Good day Brothers and Sisters

It has come to my attention that there is some confusion regarding the history and process of the Local 110 Mortuary fund and how payments are distributed.

Our Mortuary Fund started out of the financial need of spouses when our members passed away. In most cases, at that time, bank accounts were jointly held by husband and wife and when the husband passed away the funds would be frozen until the paperwork and taxes could be completed. This resulted in a number of our members spouses having a difficult time not only paying for funerals but also the basic necessities of life. As such, the membership decided to introduce a death benefit that would be quickly paid out at the time of passing with the least amount of paperwork possible.

When the Mortuary plan started, the policy was held by American Income Life Insurance. The members of the Local would pay the yearly premium to the Local and the Local would in turn pay the premium on the death benefit. At this time each member once the Local paid the premium would receive a benefit card from American Income Life showing the amount of the death benefit, the status that it was paid in full and the date of renewal. As the membership began to grow and with very few yearly deaths the Local was paying significantly more in yearly premiums then AIL was paying out in death benefits. As such it was decided that the Local would take over the management, administration and payments of the Mortuary plan. To do this the Local was required to provide funds from the general fund to insure any required payouts could be met and the yearly premiums paid by the membership of the Local would have to be held in a separate account, as such the Local 110 Mortuary Fund was created and continues in the same way even today.

In regards to eligibility to be a member of the Mortuary Fund, every person who is voted in as a member of Local 110 automatically becomes a member of the Mortuary Fund until such time as the individual does not pay the yearly assessment. Currently our yearly assessments are due April 30^th and payment of this assessment then provides coverage from May 1^st of the same year to April 30^th the following year. When a person does not pay the yearly assessment, they are no longer covered under the Mortuary Fund however, they are still members in good standing with the union. Conversely when a member is lapsed from Local 110 and has paid the yearly assessment before they are lapsed they are still covered under the plan until April 30^th when the next assessment would be due.

I would like to bring attention to the issue that an individual’s membership status in Local 110 does not totally control the status in the Mortuary Fund because this year a member was lapsed from Local 110 and, shortly thereafter, passed away. Since this individual was current with the Mortuary Fund, their family was correctly paid the death benefit they were entitled to. Another member has brought forward their concerns regarding this process. Although we may feel upset by the fact that a person who would allow their membership in our Local to lapse could still benefit from a fund that they were part of as a result of their membership, the legitimacy and future of the Mortuary Fund is more important than personal feelings and that is why the benefits have been, and continue to be, paid without discrimination or malice. The Trustees of Local 110 have reviewed this individual’s payment from the Mortuary Fund and found it to be in order, in accordance with the protocol of the plan and in accordance with historical procedure.

If there are any questions regarding the Fund please contact me at the Edmonton union office.

In solidarity

Kevin Lecht

 

 

Local 110 is sad to announce that Member Otto Skarohlid passed away on Thursday September 14,2017. He was a  member of the International since February 1985. He last worked with Tracer Suncor Baseplant until  June 2017.

Funeral is to be held overseas. Donations can be made to your charity of choice.

Local 110 Officers, Staff and Members extend their deepest condolences to all of Brother Otto’s Family and Friends.

 

Kevin Lecht

Business Manager

Good day Brothers and Sisters

At the last General Membership Meeting I was asked about the history and the reason for the pension payroll burden that is retained by the contractor when the pension contributions are added to the members pay cheques.

Originally, when a member was drawing their pension through Local 110 and returned to work, the pension contributions were remitted to the plan as normal, as per the Provincial Collective Agreement. However, due to Canadian pension law, the member received no gain to their monthly pension because you are not allowed to both contribute to a plan and draw a pension at the same time. As a result, the money served no benefit to the members who were working for the contributions. Currently, this is still the practice of most trade union pension plans in Alberta and across Canada.

In the mid 2000’s Local 110 was successful in bargaining into the Provincial Collective Agreement the ability for a member who was drawing a Local 110 pension, to have the contributions added to the hourly pay. At this time the pension contribution was five dollars per hour worked that was directly added to the member’s base rate of pay before taxes and benefits were paid. Shortly after the ratification of the Agreement it was brought forward to the Union and the Contractors by one of our Industrial Clients, that due to the five dollar per hour being moved from a nontaxable benefit, such as a pension plan to a taxed benefit such as wages, the company was paying a total of six dollars instead of the negotiated five dollars in pension contributions. The reason for this increase is due to the added cost of WCB coverage, Employment Insurance payments, Canada Pension Plan contributions and the ten percent Statutory Holiday and Vacation pay, which are all based on taxable wages for each individual, so with the change to the base rate all these costs to the contractor were also increased.

When this was discovered, the offer was made to reopen the Agreement and rectify this error. However, the contractors refused to reopen the Agreement at that time and took on the additional costs of the “payroll burden” for the duration of the Agreement, even though in most cases the contractors were unable to recoup these additional costs from the Clients.

In the next round of bargaining language was added to the Provincial Collective Agreement to have twenty percent of the listed pension contribution held to cover the additional costs resulting from pension money being added to the base rate for members who are drawing their Local 110 pension. At that time the Agreement was ratified first round and has been ratified in every Agreement up to and including our current Agreement signed in 2015.

Some members have questioned the base wage amount listed for our pension members, the Agreement states that the “payroll burden” is twenty percent of the listed pension contribution. Currently the listed pension contribution is $6.25 per hour, twenty percent of that is $1.25. So $4.55 is added to the base rate and the remaining 45 cents is added to the Statutory Holiday and Vacation pay which gives us the total $5.00 per hour added to the members pay cheque per hour.

I hope that this information clarifies the “payroll burden” issue. In close I would ask that any member who is currently having the pension contributions added to their pay contact Local 110 pension administrator and review the other options that are now available.

In Solidarity

Kevin Lecht

Name	Status	Recommend	Final Vote
AGUILO, Evella	3rd Year	Reject	R
AHMED, Omar	1st Year	Accept	A
GADREAULT, Benjamin	1st Year	Accept	A
KOOPMANS, Nathan	2nd Year	Accept	A
ADAMS, William	JM	Accept	A
ADIE, Ian	JM	Accept	A
BERTRAND, Alan	JM	Accept	A
BOREJKO, Steven	JM	Accept	A
HIEBERT, Nicholas	JM	Accept	A

Please take note of Local 110 Bylaws Section 19- all requirements of this section must be met before being issued membership in Local 110.

SECTION 19 –MEMBERSHIP

1. Any member who applies to join Local 110, if they are accepted, will pay an initiation fee in the amount of one hundred dollars ($100.00),plus membership card fee, excepting that:

Those members who lapse out of the union from October 23, 2004 and after, will pay an additional amount of money which equals the amount owed for union dues and fines at the time of lapsing, plus a $200.00 reinstatement fee, to reinstate their membership. This amount must be paid in full not more than 30 calendar days from the date of the vote of acceptance by the general membership. The insulator who fails to pay the full amount owing within this time will not be reinstated as a member and will have to reapply for membership.

2. Any individual that makes application to Local 110 and is rejected by vote of the membership.

• First rejection they will not be able to make new application for a minimum 3 calendar months.
• Second rejection they will not be able to make new application for a minimum of 6 calendar months.
• Third or more rejections they will not be able to make new application for a minimum of 12 calendar months.

3. All new members, including members who are transferring their membership to Local 110 must complete New Member Orientation within 180 days from the date they were voted into Local 110 or their membership is void and they will have to reapply for membership.
4. New member orientation will be held in Edmonton and Calgary once every month and in Red Deer and Fort McMurry once every two months.
5. Permit members and Travel Card members requesting membership will not receive their union card and Local 110 will not accept a transfer card, until after the member has taken the oath of membership referred to in the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Constitution at the New Member Orientation.

Local 110 is sad to announce the passing of Aleksandr Grebnev.

Local 110 is sad to announce that member, Brother Aleksandr Grebnev. passed away on Friday, August 25,2017. Brother Aleksandr has been a member of Local 110 since January 2011.

A  funeral service will be held Friday September 1, 2017 at 10:00 am at the St. Barbara Russian Orthodox Cathedral, located at 10105 – 96 Street, Edmonton, AB. There will be a reception after the service.

Good day Brothers and Sisters,

We find ourselves with an abundance of outstanding calls that aren’t being filled. It is our Local’s responsibility to be supplying manpower to these calls, we don’t want to lose contracts to the non union.  We will be opening some calls to the Sheetmetal Unions to start supplying manpower to start filling these calls. Anyone interested in these calls are to call Leslie in dispatch for further information.

In solidarity,

Brother Kevin Lecht

Due to the delayed response from Alberta Industry Training (AIT) regarding the status of the Apprentices who made application for August’s Meeting, we were unable to honour the Standing Motion that the applicants names be posted on the Local 110 website one week prior to the General Membership Meeting. As such, this will require that they be laid over for one month to the September General Membership Meeting. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

To: All Local Canadian Locals

From: Lee Loftus, Business Manager Local 118

CC: Vince Engel, Western Vice President

Date: August 2, 2017

Re: Safway Canada

 

This is to notify All Canadian Locals that Safway Canada is advertising and hiring for both Journeyperson and Apprentice Insulators to work in the Vancouver Area, most likely Shipyards.

Safway Canada is certified to the BC Regional Council of CARPENTERS as an “all employee” certification.

The work that has been secured, is mechanical insulation on board the Canadian Coast Guard Supply Vessel currently under construction at Seaspan Shipyards.

We call on all Locals to notify our Canadian Members not to support our work being done under a Carpenter’s Agreement. We further ask that all Locals report to Local 118 any contact reported by Safway and the details.

Local 118 has unemployed local tradespersons and local contractors ready, able & willing to do this work, but not as a carpenter. It’s insulation work and that work belongs to our craft.

Should you be aware of any such activities, please contact Local 118.

Local 110 is sad to announce that Member Dallas Beck passed away Saturday, July 15,2017.  Brother Dallas had been a Member of Local 110 since November 2009.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 10:00 a.m. Friday, July 21, 2017 at Morinville Cultural Centre, 9502 – 100 Avenue, Morinville, AB.

Memorial donations may be made to Athabasca Search and Rescue, 9768 – 170 Street, Suite 142, Edmonton, Alberta T5T 5L4.

Local 110 Officers, Staff and Members extend their deepest condolences to all of Brother Dallas’ Family and Friends.

 

Kevin Lecht

Business Manager

Good morning Brothers & Sisters,

The annual Canadian Conference is being held in Montreal, Quebec this week. Business Agents Doug Johnson & Pat Tilley and I will be out of the office from July 11, 2017 until July 15, 2017.

Northern Business Agent Doug Casemore will be at the Edmonton Union hall in our absence.

At any time away from the office the Agents and I can be reached by email by the staff at the Local 110 office in Edmonton or Calgary. However, I ask that you remain patient as we may not be able to respond until we are away from the conference floor.

In solidarity,

Brother Kevin Lecht