Monthly Archives

January 2017

Union Leaders Meet with Trump

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At a meeting with the leaders of several construction and building trade unions, President Trump reiterated on Monday his interest in directing hundreds of billions of dollars to infrastructure investments, some of it from the federal government, union officials said.

“That was the impression I was taken away with,” said Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, an umbrella group, on a call with reporters after the meeting. “That the American citizenry and the American Treasury will be invested in building public infrastructure.”

Mr. McGarvey added that Mr. Trump clearly felt that much of the money should come from the private sector and that some of the investments could take the form of … (read more)

Liberal MP John Aldag Visits the FTI

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This week, the member of Parliament for Cloverdale-Langley City, John Aldag, took a tour of the FTI.

Accompanied by the Executive Director of the BC Building Trades, Tom Sigurdson, DC 38 Business Manager, David Holmes, Done Right Painting Owner, Troy Halverson and FTI Director of Training, Paddy Byrne, Mr. Aldag spent nearly two hours touring the facility. The Federal Liberal Government, since being elected in 2015, has shown consistent support for apprenticeship training in Canada and has specifically praised the work done in this area by Union sponsored training facilities.

This was a great opportunity for Mr. Aldag to see first hand the great work we do in preparing our apprentices to be the Red Seal Journeypersons of tomorrow. It was very important that he was able to meet with the students, instructors and one of our most successful Painting Contractors, to hear firsthand about the quality of the instruction and equipment we employ at our facility.

We look forward to Mr. Aldag sharing his observations with his fellow MP’s in Ottawa and to welcoming additional MP’s at our facility in the near future. We are proud of the work we do here and wish to enlighten all Canadians about the value of Apprenticeship when delivered by training schools aligned with the BC Building Trades and more specifically, The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades DC 38.

from the right, Liberal MP John Aldag, DC 38 BM/ST Dave Holmes and Tom Sigurdson E.D. of the BC Building Trades listen as FTI Glazing Instructor Mark Longmore demonstrates some of the equipment used in the Glazier Apprenticeship program.

(From right to left) Liberal MP John Aldag, DC 38 BM/ST Dave Holmes and Tom Sigurdson E.D. of the BC Building Trades listen as FTI Glazing Instructor, Mark Longmore, demonstrates some of the equipment used in the Glazier Apprenticeship program.John Aldag Tour 2

18% of Site C Workers not from BC

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BC Hydro recently released employment statistics for the Site C project for November 2016. The report reveals 18% of workers, which equals 246, on the project were from outside BC.

“This is simply unacceptable,” said Tom Sigurdson, Executive Director for the BC Building Trades. “There are thousands of skilled and qualified British Columbians available and ready to work on this project. Instead, BC Hydro has allowed contractors to … (read more)

Drywall Tariffs are Hurting our Contractors

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CertainTeed Gypsum Canada is praising a ruling by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) recognizing that dumped U.S. drywall imports into Western Canada are hurting its business, but also slammed the tribunal for not relying on “complete information.”

“Both high dumping margins and material injury have now been affirmed twice by Canadian authorities,” reads a statement from CertainTeed’s general manager, Matthew Walker.

“It validates CertainTeed Gypsum Canada’s anti-dumping complaint that western Canadian manufacturing has suffered material injury from large volumes of U.S. drywall imports sold at low prices with huge dumping margins.”

However, the CITT also recognized tariffs as high as 276 per cent were hurting … (read more)