Report on Hoisting Engineers Trade Board

Following is a report from Brian Alexander, assistant director of training and apprenticeship at the OETIO, who since March 2013 has chaired the hoisting engineers trade board of the Ontario College of Trades. It has been a privilege and honour to serve for almost five years as chair of the hoisting engineers trade board of […]

Brian Alexander

Following is a report from Brian Alexander, assistant director of training and apprenticeship at the OETIO, who since March 2013 has chaired the hoisting engineers trade board of the Ontario College of Trades.

It has been a privilege and honour to serve for almost five years as chair of the hoisting engineers trade board of the Ontario College of Trades.

The board has been very active and much has been accomplished in the six years I have been on the board.

I was first appointed to the hoisting engineers trade board in February 2012, a little over a year before OCOT first began accepting members. Prior to that, I served a two-year appointment on the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities provincial advisory committee for the hoisting engineers trades. I was selected as chair of the OCOT hoisting engineers trade board on March, 26, 2013 and re-appointed to the board for a second term in 2015.

My current term on the board expires Feb, 14, 2018. Per the terms of the Ontario College of Trades and Apprenticeship Act, trade board members are not eligible to serve more than six consecutive years.

It is important for Local 793 to be represented on the trade board because it ensures the union is at the forefront of any decisions made that affect the hoisting trades. We can make sure that the concerns of our members are heard and work to ensure that the trades are protected and enhanced.

Business manager Mike Gallagher has always supported proactive involvement in trade-related training and health and safety committees. He supports the Ontario College of Trades because it places decision-making in the hands of those who understand the issues and feel the impact of those decisions. It also provides a path whereby a voluntary trade can become a compulsory trade.

I appreciate this approach, as it is much better to be at the table and engaged.

My time on the hoisting engineers trade board has been amongst the most fulfilling of any committee I’m involved with. It’s been great to have developed a rapport with OCOT staff to a point where they feel comfortable they can call you any time for advice and when they are struggling with an issue.

Since the inception of OCOT, the board has been very active dealing with all aspects of the hoisting trades. The trade board has issued three information notes geared to inform OCOT enforcement officers about issues relating to hoisting which impact health and safety for workers and the public, including:

  1. Enforcement of automotive wreckers and tow trucks performing hoisting/lifting activities for purposes other than to clear wrecks and haul vehicles – September 2013
  2. Supervision of crane apprentices – December 2014
  3. Identifying de-rated mobile cranes – May 2015

It’s interesting to note that OCOT enforcement officers laid charges in at least two separate instances where automotive wreckers were found being used as mobile cranes to perform work other than clearing wrecks and hauling vehicles. Operators did not have a Certificate of Qualification as a Hoisting Engineer and were subsequently charged. Not only is this practice incredibly unsafe, but it also takes work away from those who are properly qualified by having successfully completed an apprenticeship. Increased enforcement is one of the big benefits of the College.

OCOT policy personnel were also very supportive of the trade board’s position throughout the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship’s (CCDA) national harmonization project to not lower Ontario’s standard for mobile and tower crane apprenticeship training just for the sake of harmonizing with other provinces. Employer stakeholders who work nationally advised that, generally speaking, the best trained and safest crane operators are those who complete their apprenticeships in Ontario. OCOT never once suggested it would be best to lower the total number of apprenticeship hours for the hoisting trades for the sake of achieving the goals that CCDA had set for harmonizing the apprenticeship training requirements.

2018 is shaping up to be another busy year for the hoisting engineers trade board.

This year, the trade board plans to:

  • Update the exam for the Hoisting Engineer – Mobile Crane Operator 2 (339C) trade (maximum hoisting capacities of >16,000 but no more than 30,000 pounds).
  • Work towards implementing the new standard for the National Mobile Crane Operators Demonstration of Skills Test (DOST) which Local 793 and the OETIO were actively involved in developing.
  • Update the training standards for both the mobile and tower crane trades.
  • Work towards getting approval from the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development for increasing the number of hours for Common Core Level 1 training to eight from six weeks to train in emerging new technologies in the craning industry.

To help continue the positive momentum of the past six years, I would encourage members who have a C of Q and a passion for the hoisting trades to apply for a position on the hoisting engineers trade board. All appointments to the College’s governing structure are handled through the Appointments Council. The link to the Council’s website is www.cot-appointments.ca.

If any member has a question about the College or the application process, feel free to call me at 905-469-9299 or send an email to balexander@oetio.com.

Local 793 Crane Apprentices Win Scholarships

Two Local 793 apprentices from Sudbury, Alain Pellerin and Stephane Charron, received recognition recently for their hard work and dedication as crane apprentices. They were presented with the Harold Martin/Michael Quinn Scholarship, which offers financial assistance to an apprentice Operating Engineer in order to promote training in the construction industry. In the photo above are […]

Two Local 793 apprentices from Sudbury, Alain Pellerin and Stephane Charron, received recognition recently for their hard work and dedication as crane apprentices.

They were presented with the Harold Martin/Michael Quinn Scholarship, which offers financial assistance to an apprentice Operating Engineer in order to promote training in the construction industry.

In the photo above are (L to R) Sudbury business rep Eric Giroux, apprentices Alain Pellerin and Stephane Charron, former Northeastern Ontario area supervisor Michael Quinn and Northeastern Ontario area supervisor/financial secretary Robert Turpin.

Hamilton Retiree Featured in Newspaper Story

The Hamilton Spectator recently ran a story about longtime Local 793 member Elwood Cook of Hamilton. The 85-year-old retiree was a grader operator and worked on many projects in the area. By Jeff Mahoney The Hamilton Spectator The long and winding road that leads to his door (Elwood Cook’s) will never disappear. (Hey, I like […]

The Hamilton Spectator recently ran a story about longtime Local 793 member Elwood Cook of Hamilton. The 85-year-old retiree was a grader operator and worked on many projects in the area.

By Jeff Mahoney
The Hamilton Spectator

The long and winding road that leads to his door (Elwood Cook’s) will never disappear.

(Hey, I like that sentence. Someone oughta make it a song. McCartney maybe? Nah.)
The long and winding roads and the countless others that Elwood smoothed the way for in this city, might get potholed (they sure might — have you driven out there this month?); they might get patched up, diverted, rerouted, resurfaced and altered.

But they’ll always be there, leading figuratively to his door, because he dug, loaded, bulldozed and graded the surfaces of so many streets in Hamilton, even as they were being born. He was a big-machine operator here for 44 years. There’s his old union cap on the shelf in his basement.

Click here to continue reading.

Letter to the Editor

Following is a letter to the editor from Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher that was published in Daily Commercial News on Jan. 18, 2018. To The Editor: I would like to respond to a letter to the editor entitled “Allow Sault Ste. Marie to procure projects openly now, says CLAC,” that was in the […]

Following is a letter to the editor from Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher that was published in Daily Commercial News on Jan. 18, 2018.

To The Editor:

I would like to respond to a letter to the editor entitled “Allow Sault Ste. Marie to procure projects openly now, says CLAC,” that was in the Jan. 4, 2018 edition of the DCN.

As business manager of Local 793 of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), which represents nearly 15,000 crane and heavy equipment operators across the province, I find the letter offensive as it contains inaccuracies and doesn’t provide a true picture of the value-added benefits provided by building trades unions like ours.

The letter was highly critical of the tendering process in Sault Ste. Marie and contains misleading statements that need to be corrected.

The author of the letter implies only companies that have contracts with the Labourers’ or Carpenters’ are allowed to bid on city projects, but that is simply not the case. We do not have an agreement with the city, but companies that are signatory to Local 793 have bid on, and been successful in winning, municipal contracts.

The assertion that unionized construction is more costly is also absurd. The information came from Cardus, a think-tank co-founded by a former representative of CLAC. The fact of the matter is that unionized construction sites are much safer than non-union construction sites, therefore leading to fewer lost-time injuries and claims.

In 2015, a study done by the Institute for Work & Health that was funded by the Ontario Construction Secretariat found workers in unionized workplaces have 23 per cent less lost-time claims resulting in time off work than their non-union counterparts. Unionized workers were also almost 30 per cent less likely to suffer critical injuries. The reason is unions do a better job of educating workers through apprenticeship skills training and have more effective health and safety programs and practices. The safety and efficiency benefits of using well-trained building trades unions may not appear on the balance sheet, but are financial benefits that can not be discounted.

Unions also bring value-added benefits to workers and communities. Provincial building trades unions like ours place a huge emphasis on educating and training members. Local 793, for example, has centres in Oakville and Morrisburg that provide top-notch training to apprentices and members. This training pays off in the form of safer and more efficient workers, which translates into lower accident rates. Having such training centres also helps address the issue of significant skills shortages in construction.

We also provide excellent pension and health benefits. The benefits are not for the unions themselves, but are for the members who are citizens of the Sault Ste. Marie community. More than two-thirds of Ontarians do not have a workplace pension. We take pension planning seriously and make sure we negotiate collective agreements that provide for our members in retirement. Presently, our pension plan assets are more than $2.5 billion.

Under the Ontario Labour Relations Act, the City of Sault Ste. Marie is deemed a construction employer. However, the author of the letter suggests that be changed. The City of Toronto crossed the same bridge in 2008 and their own staff report indicated there would be a mere 1.7-per-cent savings to the city at most if they were deemed a non-construction employer and it was recommended it not be pursued at the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

Sault Ste. Marie should not attempt to change its status as a construction employer, as has been suggested in the letter. The city is a construction employer and it should stay that way, plain and simple.

Instead of spending tax dollars trying to get rid of building trades unions, the city perhaps should consider the real benefits of creating a level playing field in competitions for city work and follow the example of the province, federal government, Toronto, Hamilton, Oshawa, London and Thunder Bay in adopting its own Fair Wage Policy.

Sincerely,

Mike Gallagher
Business Manager
IUOE Local 793

Direct Deposit Option for Members

Please be reminded that Local 793 members can sign up for a direct deposit option to receive reimbursements for health and benefit claims electronically. To set up the payments, an Electronic Claims Payment Reimbursement Form must be filled out and returned to the Global Benefits Claims Department with a void cheque for the bank account […]

Please be reminded that Local 793 members can sign up for a direct deposit option to receive reimbursements for health and benefit claims electronically.

To set up the payments, an Electronic Claims Payment Reimbursement Form must be filled out and returned to the Global Benefits Claims Department with a void cheque for the bank account to which the payments will be deposited.

The form can be found in the members section of the union website at www.iuoelocal793.org.

The form can be mailed with a void cheque to:

Global Benefits Claims Department
88 St. Regis Crescent South
Toronto, Ont.
M3J 1Y8

Any member who has questions can call 416-635-6000.