Revisiting the Government's wage restraint policy

Lately I've been hearing a lot of questions about the impacts to Local 37 members of the New Brunswick Government's wage restraint policy. Although we have already posted some information about this on our website and I've written a previous blog entry about it, it's worth covering again.

To recap, the government announced a wage restraint policy that affects employees in all parts of the public service. Government is saying this action is necessary because of a projected deficit in their revenue, caused by the economic downturn and also a projected shortfall in the public service pension fund.

The government has said that all existing collective agreements will be honoured, however as existing contracts expire they will negotiate new two-year collective agreements. Under the new negotiating mandate, the new contracts will have a wage freeze, with no increases in wages for a two-year period. This will affect all employees in the public service, and the wage freeze has already started for non-union and management employees.

To be clear, I have been told that Local 37 members will receive all the scheduled increases which have been negotiated in the existing collective agreements. It is business as usual until the current contracts expire.

In addition, the government has said this policy will not affect step increases or progressions through a classification, (for example if someone were at step “c” they would still go to step “d”) and it will not affect the normal reclassification or promotion process.

The first Local 37 contract affected by this will be the Nuclear Contract in place for employees at Point Lepreau, which expires at the end of 2010.

Although I can’t predict exactly what will happen at negotiations, we will go to the table to bargain for each of our bargaining units when their contracts expire, and I’m sure we will be able to make gains. There are lot’s of other issues that can be discussed - vacation, RRSPs, paid family leave, overtime rates, etc., and in reality, some of those are pretty important to members.

Obviously, I'm not happy about any of this, however I do know that there are some really serious issues impacting the province, and we could be in far worse shape. At least this is happening at a time when the current yearly rate of inflation for the province is 0%.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about this,please feel free to contact the union office.

A key milestone reached in the Point Lepreau refurbishment project.

I received word yesterday that the final calandria tube has been successfully removed from Point Lepreau’s reactor core. The removal of the 380 calandria tubes marks the the last major job of dismantling the old reactor and now the work of rebuilding the reactor core begins. This is an important milestone in the completion of the Point Lepreau refurbishment project and I wanted to let you know that I am proud of everyone who has contributed to the refurbishment project so far.

A lot of the most difficult and challenging work has now been completed, safely, and it is due to the hard work and dedication of all Local 37 members who have helped to plan and execute this project and related activities, whether directly or in a supporting role, and also those who have worked as protection assistants to ensure that our partners in the building trades unions and AECL are able to work safely. This also includes our members working in all other NB Power companies who have kept the rest of NB Power's complex system running smoothly for the people of New Brunswick while Point Lepreau is off-line.

Speaking of safety, this first of its kind project has gone millions of hours worked without a lost time accident -- this is top performance that is never matched by industries and workplaces that don't have our culture of always putting public and worker safety first.

Local 37 members continually reflect the qualities that the IBEW is known for: the best skills, the highest quality and the strongest work ethic. As we move into the next phase of the project - putting the reactor back together and commissioning - I know that all Local 37 members will continue to shine, by remaining focused on those qualities and by working safely.

Grand lake employees' fantastic safety record!

Last week the employees of Grand Lake Generating Station (G.S.) celebrated a wonderful milestone of 10 years without a lost time accident. There have been a number of safety records reached by IBEW members within the NB Power group of companies and with our other employers; however the achievement of the Grand Lake employees is especially noteworthy.


Grand Lake G.S. is the oldest thermal plant in the NB Power system, and although it has been scheduled for closure, the final date (now set at June 2010) had been a moving target.

As a result, workers have had the multiple challenges of an aging plant that requires significant manual operation, reduced staffing levels as some workers were released for opportunities in other locations and significant uncertainty around the final timetable for plant closure. Despite these challenges, workers and management have shown their commitment to the principle that the most important thing is for workers to be able to go home safely to their families and loved ones at the end of each days labour. By working together cooperatively they have achieved this wonderful safety record, and they can be an inspiration to all of us.

To commemorate the special achievement of 10 years without a lost time accident, a BBQ was held at the local community centre for plant staff. At this event I was honoured to present the members of the Grand Lake Joint Health and Safety Committee (JH&SC) a framed certificate recognizing all Grand Lakes G.S. employees’ strong commitment to safety.

The IBEW was founded in large part from a desire to improve worker safety – it’s great to see that tradition living on at Grand Lake Generating Station!

(Top: Grand Lake G.S. employees celebrate their achievement. Bottom: IBEW Business Manager Ross Galbraith presents a certificate of achievement to all employees of Grand lake G.S. Accepting on behalf of the employees is JH&SC Chairperson Kenny Fraser and the other members of the committee.)

Comments on the Telegraph Journal story suggesting NB Power may be privatized

Those of you who read the Telegraph Journal may have been a bit surprised by a front page story today under the headline "Utility on the block". Although I don’t think it is anything to get too worked up about at this time, I want you to know that we remain strongly opposed to privatization and are doing our due diligence on this issue and will respond appropriately.

For those who haven’t actually seen it, the story was prompted by an announcement by the provincial government that it is entering into talks with the Province of Quebec about developing partnerships in the energy sector. When he was interviewed by a group of reporters on this, Premier Graham was asked if these talks would include discussions on privatizing NB Power. His response was vague, saying: “This is going to be a very broad discussion. There are going to be a number of hypothetical questions out there.” That response led the TJ reporter to the conclusion that privatization could be one of the topics of discussion, and that led to the headline “Utility on the block”.

We are now trying to find out more, but at this point, our gut feel is that the headline is sensationalistic.

I can’t believe that the province would seriously consider privatization. The case against it is overwhelming. The Premier knows we’re better off than Nova Scotia or Maine, both of whom have privatized utilities. He knows New Brunswickers would be paying more and outages would be more frequent and last longer under a privatized utility. The track record is there. But perhaps even more importantly, he knows the public doesn’t want it, and that keeping NB Power public was one of the three major planks that helped get him elected. In fact, their platform stated that “A Liberal Government will maintain NB Power as a publically owned utility that will serve all New Brunswickers equally.”

Local 37 has fought this battle before and we won’t hesitate to do it again if the need arises. But we don’t want to over-react to something that doesn’t warrant it. I want you to know though, that we are on it.

As always, we welcome your input. Also, if you want your voice heard on this outside the union, you can go to the Telegraph Journal CanadaEast website (http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/) and click on this morning’s story. You’ll see under it where readers have registered their comments. You are free to do the same or to support or oppose the views expressed by other readers. It’s just one more way of having your voice heard.

You're supposed to climb back on, right?

Last October, I wrote about an accident I had been in (http://ibew37.blogspot.com/2008/10/health-update.html) which resulted in me spending three days in the Intensive Care Unit at the Saint John Regional Hospital after suffering a head injury. As some of you may know, one of my hobbies is training and driving Standardbred (Harness) racehorses, a hobby I picked up through my father, who trained racehorses as an occupation, for nearly 50 years. The accident occurred during a horse race, when the horse I was driving fell suddenly, propelling me into the ground head first. Luckily for me, I was wearing the proper safety equipment (a top notch helmet and a protective impact vest) and there is no doubt that the helmet saved my life.

Just like most accidents, it came without warning and it was unexpected -- it's one of the reasons we always need to use the safety equipment and tools we have - you can just never tell.

You may be interested in listening to an interview CBC radio did with me about the accident. You can find it at http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningsaintjohn/int_archives/jun.html by scrolling down to the June 8th interview.

As an update to that blog entry, I thought some of you would like to know that I'm now "back on track". You know what they say - if a horse throws you, you need to climb right back up! The good news is that last week I won with the horse I had crashed with (his name is "Porthill Digger") in my second time out with him this year.

My philosophy on labour relations.

My philosophy, and the philosophy of the IBEW, is to seek out partners we can work with and then build good relationships. I look at our employers as partners, people that we can hopefully have a good relationship with in order to achieve the things our members are looking for.

This is different than the approach employed by some unions that look at management as the enemy. I know that a good relationship is not always possible – both parties need to want it, and if management doesn’t want to play ball, fine – I can do it the old way.

What about when a difficult issue arises, a potential source of conflict? I don’t run away from it – in fact with a good working relationship, it’s often easier to resolve problems. There is an effective approach I like – it’s to “be hard on the issue, but soft on the people”. By focusing on the real issues, and not taking (or accepting!) personal or “cheap” shots, I can achieve better results for my members.

The photo is of me talking to Gaëtan Thomas, the Vice President of Nuclear. I ran into him at the airport when we were both returning home from some out of town meetings. Because we’ve both worked to build a good relationship, we can discuss issues in a frank and open manner. It saves a lot of time, and often allows better solutions.

A great example of this is from several years ago. We had a number of long-term temporary employees and we had been working to achieve regular status for them. One night I happened to end up at a dinner, sitting next to Gaëtan. We ended up talking about the temporaries, and I was able to put forth the business case for changing their status. Gaëtan was interested in the points I raised and followed up by having his people look into it.

To make a long story short, that informal conversation started the ball rolling and many of those temporaries ended up gaining regular status. If I had tried to achieve that goal the old way – threatening grievances, work slow-downs, or writing nasty letters, I know I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. But by valuing the relationship, and treating the issue as a joint problem that we could work on together to find a solution, we achieved real results. A win-win result.

And that’s what it’s all about.

Local 37 helps students learn about opportunities in the skilled trades

Local 37, NB Power, and Women in Nuclear (WiN) were the title sponsors of the Skills Work! networking dinner that provided an opportunity for close to 100 female students in grade 9 -12 from the Saint John area to meet and network with a variety of tradeswomen from their community.

The event, which was the first of its kind in New Brunswick, gave the students a unique chance to learn about the skilled trades and technologies by participating in organized networking sessions with the 22 female mentors. Also in attendance were number of educators, dignitaries, community partners, business leaders, and parents.

The mentors were women working, training, or teaching in a skilled trade who shared their experiences and encouraged the students to consider the trades as a rewarding and challenging career choice. It was impressive to see that a number of the mentors were IBEW members - each and every one of them shared encouraging and inspiring messages that will undoubtedly help the young women make informed decisions about their future.

Not only did this event allow the union to connect with a younger generation, it really brought attention to the pride, passion, and professionalism of Local 37 and its members. By continuing to support events such as this one, the union can continue on it progressive and forward thinking path.

The dinner was organized the members of the Point Lepreau WiN chapter and Enterprise Saint John along with Skills Canada New Brunswick which is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting the development of youth in New Brunswick. They strive to promote the skilled trades and technologies as a viable, first choice career option for young people throughout the province.