Trades NL is calling on the provincial government for full disclosure on details of the lease signed with D.F. Barnes for the Bull Arm site.
President of Trades NL John Leonard says the site has had many projects completed on it over the years, using the 16 building trades unions as required.
Now, he says government has signed a lease with D. F. Barnes for the site, with no public consultation, engagement with union members or disclosure of the details.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic Canada Regional Council of Carpenters, Millwrights and Allied Workers Local 585 – a maintenance union – secured a contract with Drivers Industrial for maintenance work on the Transocean Barents at Bull Arm. It has also entered into a 3-year commissioning contract with D.F. Barnes on the Voisey’s Bay site.
Local 585 says it has invited other unions who do not have an agreement to work, under their collective agreement, and put their members to work.
It says the NL Building Trades Construction Council endorsed the three-union collective agreement for the Husky Argentia Project. That, says Local 585 is a construction agreement, and only the Labourers, Iron Workers and UBC are signatories.
Union Representing Bull Arm Maintenance Workers Responds to Protests from Other Unions
The new maintenance and fabrication union, Local 585, was established in 2016 and is the third local in the province under the Atlantic Canada Regional Council.
Regional Manager Mike Williams says Local 585 performs maintenance work and not construction work. He says the Building Trades Construction Council is a construction council. He says the union was “tired of watching other non-Building Trade unions” and non-unionized workers secure work that their members should be performing.
Local 585 signed its first maintenance contract in July of 2018 at the Vale LHPP site, and another on the West Aquarius drill rig at the Bull Arm site in November of 2018.
Williams is encouraging all members to continue to bring a safe, positive and respectful attitude to the workplace as they represent the Atlantic Canada Regional Council of Carpenters, Millwrights and Allied Workers.
