Offices Closed on Family Day

Please be advised that all Local 793 offices across the province will be closed on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018 for Family Day. Regular office hours will resume on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. Please have a safe and enjoyable long weekend.

Please be advised that all Local 793 offices across the province will be closed on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018 for Family Day.

Regular office hours will resume on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018.

Please have a safe and enjoyable long weekend.

Union Dues Tax Receipts Online as of Feb. 21, 2019

As of Thursday, February 21, 2019, Local 793 members will be able to go online to the union website and download their 2018 tax receipts for union dues and T4A’s issued by Global Benefits. Originals are automatically sent out to members’ home addresses, as per usual.  The online feature was established by Local 793 business […]

As of Thursday, February 21, 2019, Local 793 members will be able to go online to the union website and download their 2018 tax receipts for union dues and T4A’s issued by Global Benefits.

Originals are automatically sent out to members’ home addresses, as per usual. 

The online feature was established by Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher to allow members to download their receipts and file their tax returns early, if they choose to do so.

Following are step-by-step instructions on how to go online and download the 2018 receipts online:

> Go to the union website at iuoelocal793.org.

Log in to the member section of the IUOE Local 793 website. If you do not currently have an account, you must create one first.

Log in with your credentials

Once logged in to your member account profile, scroll to the bottom of the page and select view documents beside the downloadable tax forms description.

> Click on the available forms Dues (Union Dues Receipt) and T4A Form.  This will download a printable PDF form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building Trades Object to Decertification Push in Sault

Following is a letter to the editor from Pat Dillon, business manager of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, that was published in Daily Commercial News on Feb. 14, 2018. Earlier, Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher had also written a letter to the editor on the same issue at https://iuoelocal793.org/letter-to-the-editor/. As business […]

Following is a letter to the editor from Pat Dillon, business manager of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, that was published in Daily Commercial News on Feb. 14, 2018. Earlier, Local 793 business manager Mike Gallagher had also written a letter to the editor on the same issue at https://iuoelocal793.org/letter-to-the-editor/.

As business manager of the Provincial Building Trades Council, I am deeply troubled by the ongoing push by Sault Ste. Marie City Council to pursue a change in the city’s status as a “construction employer.”

In my view, this move was made based on misinformation and without any substantive reasoning. If successful, such a move would consume huge legal costs shouldered by the citizens of that community, but more importantly, would denigrate the fair wages, job security, safety and training standards that construction workers in the Sault have fought to achieve over the course of generations.

The city is a construction employer because it had decided it was cheaper to hire carpenters and labourers directly and cut out the contractors those workers traditionally worked for. Those workers then decided to apply to certify the city so they would have the same wages and benefits as if they were working for their construction contractors, doing the very same work.

Thus, the City of Sault Ste. Marie became a construction employer. Sounds fair to me.

Now, the city is deciding, based on misinformation on potential savings, that it wants to try and avoid its legal obligations to the Sault Ste. Marie workers.

At a time when the general public is realizing that government can be a force for improving the quality of people’s work experience as evidenced by recent provincial labour law reforms and an increase to the minimum wage to help keep up with increased costs of living, the municipal government in the Sault appears to have chosen a path of weakening workers by increasing, instead of mitigating, their precariousness.

The real driving force behind city council’s decision is the pursuit of profits at the expense of worker training, wages and pensions.

If successful, a change in status would improve only one thing: the bottom line for certain contractors who don’t want to pay their workers fair wages and/or don’t want to compete with legitimate contractors on a level playing field.

Insofar as the City of Sault Ste. Marie chooses to perform construction work, it should remain designated as a construction employer.

Over the years, workers active on projects who built the community have chosen to be represented by the Carpenters’ and Labourers’ unions whose collective agreements include prevailing wages and benefits that were negotiated by those unions with contractors, including the City of Sault Ste. Marie, to support those workers and their families.

To all of a sudden have unscrupulous employers and their associations warn of “labour monopolies” and a “lack of competition” in the Sault’s construction industry in order to tear down obligations to workers, is nothing new. Such efforts demonstrate an eagerness by some contractors to test out what they can get away with.

Changing Sault Ste. Marie’s status as a construction employer to then be able to hire non-union contractors does nothing to save taxpayers’ money and everything to enhance those contractors’ profits.

This would not only negatively impact workers, but legitimate contractors as well; ones who do pay fair wages and who help pay for skills training which produces better health and safety outcomes.

Those like Ms. Karen Renkema, of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada, who are pushing the decertification campaign, would have the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie believe that if the city becomes a non-construction employer, this would somehow spur increased construction employment among local residents. Yet, a recent electrical/mechanical contract at a major hospital project in Brockville, won by an employer from Ms. Renkema’s organization, will have that employer bringing crews from out of town to perform the work, thereby totally ignoring the qualified but unemployed local tradespeople.

Pursuing a change in the Sault’s status as a construction employer may unleash an ugly race-to-the-bottom in that city’s construction industry, and given Ontario’s strengthening economy, the citizens of this province are expecting shared prosperity, not more inequality.

I am hopeful that the city leadership in Sault Ste. Marie will take the broader interests of construction workers into account when looking into this matter, and not merely rely on a narrative that wants to deregulate local government tendering to improve profits over people.

100th Anniversary Photo Contest

Local 793 is preparing for the union’s 100th anniversary year in 2019. One of the approved activities is a photo contest for members. Prizes will be awarded for best photos of Local 793 members and activities in several categories: 1919 – 1920 1921 – 1929 1930 – 1939 1940 – 1949 1950 – 1959 1960 […]

Local 793 is preparing for the union’s 100th anniversary year in 2019.

One of the approved activities is a photo contest for members.

Prizes will be awarded for best photos of Local 793 members and activities in several categories:

  • 1919 – 1920
  • 1921 – 1929
  • 1930 – 1939
  • 1940 – 1949
  • 1950 – 1959
  • 1960 – 1969
  • 1970 – 1979
  • 1980 – 1989
  • 1990 – 1999
  • 2000 – 2009
  • 2010 – Present

Deadline for submissions is Friday, July 26, 2019. A winner will be announced at the general membership meeting on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019.

Some of the photos may be used in a special commemorative book being published to coincide with the 100th anniversary year.

The photos will be judged by a three-member committee.

Here are the rules:

  • All photos must be high resolution, at least 5×7 inches at 300 dots per inch (DPI). 
  • Photos must be accompanied by a caption with information on the year the photo was taken, who or what is in the photo, where the photo was taken, and what’s happening in the photo.
  • Only submissions with the required information will be considered. 
  • Please also include your union registration number when submitting the photo(s), so we can verify you are a member in good standing.
  • Union members can submit more than one photo. In fact, multiple entries are encouraged.

Photo(s) can be sent via email to gcameron@iuoelocal793.org or mailed to Grant Cameron, director of communications, IUOE Local 793, 2245 Speers Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6L 6X8.
If you have any questions, please call me directly at 905-469-9299, ext. 2276.