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District 3
Working hard to build the union / New members, good jobs (May 2007)  Working hard to build the unionBy Gary Kinnear, Member Representative I hope you are all gainfully employed. The winter seemed long. As expected, January was slow for dispatches, however things picked up in February. Both Brentwood Enterprises and Dawson Construction secured contracts on the Tobiano Project (Six Mile Ranch) which should keep 30 or more operators busy for several months. Price Brothers, sub-contractor to Brentwood, will have its scrapers on site. In the Kelowna area, Vancouver Piledriving is busy with the Kelowna Bridge while Emil Anderson Construction continues working on the approaches. Emil Anderson is also back on the Garcia Lake job. Your organizing crew and area member representatives are working hard to replace the Christian Labour Association and organize non-union sites, but with a great deal of frustration. We have not been very successful due to current labour laws and employer intervention. We took runs at Gibraltar and Perry Creek mines. At Perry Creek, we lost in a vote. At Gibraltar, we did not receive enough support for change. We also took a stab at Okanagan Aggregate. We came very close so we will try again next year. Hopefully we will get the few cards we were short. We would like to thank those employees who supported Local 115. If there is something we can do for those employees, please contact us. On a more positive note, we have an application before the Labour Relations Board for Gable Construction and we are hopeful we will see a positive result. Member Representative Brad Gerow and organizer Dave DeSousa managed to win the right to represent the employees of Kelowna Freightliner. We welcome those employees who showed enough heart to stick to their convictions. Congratulations to Brothers Brad and Dave for a job well done. We cannot state strongly enough that we need members’ help in organizing. Let’s go after the likes of Peter Brothers, Hoban Construction and Acres Construction. Call your local office and let us know if you or someone you know is working for a non-union or rat union company. Change can only come about if we work together. Have a safe and prosperous work season.  New members, good jobsBy Brad Gerow, Member Representative It appears we are going to have a great year. We have Western Industrial Contractors working on the new event centre in Penticton. In addition to the projects already mentioned, there are a number of contracts coming up for negotiation in our area. I would like to welcome the mechanics at Freightliner of Kelowna who joined us on Feb. 7 and who began negotiations in April for their first collective agreement. I would like to thank Brother Trent Kunz for coming out on short notice to help with the organizing. Thanks to Brother Dave DeSousa for his great support. I look forward to meeting you in the field. |
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