The Hamilton-Brantford Building and Construction Trades Council has announced the signing of a new project labour agreement for capital and maintenance work with ArcelorMittal Dofasco (AMD) that at 10 years doubles the length of the previous pact between the workers and the steel producer.
Mark Ellerker, business manager and secretary treasurer for the council, presided over a signing ceremony with AMD capital projects manager Lisa Camara held April 3 at the Millwrights Local 1916 office in Hamilton.
The building trades are wrapping up a five-year deal with AMD that last year saw 500 person-years of work performed and over 960,000 hours worked by building trades workers with zero-lost time injuries.
“It is a big benefit for the building trades and AMD. With the health and safety record and no lost-time injuries, it all benefits the bigger picture,” said Ellerker in an interview.
“The thought is that we could work together in the collective spirit of partnership and basically support health and safety and better cost efficiencies for the owner-client and then cost efficiencies ultimately with the trade contractors and the local workforce.”
Joe Duprey, business manager in Hamilton for Boilermakers Local 128, said the job security the new deal gives his workers is “huge.”
“The amount of hours the document gives us is phenomenal,” he said. “It means mortgage payments, Christmas gifts. Boilermakers are heavy in the steel industry, we do their furnaces, boilers, coke ovens. Dofasco keeping us employed, it is huge.”
Dofasco is a standalone subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest integrated steel producer.
Duprey said there are “thousands” of boilermakers who rotate through the Hamilton steel plant over the course of a year, and his local just brought in 120 apprentices working through contractors.
Camara commented, “We appreciate that the Hamilton-Brantford Building and Construction Trades Council ensures all proper certification is in place for the work being done. Our goal is zero accidents on our site and we are committed to have qualified and skilled labour working onsite with the same goal.”
She noted the building trades in Hamilton have a wide reach in terms of labour supply, with ample local labourers and access to skilled workers in the rest of the province to ensure Dofasco’s capital projects get done.
Current capital projects underway include a major boiler installation, work on a water treatment plant and a large-capacity generator, and the modernization of the hot strip mill.
Working with a number of multi-trade contractors, Ellerker said, “We can definitely supply the millwrights, the ironworkers, the pipefitters, the electricians, the labourers, the carpenters — we have 16 different affiliates in the council and they are all open to industrial work.”
Other trades represented by affiliates in the council are insulators, bricklayers, carpenters, elevator workers, glaziers, painters, sheet metal workers and roofers, marble, tile and terrazzo workers, teamsters, and plumbers, steamfitters and welders.
“This is like utopia, in a sense, in our industry to see an example of this,” said Patrick Dillon, business manager and secretary treasurer of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, who attended the event. “They talk about working a million man-hours with no lost-time injuries, that happens when you have highly skilled supervision, with an owner-client to plan your work out so you are not injuring people, and when you have skilled trades people that are trained to the highest level.”
The long time period for the agreement helps stakeholders plan to avoid skills shortages, Dillon said.
“With this kind of set-up, the building trade unions and employers know for the next 10 years whatever work is coming forward, and it lets you know ahead of time to meet that demand,” he said. “They will make the investment to do the training to meet that demand.”
Ellerker said the wages and terms of the agreement mirror existing provincial labour agreements.
The project labour agreement also contains a provision to supply skilled trades personnel for daily maintenance needs when AMD maintenance personnel are not available.
Congratulations on keeping the traditional benefits of working together going!