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Manitoba Regional Council of Carpenters, Lathers, Millwrights and Allied Workers

FALL / WINTER 2011

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MANITOBA REGIONAL COUNCIL OF CARPENTERS,

LATHERS, MILLWRIGHTS AND ALLIED WORKERS

87 Cole Avenue FALL / WINTER 2011

Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2L 1J3

Phone: 1-204-774-1609

Toll free 1-888-271-3908

Fax: 1-204-786-6811 on the web: www.manitobaregionalcouncil.ca

In This Issue:

Jason Rowe Executive Secretary Treasurer

Brian Smith Carpenters Local 343 Business Representative

Alan Szmerski Millwrights Local 1443 Business Representative

Kristina Peterson Training Director

John Reczek Director of Organizing

Important dates/upcoming events


FALL / WINTER 2011

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FALL / WINTER 2011

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MONTHLY MEETINGS:

Carpenter Local 343 7:30 P.M. 1st Wednesday of the Month.

Next meeting Wednesday November 2, 2011.

Millwright Local 1443 7:00 P.M. 3rd Tuesday of the Month.

Next meeting Tuesday November 15, 2011

Important dates and deadlines:

Friday November 18- last day to register for children’s Christmas party

Friday November 25 RSVP for Pin recipients

Friday November 25 final day for Banquet ticket sales.

HOLIDAY HOURS:

December 26-January 2 CLOSED

January 3—OPEN

Visit the Manitoba Regional Council of Carpenters, Lathers, Millwrights and Allied Workers web-site at manitobaregionalcouncil.ca, to access the members only side please contact Samantha Warden at 774-1609 ext. 2226 or [email protected].

“Change form” If you have a change in relationship status such as marriage, common-

law, divorce / separation, be sure to come by the hall and fill out a “change form” sheet

OFFICE EXTENSIONS

Reception 2220

Local 343 Business agent 2228

Local 1443 Business agent 2223

Executive Secretary Treasurer 2227

Director of Organizing 2231

Training Director 2236

Training/Registration 2222

Special Projects Coordinator 2226

Welding Instructor 2234

Accounting Department 2225

Out of work line 2232

Coughlin & Associates 942 4438

Toll Free 1-888-204-1234

WOMENS COMMITTEE

For the past year, the Manitoba Regional Council has been meeting with women members to form the Women's Committee. This past week, it was decided that they will open up its mem-bership to include the women in the lives of the male membership. A meeting was held on No-vember 3

rd. We look forward to the success of this first meeting. As a committee we aim to ad-

dress retention and recruitment of women members as well as the barriers and stereotypes that we will have to face along the way. Members of the Women's Committee in the past have at-tended Women's Conferences in Vegas, where women across Canada and the United States gather and most recently at the first ever Canadian Women's Conference in Alberta. We are hoping that this meeting will help to increase women membership in the union.

mailto:[email protected]


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The 2011 Provincial election is

now over and Lloyd and I

would like to thank the politi-

cal action committee for all

their hard work and time. As

a group we hand delivered well

over 2000 flyers and built hun-

dreds of signs. Others did

walkabouts with candidates

going door to door. We were

involved in four NDP cam-

paigns in Winnipeg with our

main focus on Radisson and

Transcona. Daryl Reid, MLA

for Transcona and Mr Bidhu

jha MLA for Radisson wish to

thank the Manitoba Regional

Council for its efforts. Erin

Selby and Sharon Blady have

also expressed their thanks for

efforts in their ridings. It is

fantastic that so many of our

members found time to volun-

teer after work and on week-

ends for the Political Action

Campaign. Balancing home

life and work and still finding

time to help out in our commu-

nity is what makes us strong.

Fraternally John Reczek

John Reczek

Director of Organizing

Training

Recently, Apprenticeship Mani-

toba made changes to how and

when apprentices write their In-

terprovincial exams and some

of you may have been affected

already. Apprentices will no

longer write their IP as their final

test at school, it will be sched-

uled at a later date. They made

these changes without notifica-

tion or consultation from indus-

try or apprentices. If you would

like to express your displeasure

with these changes please send

an email or letter to Apprentice-

ship Manitoba and the Depart-

ment of Entrepreneurship Train-

ing and Trade.

Sean Ramsay

Apprenticeship Training

Coordinator

1010-401 York Avenue

204-471-4109

Email [email protected]

Scott Sinclair

Executive Director

1010-401 York Avenue

Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0P8

204-471-4109


Paul Holden

Senior Executive Director

Bldg.# 139-800 Portage Avenue

Winnipeg, Manitoba R3G 0N4

204-945-0067


Peter Bjornson

Minister of the Department of

Entrepreneurship Training and

Trade

Room 333 Legislative Bldg.

450 Broadway

Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0V8


Training is up and moving

again. If you do not have a

schedule, it is available on our

website in the members section

(just call Samantha at the office

774-1609 ext. 2226 to set up

your login information). Please

ensure we have your current

contact information when you

register into a course. Courses

are subject to change and we

make every effort to notify REG-

ISTERED students as soon as

changes occur. There has been

lots of interest in Scaffolding,

please ensure you have the re-

quired prerequisites and provide

the $100 deposit to hold your

seat in the class.

If you have been in the training

centre recently you may have

noticed a new set up. This is

the mock up for the Best Prac-

tices in Healthcare construction

course that will be offered to the

general membership in the New

Year. If you are interested in

taking this course please ask to

be put on the wait list to be part

of the first offerings.

Kristina Peterson Training Director


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Brothers and Sisters

What an incredible fall we are

having, both weather wise and

in regards to our work. As fast

as members are being laid off

from projects they are being

placed on start-ups or ramp-ups

of existing projects. I cannot re-

member a busier fall than we

are having this year. Inevitably,

layoffs will be coming but until

then make hay while the sun is

still shining. While out on visits

to our job sites lately, I have

been hearing members say “I

received a dues letter in the mail

and I don’t think I should have”.

I’d like to try to clarify this if I

can. If you have received a

three month dues letter, you

probably just owe one month, as

the other two months are usually

considered “current months”. In

other words if you are working,

they are somewhere in the sys-

tem. before you call the office,

make sure you have your

(Continued on page 4)

Brothers and Sisters,

As you are well aware the Mani-

toba Regional Council is merging

with the Saskatchewan Regional

Council. This process is moving

along swiftly. The process start-

ed mid-September and is ex-

pected to be completed by the

end of the year. Over the past

six months that the Conservative

Government has been in office

with a majority government, they

have had numerous well publi-

cized labour disputes. They are

out to attack union labour, and

are not doing so discretely. In

June, they forced the Postal

Workers back-to-work after a ro-

tating strike, and the employers

locked out their employees.

Several hours after the lockout

started the Labour Minister an-

nounced Back-to-Work legisla-

tion. This was the first of many

attacks to come. They were go-

ing to force Air Canada ticketing

agents’ back-to-work, but before

the legislation passed, the CAW

and Air Canada achieved a deal.

The latest attack on labour has

been in the last month when the

flight attendants were to strike

against Air Canada. The day be-

fore the strike was to occur, the

Labour Minister referred the dis-

pute to the Canadian Industrial

Relations Board, to determine if

flight attendants were an essen-

tial service of Canada. This

blocked the strike and, since

then, CUPE and Air Canada

have agreed to binding arbitra-

tion. It does not matter whether

you believe in the strikes or not,

it is the total disregard and dis-

dain that the government shows

for the process and unions that

reminds me of the American

style of politics.

On a more positive note, in poli-

tics, the NDP have won another

majority government in Manito-

ba. The NDP plan on building

two hydroelectric dams;

Conawapa and Keeyask. The

Conawapa and Keeyask dams

are both six billion dollar pro-

jects. These two projects will

create thousands of jobs. Thank

you to those who volunteered

their time to the Political Action

Committee distributing flyers and

dropping off signs. It is because

of you that doors open in Gov-

ernment when we want to speak

about our issues.

As brought up in the previous

newsletter, the 125th anniversary

for Local 343 will be celebrated

in October, 2012. If you are in-

terested in attending, let us know

as we are in the beginning stag-

es of planning and would like to

know who may be attending.

Fraternally,

Jason Rowe

Executive Secretary Treasurer

Jason Rowe Executive Secretary Treasurer

Brian Smith

Carpenter Local 343

Business Representative


FALL / WINTER 2011

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cheque stubs available. This will

help us track down what the

problem may be. Remember

apprentices, if you went to

school you are going to need to

pay those months as well. If you

get a six month letter, you will be

suspended at the end of that

month. Head office requires that

all back dues be paid in order to

reinstate, so it is in your best in-

terest to send in at least one

month dues payment to prevent

you from suspending while fol-

lowing up. According to our

Constitution “monthly dues are

due on the first day of each

month, but a member does not

fall in arrears until the last day of

the month in which the member

owes three months dues. All

monthly dues shall be consid-

ered paid on the date that pay-

ment is received at the Local Un-

ion” and not on the date that it is

deducted from your paycheque.

It is a service provided to you by

our contractors that they will de-

duct dues from your pay. Ulti-

mately the member is responsi-

ble to see that his/her dues are

up to date and that they’re in

good standing.

Fraternally, Brian Smith

(Continued from page 3)

Hello Brothers and Sisters.

Spring and summer of

2011 is behind us and we are

into the fall and winter. Spring

was slow with approximately 14

members traveling to B.C. in

early May and returning in June.

Our contractors were successful

bidding work in Saskatchewan

which has worked out in our fa-

vor and we still have work there.

Manitoba Hydro will be commis-

sioning the first unit at Wuskwa-

tim at the end of October. There

are bids out for tender at Point

du Bois, Great Falls, Pine Falls

and Seven Sisters. The NDP

said they would go ahead with

Keeyask, Bi-Pole 3 and another

Converting Station which will

mean millions of man hours for

us and other trades as well in

Manitoba. The future is looking

very good for our members.

There will be work on the South

Floodway from November-

February and Mortenson is

erecting another sixty wind tur-

bines at St. Joseph next spring.

We must be job ready with all

the work coming up. Members

should be enrolling in UBC train-

ing being offered. Training in-

cludes 1st aid, fall protection,

WHMIS, confined space, fork lift,

zoom boom, self-elevated work

platform, and rigging. Check the

website for a complete schedule.

Remember- members need to

have all the tools on the tool list

and be able to use them. To

work in Saskatchewan, you need

to have the CSTS safety disc,

and Derksen Mechanical also

requires this as a pre-requisite to

hiring. Back check clearances

are currently needed to work on

the Kettle hydro site. It has been

made very clear to me that these

clearances will be implemented

on more Hydro sites as tenders

are released. There is an ex-

pansion at the Mint. Mint clear-

ance is required to work there.

Derksen seems to have the mill-

wright work, therefore CSTS disc

is also needed. When you have-

n’t worked but are actively look-

ing for work, be sure to call the

out of work line. We need every

member who is available for

work to call the out of work line.

We do not need members calling

contractors, pitting contractors

against one another and working

for the highest bidder. A mem-

bers skill, ability, attitude, train-

ing and dependability get them

hired from the list, not job shop-

ping.

Jim Lockhart represented local

1443 this year at the UBC Na-

(Continued on page 5)

Alan Szmerski

Millwright Local 1443

Business Representative


FALL / WINTER 2011

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tional Apprenticeship Contest in

Quebec City. Included in the

contest was an alignment exer-

cise, layout exercise as well as

a written test and he represent-

ed us well. This was also a

Canada Council year so Dele-

gates from all Locals across

Canada met to elect our UBC

representatives from Western

and Eastern Canada and Presi-

dents on committees such as

NATAC. Terry Hleck and I rep-

resented local 1443. Currently

we have 4 brothers from Ontario

working with us at Kelsey and

Kettle because they filled out

the back check forms, with an

additional 32 members from On-

tario clearing as well. I will not

hesitate to call any brother or

sister that has those clearances

to fill Manitoba Hydro calls. In

closing, Brian Wadham passed

away in August and will be

missed. Please remember to

work safe always.

Fraternally, Alan Szmerski

DISPLAY FIXTURES

We’ve sent out agreement

books to Display Fixture mem-

bers with schedule “A” (wages)

on the cover because there may

be some differences with wages

so please contact me at 771-

8669 if this is a problem. The

tool crib wording has yet to be

located. We will draft up anoth-

er one and have it for the next

agreement. It can be somewhat

complicated factoring money in,

the cap on money in and the

coverage of stolen, broken or

lost tools etc. Most of the mem-

bers are busy in Manitoba and

Saskatchewan with store ex-

pansions and some new loca-

tions. Please remember your

local meetings are the first

Wednesday of the month at

7:30 at 87 Cole.

Take care and work safe.

Fraternally, Alan Szmerski

LOCAL 1614 FLIN FLON

Local 1614 have approximately

22 carpenter apprentices and

carpenters working, and, is one

of seven locals and six Interna-

tional Unions, going into bar-

gaining as soon as the current

agreement expires December

31, 2011. Each local has their

own issues to negotiate with

Hudson Bay Mining and Smelt-

ing, as well as, common issues

such as wage increases, pen-

sion plan and health and wel-

fare benefits that are in the

hands of Hudson Bay Mining

and Smelting. Local 1614 and

their local council were success-

ful in settling an arbitration case

with HBMS, recognizing scaf-

folding as a separate task and

the carpenter trade and a wage

enhancement will be paid going

forward to all members that

have scaffold training certifi-

cates with back pay to May

2008. I would like to thank the

members of local 1614 for their

patience with the grievance and

arbitration procedure. It has

proven that we were right. Take

care and work safe.

Fraternally—Alan Szmerski

(Continued from page 4)

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