions with the union, giving our members new opportunities throughout the province in both the construction and maintenance sectors of our industry.

  • Dawco Construction Enterprises Ltd- currently working maintenance at the CNRL site.
  • RAM (Rope Access Maintenance)- Currently working maintenance at the Shell Scotford site.
  • Norcan Electric Inc.- currently working maintenance at Suncor Base plant.
  • CBS Construction Ltd.- currently working new construction at the Syncrude mine site.
  • Summit Insulation Ltd.- currently working new construction at the Air Liquide site in Fort Saskatchewan.

Bringing new contractors into the union is never an easy task and as a local we must recognize all the effort that the officers, agents and our client and contractors liaison had to put forward to make this happen. However the reason that Local 110 continues to bring in new contractors is the work ethic, skill and integrity of our membership making our Local a valued partner in Alberta industry.

Canadian Conference St. Johns Newfoundland

Posted by Kevin L on

This year was the 49th 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.

Online Orientation

Posted by Kevin L on

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.

Maintenance work in the Red Deer area

Posted by Kevin L on

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.