Halloween has come and gone, and we are all sick of Snickers bars. Time now to get ready for winter again.
We have all heard about, and seen the pictures of, the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, and later Hurricane Wilma. Teamsters Canada President Robert Bouvier put out a call for Teamster Locals with tractor-trailer units to get involved in moving product to the people suffering in the aftermath. In a joint effort, co-ordinated by Brother Finley, our truck made the trip south. Brother Al Porter (Business Agent) and Brother Rick Bergman (rank and file CFL Calgary member) were quick to get involved. Business Agent Gene Wirch at Teamsters Local 213 in Kelowna contacted one of their Union Employers, Sun Rype Products Ltd, who were more than willing to donate product. They supplied 16 skids of vitamin fortified Peach drink. Mr. Rob McArthur, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Canadian Freightways Limited generously agreed to haul the juice from Kelowna to Calgary on an OCS basis. Once the juice arrived in Calgary, Al and Rick took the truck over to CFL and loaded it onto our trailer. Brother Pat Pope, Business Agent at Teamsters Local 987 Calgary, had already spoken with Ms Sandy Nowell, Senior Director of Human Resources at SYSCO Food Services - and arranged for a donation from them of various non-food products - paper goods, individual portion dishes, cutlery, serving utensils etc. Once that was all loaded, Brother Al and Brother Rick took off for points south, leaving Calgary after lunch on September 15th. We want to stress that all of the product on the trailer was DONATED by Teamster employers. The guys went into the States through Minot North Dakota, Omaha Nebraska, Kansas City Missouri, Fort Smith Arkansas, Shreeveport Loyisiana and Baton Rouge Louisiana, arrving at Reserve Louisiana on Saturday afternoon, Sept 17/05, where they unloaded the product into a Crown Cork & Seal warehouse which had been opened for this purpose. Once the product was unloaded, Brothers Al and Rick had another obstacle to face - with over one million people evacuated from the New Orleans area, there wasn't a motel or hotel room for literally MILES. They travelled some 400 miles to Longview Texas, arriving at 3:30 a.m. before finding lodging. The trip back to Calgary followed a western route, through Denver, Great Falls and up through Coutts to Calgary. They arrived at the Teamster Hall during the night of September 21st. The round trip mileage was in excess of 10,000 kilometers. We would like to thank Canadian Freightways Ltd. SunRype Products, SYSCO Food Services, Brother Bergman, Business Agents Gene Wirch, Pat Pope and Al Porter, for making this a successful venture.
Please check out the events page, the dates for 2006 General Meetings have been posted. Be sure to mark your calendars and try to attend as many as possible of these meetings. NOTE that at the meetings scheduled for Fort McMurray, Calgary and Edmonton a motion will be made at the May or June meeting (whichever is applicable) to suspend membership meetings for the summer months. This is a new process which the International Union has asked us to implement. If there is enough interest in carrying the meetings over the summer, then those dates will be added.
The Business Agents have been busy over the past few months. Canadian Freightways new agreement is just being sent out for signature. PeBen Industries agreement is out for signature. We are working on putting the final touches on the Premay Equipment agreement, and it should be out for signature in the next few weeks. Peace Wapiti School Division is open for negotiation. DTL Strathcona, and Annixter agreements are alsoratified and out for signature. Employees of Reimer Express turned down the company offer and further meetings will be set up with the employer. Tractive Express also turned their offer down and negotiations will continue. Byers Transport is still in negotiations. We are putting the freight, clerical and owner-operator agreements into one document, so the process has taken longer than ususal. We hope to have something to vote before the end of the year. Updated Heavy Haul agreements have been sent to the Employers for their signuature. Consolidated Fastfrate is ongoing. Meetings have been scheduled with this employer. Clarke Transport agreements are up for renewal and meetings will be scheduled shortly. Several concrete agreements are open or due to open before year's end. We were recently granted certification for the pre-board screeners in Fort McMurray (Garda Canada) and Brothers Frost and Bennett will be working to get a first agreement for those employees.
Several long time members have received their retirement awards. Brother Robert Farnham, Grimshaw Trucking retired Sept 1 and will ber receiving his silver ring after 18 years of service. Another long-time Grimshaw employee, Brother Dan MacRae received a silver ring for 16 years service. Brother Deiter Rink (Byers Transport Calgary) receied a gold watch after 28 years of service. REMEMBER that the onus is on you to apply for your retirement award if you believe that you are entitled to one. Fifteen or more years of CONTINUOUS service entitles you to a silver ring, twenty-five or more years of CONTINUOUS service entitles you to either a gold ring or a gold watch. If you are retiring in the near future and think you are entitled to an award, please contact your Local Union office and advise them of your expected retirement date. We will do a search of your membership and determine your eligibility. Continuous service, no withdrawal cards, is the criteria for receiving these awards.
That's it for now.