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Undaunted by the challenges ahead
(October 2007) By Brian Cochrane, Assistant Business Manager First, I would like to thank the membership for their vote of confidence in this year’s election of officers. Many challenges lie ahead, but the experience and dedication of your Local Union Executive Board is second to none when it comes to looking after the interests of Operating Engineers. In spite of whatever lies ahead, I can assure you that we will continue to make decisions that improve the lives of our members and lead the Local Union into a stronger position over the next several years. Our members take a lot of pride in Local 115, and for good reason. We have been around for 76 years and when we look at our history and the accomplishments of organized labour in British Columbia, we can see that the leadership has done a pretty good job. However, the B.C. Labour Relations Board does not appear to take any interest in the concerns of building trades unions. The LRB is no longer a “court” for the working person. Decisions appear to be made to fit the agenda of the current provincial government. Unfortunately, these decisions have a big impact on Operating Engineers. Most of the people who make decisions at the board are lawyers (or people who want to be lawyers). Not that there’s anything wrong with lawyers. (No lawyer jokes here!) The government pays the salaries of these lawyers. They, in turn, write laws that benefit the non–union sector and employer-friendly unions. Don’t expect to learn about this from the mainstream media. The struggles of legitimate unions that work relentlessly for their members’ rights are rarely reported (unless, of course, there is a strike). Even so, we are not deterred. We will work with affiliated unions and continue to put pressure on the government to take responsibility for providing labour stability. A recent Angus Reid poll said that 59% of Canadians believe that unions are an important entity in society, while 72% feel unions improve workers’ salaries and working conditions. Not surprisingly, the same poll revealed that 72% of Conservative supporters feel unions have too much influence in Canada. These are probably the same folks who support the use of foreign workers that pay less than minimum wage and deny our youth opportunities to earn decent wages and learn rewarding trades. These are some of the challenges that we are up against in this time of record employment for our members. As we head into the fall season, there will be several organizing campaigns and I thank you in advance for any assistance you can give to our staff organizers. At the end of the day, it is the “yoU” in Union that keeps our organization strong. |
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