Gallagher Speaks to First Nations Leaders

First Nations communities across Ontario should work with unions like Local 793 because they share many of the same ideals and values, business manager Mike Gallagher told a conference of Aboriginal leaders and training officials in Thunder Bay on March 26. Unions like Local 793 will also bargain collective agreements that protect workers and ensure […]

First Nations communities across Ontario should work with unions like Local 793 because they share many of the same ideals and values, business manager Mike Gallagher told a conference of Aboriginal leaders and training officials in Thunder Bay on March 26.

Unions like Local 793 will also bargain collective agreements that protect workers and ensure First Nations communities benefit from developments that take place on their lands, he said.

“I want to encourage the elders and the chiefs of the First Nations peoples to work with organizations like mine – the Operating Engineers – or other groups out there because you have to have some permanent benefit from development that occurs on your land,” he said.

Gallagher was a guest speaker at the two-day conference. The event, called Aboriginal Apprenticeship: A Solution to Bridge the Skills Gap, was hosted by Grand River Employment and Training in partnership with the Aboriginal Apprenticeship Board of Ontario.

Local 793 and the Operating Engineers Training Institute of Ontario (OETIO) were partners/sponsors of the event.

Purpose of the event was to share how the construction industry and First Nations communities can work together to support Aboriginal people becoming indentured apprentices.

Gallagher told the audience that people have a habit of focusing on things that set them apart, but they’d be better off concentrating on the similarities.

He said First Nations peoples and workers in building trade unions like Local 793 have much in common, namely that they love their children and care about the environment and future.

“If we don’t have that we have nothing,” he noted.

Gallagher said people sometimes think that construction workers don’t care about those sorts of issues, but they do.

“We want to make sure that our workers are safe and there is respect for the environment.”

Gallagher said he has great respect for First Nations peoples.

He recalled working as an 18-year-old on a rail project in Saskatchewan. It was a mobile camp and a census was being done. However, the Aboriginal people from Saskatchewan refused to be counted because on the census form they were listed as Indians, not Aboriginals.

“I respected that,” he said.

Gallagher said he could relate because, as a young boy, he remembers going with his mother and father to Ottawa to protest the Vietnam war.

“I see that spirit of fighting for justice and it makes me feel good wherever it comes from.”

Gallagher also talked about David Kawapit, an 18-year-old Cree from the James Bay community of Whapmagoostui, who left his home Jan. 16 and walked 1,100 kilometres in freezing temperatures to Ottawa to draw attention to the plight of First Nations youth.

“How powerful is that?” Gallagher asked. “That’s just uplifting to me. That’s a real symbol of hope.”

Gallagher noted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not meet Kawapit in Ottawa on his arrival March 25 although he did greet Pandas that were arriving about the same time.

Gallagher said First Nations communities have some big decisions to make because there are a lot of opportunities coming along as projects expand into areas where Aboriginals live, one being a possible mine in northwestern Ontario by Cliffs Natural Resources.

He told the audience that Local 793 and the Operating Engineers Training Institute of Ontario (OETIO) recently helped HP White recruit two First Nations excavator apprentices for the McLean’s Mountain Wind Farm project on Manitoulin Island.

He urged the delegates to embrace unions in their communities because unions will ensure that employers honour collective bargaining agreements with First Nations workers.

He held up Local 793’s Provincial Collective Agreement, saying it sets out things like grievance procedures, health and safety provisions and ratios of apprentices to journeymen, along with a schedule of wages for various types of cranes and heavy equipment.

Gallagher said unions make sure the rights of workers are protected.

“If all of the development that takes place is done non-union you’ll have none of those enforcement abilities to make sure the promises can be kept.”

Gallagher said if First Nations peoples get into apprenticeships now they’ll be ready when the work comes on stream.

“One of the best things we can do for our children is give them a career, give them a skill, and an apprenticeship offers them that.”

OETIO Featured as Part of Global TV’s Federal Budget Coverage

The Canadian office of the IUOE was able to get Global TV to visit the Morrisburg campus of the Operating Engineers Training Institute of Ontario (OETIO) for the network’s upcoming coverage of the federal budget. The Global team spoke to OETIO executive director Harold McBride and several students at the campus. Global news has indicated […]

The Canadian office of the IUOE was able to get Global TV to visit the Morrisburg campus of the Operating Engineers Training Institute of Ontario (OETIO) for the network’s upcoming coverage of the federal budget. The Global team spoke to OETIO executive director Harold McBride and several students at the campus. Global news has indicated it will be running a story that includes footage and interviews from the OETIO campus as part of the network’s federal budget special that will air sometime between 4 and 4:30 p.m. (EST) on Thursday, March 21. The footage will also run on Global National around 6:30 p.m.

Notice of General Membership Meeting

All Local 793 members are reminded that a general membership meeting of the union is scheduled for Sunday, March 24, 2013 in the Operating Engineers banquet hall, 2245 Speers Road, Oakville. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. Click here for a map.    

All Local 793 members are reminded that a general membership meeting of the union is scheduled for Sunday, March 24, 2013 in the Operating Engineers banquet hall, 2245 Speers Road, Oakville. The meeting begins at 10 a.m.

Click here for a map.

 

 

Construction Forecast Generally Bright for Ontario

The outlook for the industrial, commercial and engineering sectors of the province’s construction industry is bright for 2013, but not so good for the institutional sector, according to a report released recently by the Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS). The report says the outlook for industrial investment is positive for 2013, as foreshadowed by a 19-per-cent […]

The outlook for the industrial, commercial and engineering sectors of the province’s construction industry is bright for 2013, but not so good for the institutional sector, according to a report released recently by the Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS).

The report says the outlook for industrial investment is positive for 2013, as foreshadowed by a 19-per-cent year-over-year increase in industrial building permits in 2012.

Investment in the industrial sector is expected to be driven by continued growth in the U.S. economy, which will lead to increased exports and higher manufacturing revenues.

Additionally, the capacity utilization rate – which measures the intensity with which resources in the manufacturing sector are being utilized – is currently above-average, meaning that there is an incentive to expand capital through investment.

Industrial activity will also be helped by the mining sector, the report says, thanks to work at the Red Lake and Musselwhite mines. Additionally, industrial investment will receive a lift from Vale’s $1-billion Atmospheric Emission Reductions (AER) plant in Sudbury.

Large-scale transportation projects will help stimulate construction in the industrial sector, the report says, specifically the light rail transit projects in Ottawa and Waterloo Region and the Metrolinx projects in the GTA.

Investment in the commercial sector is expected to grow at a decent pace over the next three years, the report notes, consistent with a steadily improving economy and labour market, continued population growth and increase in the value of building permits issued.

Strength will be concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The migration of the echo-boomer generation to the downtown core has played a role in stimulating office building demand, which when combined with tight supply conditions, has spurred a new office construction cycle.

Commercial investment in other regions of the province will also likely grow, the report says, though perhaps not as fast as the GTA.

PanAm Games projects, which are considered commercial, are also expected to help boost investment. The capital budget for the Games is $674 million and includes a number of projects in the GTA and Hamilton. Several of the projects have already been tendered by Infrastructure Ontario.

In the engineering sector, investment is projected to be fairly solid in 2013 before slowing in later years due to fiscal austerity measures.

Almost every region of the province has one or more major engineering projects planned or under way, the report states.

The GTA is home to the Metrolinx transportation projects and construction on highway 407. Looking longer-term, there is also the anticipated nuclear rebuild project slated for 2016.

Light Rail Transit projects in both Ottawa and Waterloo Region are expected to lift engineering investment over the next three years. Engineering investment will also be strengthened by the mining sector in northern Ontario and the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway and Detroit River International Crossing in southwestern Ontario.

The institutional, sector, however, is expected to weaken, the report states, as government spending retrenches and the sector continues to unwind from the stimulus-related gains seen in 2010 and 2011 when institutional investment grew by a meaty eight per cent.

Softening institutional activity is already evident as institutional permits declined 22 per cent in 2012 versus 2011.

Major institutional projects currently under way include the $2-billion hospital in Oakville and the $1.75-billion Humber River Regional Hospital.

Infrastructure Ontario has indicated that there are roughly 29 major institutional projects that are currently in the planning stage.

Gallagher Suggests Boycott of Porter Airlines

Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher has written a letter to IUOE Canadian regional director James Murphy, suggesting that the Canadian office of the IUOE and locals across the country boycott Porter Airlines and support 22 striking workers at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. The workers are members of Local 343 of the Canadian Office […]

Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher has written a letter to IUOE Canadian regional director James Murphy, suggesting that the Canadian office of the IUOE and locals across the country boycott Porter Airlines and support 22 striking workers at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. The workers are members of Local 343 of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union.

Click here for the letter to James Murphy.

Click here to find out more about the strike.

Click here to send a message to Porter Airlines.

IUOE Launches Canadian Section on Website

The website of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) now has a section dedicated to news about Canadian locals. The section has a number of sections for information about Canadian legislation, local unions, training schools and links. There is also a section for videos. To get to the Canadian website, go to the IUOE […]

The website of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) now has a section dedicated to news about Canadian locals.

The section has a number of sections for information about Canadian legislation, local unions, training schools and links.

There is also a section for videos.

To get to the Canadian website, go to the IUOE website at www.iuoe.org and click on the ‘About IUOE’ tab at the top, then click on the ‘IUOE Canada’ tab in the menu at left.

You can also click here to go directly to the Canadian site.

 

 

 

Local 793 Operator Featured in The Toronto Star

Local 793 tower crane operator Robert MacFarlane was featured in a story that appeared in The Toronto Star on March 2. Robert is working atop the L Tower, a 58-storey condo development on The Esplanade in Toronto. Robert often takes photos of the stunning views from his perch. Many of the photos end up on […]

Local 793 tower crane operator Robert MacFarlane was featured in a story that appeared in The Toronto Star on March 2. Robert is working atop the L Tower, a 58-storey condo development on The Esplanade in Toronto. Robert often takes photos of the stunning views from his perch. Many of the photos end up on his Twitter account @SkyJacked793.

Click here to read the story.