Things were pretty quiet around her over the holidays, however with fifteen agreements open for negotiation, and three more coming up over the next two weeks, our Business Agents will be very busy over the next few months.
Calgary Business Agents and several members were involved with a project called "Mountain of Toys" just prior to Christmas. This is a joint venture of a local shopping mall, a radio station, and thousands of Calgary residents who try to build a mountain of toys for underprivileged children in Calgary and surrounding areas. We send our manpower and our truck to the mall to transport all the gifts collected to a central warehouse for distribution. This is about the third or fourth year that we have participated in this venture, and hopefully we will continue to do so for many years to come. I have loaded some pictures for you to see what actually goes on.
Brother Roy Finley, Secretary-Treasurer (principle officer) of the Local, in the background, directing things in his usual efficient way. I must apologize because I am doing this after hours, and I don't know the name of the brother with Brother Finley. The Local Union appreciates the help of all of the members who volunteer for this project.
Local 362 is affiliated with the Alberta Building Trades Council. Last fall, Brothers Finley, Eichel, Wallace, Bennett and Krawchenko attended the ABTC Convention. During that Convention, the ABTC Charitable foundation made a $100,000.00 donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Fund. This money is to be spent in research and development, as well as towards their new facility being built in Edmonton. As you may already have heard, the Edmonton group of research workers is on the cutting edge, and are having remarkable success.
Also discussed at the convention were marked place economics and the Gulf Coast experience which highlighted the impact Kyoto could have on our Northern projects being competative with the US.
Workshops were done on the 2%ers - those members who would like us not to be successful by their activities. What came out of that workshop was the importance of a Code of Conduct being established by all the participating affiliates. Watch for more information on this topic.
Drug testing on maintenance work was also a big debate point, and the ABTC will be meeting with Alberta Human Rights to see if a plan cean be worked out to see a win for the Union maintenance companies.
Over the Christmas season, the Local enjoyed a visit from Brother Tom Milne, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 155, the movie local in Vancouver. Brother Milne. Brother Porter and Brother Finley discussed many issues common to the motion picture division. We snapped a picture of the guys outside our truck. Brother Milne was impressed not only with our truck - but with the beautiful weather we had on December 20th!! Pictured below on the left are Brothers Lance Wallace, Al Porter, Tom Milne and Roy Finley. On the right is a shot showing more of the truck, and Brothers Porter, Milne, and Finley enjoying the sunshine.
Brother Finley has been in Florida for a Canadian Executive Board meeting, and has taken a well-deserved week of holidays. Brother Frost has been on vacation, as well, and is now back and back in the groove again with Air Canada Jazz meetings, Sky Chefs meetings and grievances, and Laidlaw drivers. Brother Porter is in Vancouver for meetings with Tiger Courier in an attempt to avoid a strike, and negotiate a first agreement for those employees. Brother Eichel just got back from Fort McMurray general meetings. Brother Wallace, as VP of the Southern Alberta Building Trades is busy making arrangements for the 2003 Stampede Parade. Billy the Builder needs to be brought out of storage and dusted off . Be sure to watch not only the Calgary parade but several others around the country this year to get a good look at Billy. I will try to have pictures for you next time, showing our 12' high caracature of a Building Tradesman complete with hard hat, tool belt and plaid flannel shirt.You never know where you might see "Billy" next. Brother Doerksen has contacts with several groups who want to become "Teamsters". The Edmonton BA's are just as busy. Brother Kemp is negotiating several agreements, and recently signed Group 4 Falck (Canada) Ltd. agreement for preboard screeners at the Edmonton airport. There are several locations across the country which are unionized, but Brother Kemp managed to negotiate the "best" of those agreements. Brother Norris recently signed a new agreement with Peace Wapiti School Div # 33 for their school bus drivers. Concrete agreements are open so Brothers Eichel and Norris have a busy Spring ahead of them. Brothers Pearce and Porter are currently working on a new agreement for the Grimshaw Office Staff, and recently applied for the services of a conciliation officer to assist in the negotiation process. Brother Atkins is in the same position with Consolidated Fastfrate. Meetings with the conciliation officer have already been scheduled on that one. Brothers Bennett and Krawchenko are kept busy with the pipeline and construction board members and issues.
With all that said, I have to apologize again for the delay in getting this page done. I had it almost ready to go and inserted the pictures wrong, so had to wait for our computer guru, Mike, to come and fix my mess. I will keep trying until I get it right, and then you will have to check more often for updates. They tell me once a month is normal, so lets see how close I can come to that.