Operating Engineer - Winter 2013

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Canadian News Local 904, Province Invest $700,000 in crane Operator Training The Newfoundland and Labrador department of Advanced Education and Skills announced it will invest more than $490,000 towards a tower crane operator training program at the Operating Engineers College in Holyrood, 45 kilometres west of St. John’s, intended to train workers for offshore oil projects. “A total investment of over $700,000 is being allocated for this program, provided through the Provincial Government, the Operating Engineers College and the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 904,” the province stated in a press release. “There’s a shortage mobile crane operators and a shortage of tower crane persons, not only in Newfoundland but across Canada. Now we’re bringing them in from across the United States,” said president and business manager of the Operating Engineers, Local 904, Roy Hawco. Touted by the province as a program that will help workers gain qualifications to work on ExxonMobil Canada’s Hebron offshore oil project, the program will include three 12-week training sessions. Students will be able to use a computerized simulator and a 16-tonne tower crane, the province stated. Enrolled operators can get the Red Seal certification required by contractors for work on the Hebron construction project. “The Tower Crane Operator Training Program will assist individuals in acquiring the qualifications needed to work on the Hebron construction site or any other project within Newfoundland and Labrador.” ‘We have apprentices but they aren’t Red Seal certified yet,” said Hawco. The tower crane training program at the Operating Engineers College will be the only one in the province tailored towards training Red Seal tower crane operators. The Operating Engineers College trained 48 tower crane operators for the Hibernia project in the 1980s, which has been producing oil since 1997. IUOE Local 904 represents about 1,800 workers in the province. The Hebron gravity-based structure project will build an offshore oil platform off the coast of St Johns, on the island of Newfoundland, by 2017. Local 793 Supports Medical Research Local 793 recently donated $102,000 to the Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation. The money will be used for research into esophageal cancer. (L to R) Dr. Gail Darling, director of thoracic surgery clinical research at University Health Network, accepted the cheque from Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher and president Joe Redshaw. The money was raised at the Gary O’Neill Memorial Golf Tournament held in summer 2011. The tournament is named in honour of Gary O’Neill, late president of Local 793. 20 international operating engineer
Protecting Canadian Workers’ Rights, Local 115 Challenges Federal Government IUOE Local 115, in partnership with the Building Trades of British Columbia, has been in the media spotlight nationally since early November 2012 due to the high-profile challenge of the Canadian Federal Government’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program. Local 115 was prompted to commence legal action when a company called HD Mining (HD) was granted TFW permits allowing it to conduct a 100,000-tonne coal sampling, using 201 workers brought in from China. “It was an unacceptable situation,” explained Business Manager Brian Cochrane. “We had qualified members on Local 115’s dispatch lists and out of work members of our sister locals throughout Canada and the USA ready to assist with the exploration in Murray River. It was clear that HD hadn’t made a legitimate attempt to recruit Canadian workers first which is a requirement of the Federal Governments Temporary Foreign Worker program.” The Canadian Federal Government and HD Mining fought every step of the way in court, resulting in numerous pieces of litigation, from not only the Federal Government, but from HD and its shareholders as well. HD threatened at one point to close down other resource extraction projects in the Murray River region, which they quickly retracted. Local 115’s campaign has not been an easy one. After first winning the right to apply for a judicial review based on considerations of public interest, Local 115 went on to win again in court to obtain access to hundreds of documents related to the approval of the Murray River permits. In early January, when key information was withheld by HD, and the government argued that it was unable to compel the firm to produce the missing data, the local forced full disclosure by filing a contempt of court application against Canadian Human Resources Minister Diane Finley. Again Federal Court ruled in favor of Local 115, stating the government must continue to obtain the documents from HD. In mid-January, HD finally complied with the Court order and turned over the 315 resumes of Canadians who responded to their job ads. Although HD Mining claimed there were no Canadian applicants qualified to do this work, the evidence from the resumes clearly shows that was not factual. Within days after releasing the resumes as a part of the court order, HD Mining announced it was going to send the Chinese workers that had already arrived in Canada back home to China. Local 115 has now filed an additional submission to the courts after reviewing the resumes of the people who had applied for these jobs. “There were people who applied that had over 30 years’ experience and why they were deemed unqualified by HD Mining is completely absurd,” said Business Manager Cochrane in several interviews with the media. The real issue is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program: it’s a broken system in urgent need of reform. Until the TFW program is changed to be both more effective and more transparent, these kinds of abuses will continue. The good news is that this story has garnered national attention and overwhelming positive support, and that puts pressure on the federal government to set up an independent review. The Local wants to try and find a better solution to protect Canadian jobs and provide opportunities for IUOE members from the United States when they become available. This campaign is not over, and there are more legal battles on the forefront, but taking on this challenge successfully has brought the importance of unions back into the national spotlight. WINTER 2013 21
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Page 7 and 8: Local 450’s new Union Hall and Tr
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Page 13 and 14: The competitiveness of the nation a
Page 15 and 16: Local 18 Ramps Up the Fight Against
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Operating Engineer - Winter 2013

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