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FTI Expansion Featured in the Journal of Commerce

By | Finishing Trades Institute of BC, NEWS | No Comments

The new 14,000-square-foot addition to the Finishing Trades Institute of B.C. (FTI), which now has 40,000 square feet of training space for tradespersons, will provide space for two growing training needs.

“Primarily, we saw a lot of work for industrial painting in the future and we had outgrown the facility we were in,” said Patrick Byrne, FTI director of training.

“There was also newer technology and equipment emerging.”

Industrial painters deal with range of large industrial structures. “These are the guys you see hanging off a bridge,” said Byrne. They area also the individuals who paint fuel tanks, apply linings for penstocks on dams, work on pipeline or, in confined spaces. Industrial painting is a component of becoming a Red Seal painter.

The other need was…  Read More

BC Supreme Court Tosses out “Nonsense” Asbestos Lawsuit against WorkSafeBC

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Great news for DC38 hazmat members and contractors…

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has thrown out a lawsuit by an asbestos removal company against WorkSafe B.C., labelling the suit “arrant nonsense.”

It’s the fourth such lawsuit against WorkSafe B.C. launched by Mike Singh, who operates Seattle Environmental Consulting Ltd., and his son Shawn Singh, who heads up ESS Environmental Ltd. All have been dismissed because the suits have been found to be without merit and are an abuse of process, according to the recently released ruling.

The Singhs have launched other complaints — all of which have failed — including to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, arguing that WorkSafe B.C. has maliciously…

Nomination Meeting for Newly-Chartered Local 163

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A new Business Representative and Local Union Officers, as listed here, will be elected to represent the newly-Chartered Lathers, Drywall Finishers, and Allied Trades, Local 163.

This new local, which combines Locals 163 & 2009, has also been renamed to better describe the trades working within it.

Why are the Locals Merging?

In March 2015, pursuant to Sections 46(g) and 180(a) of the General Constitution, the General President, with the approval of the General Executive Board, merged Local 2009 into Local 163. This action was taken to respond to the decreasing memberships, which no longer supported maintaining an Executive Board and full-time Business Representative for each Local.

To provide some perspective, as of today the combined memberships of Local 2009 and Local 163 is 295. By contrast, Painter’s Local 138 and Glaziers Local 1527 have memberships equaling 1330 and 470 respectively.

In April 2016, the District Council 38 Bylaws were updated to reflect the merger, and subsequently ratified by the membership.

At a Special called meeting held on February 9, 2017, the updated Bylaws of “IUPAT Lathers, Drywall Finishers and Allied Trades, Local 163″ were passed by the membership. (Note the name change to reflect the Drywall Finishers as constituent members of Local 163).

Nomination Meeting

A nomination meeting will be held at 5:30 pm on Thursday, March 9th at the Finishing Trades Institute (FTI) in Surrey.

Candidates for the positions must meet the eligibility requirements, as  outlined in Sections 151-156 and 209-212 of the General Constitution, which can be viewed here.

Click here for more information about the nomination meeting and the upcoming Vote.

James Clark Undergraduate Award in Labour Studies Endowment

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DC38 and former Premier, Glen Clark, are teaming up to offer a $2,500 annual scholarship to students who are enrolled, or are thinking about enrolling, in the Labour Studies program at SFU.

The scholarship has been established in the name of Glen’s father, James Clark, a long time officer of Painter’s Local 138.

The scholarship will be awarded to a member – or one of their direct family members – of DC38 or a union affiliated with the BC Federation of Labour.

We would love to see one of our members, or their son or daughter, receive this, but please pass this along to your friends or family in other unions so we have a good range of interest.

If interested, please visit our scholarships page

SFU James Clark Scholarship Letter

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)

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)

Canada's Building Trades Unions Welcome Pipeline Announcement

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OTTAWA, Nov. 29, 2016 /CNW/ – Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) welcomes the announcement of approval of two major pipeline projects by the Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau.

Skilled trades people and Canada’s economy depend on major resource projects for sustained prosperity. This announcement means increased certainty for employment prospects for our members in the coming years in Alberta and beyond. Pipelines don’t mean temporary construction jobs, they mean generational jobs at both ends of the line.

Read More…

Hazmat Ratification Vote

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On behalf of the Negotiating Committee, I would like to thank all who participated in the ratification vote, which was conducted on Friday, October 21st, and Saturday, October 22nd, 2016.

The ballots have been counted, and the Memorandum of Agreement has been ratified with over 81% in favour of acceptance.

Once again, the Negotiating Committee sends its thanks to all members for their participation and patience during this difficult round of collective bargaining.

Fraternally,

Dan Jajic,

Business Representative, Local 138