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 News & Events:
Moving Forward
Dear Brothers & Sisters:
As the Director of Canadian Affairs, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to respond to my call for action. I wanted to hear from you and you responded!
I appreciate the honest opinions, comments and recommendations that you provided and I assure you that I will do my utmost to address the few concerns we received right away.
Together we are going to grow the U.A. by creating opportunities and delivering on our promises and guarantees. I believe we need to:
- Have a clear vision of the United Association so that we can move forward together and secure more job opportunities for our members.
- Create a positive perception of the U.A. in people’s minds including our members, clients, owners and contractors.
- Increase our influence in the industry.
- Increase our membership and re-establish loyalty in the U.A.
- Increase the number of U.A. contractors and the number of clients and owners.
I have given you my thoughts. Now I need to hear yours. How do you think we can accomplish this? How can you help? Please complete the Moving Forward Feedback Form to forward your feedback.
Sincerely Yours,
John Telford,
Director of Canadian Affairs
UA Journal Article - 07.21.09
A review of the UA Journal article on the UA Canada survey. Find out more about what is wanted by UA members in Canada.
Click HERE to read the full journal article >>
Moving Forward Feedback
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2008-06-09
John,
Over the years I have noticed one important item that no one wants to address or mention.
I hope I am not out of line here but we have members who either don't know the trade, don't want to work or just want to create unrest on the job site.Every local has them and the contractors know how they are. When it comes time for contract negotiation's these brothers bring our standards down and our ability to negotiate a reasonable contract.
I believe in fairness and these members should be given a choice to upgrade their skills to meet UA Standards and for those who don't like to work and pull their own weight should be given fair warning by the executive and a chance to correct their poor habits or find employment through another source.The local's need to police our members.We should all be proud of the UA and do our best to keep up it's good name.
If we provide quality and quantity the contractors would have nothing to gripe over.This would make supervising our brothers and completing our job's without internal conflict and brotherly harmony.
regards and best wishes
Wayne - UA Member - Ontario - Canada 2008-06-06
Hello Mr. Telford.
I would like to know what the UA's policy is on pension contributions prior to vestment. If a member of the union leaves before two years then is it standard for the union to keep the money?
Thanks.
John - UA Member - Canada 2008-06-21
To Whom it May Concern
This is to inform you that I never got join your union due to this fact I got black balled by your union rep for Dartmouth and my Forman that was on the job who was also one of the organizers that got the company that I worked for to join.
I,me sending you this because when I read your letter about the part where it said ' I believe we need to ' it made me laugh and I'll tell you why I'm fifty four years old I went back to school a year and a half ago to get my grade 12 because I had only my grade 7 and I wanted to better my self and get into a trade because I had 23 years of working in public works doing water and sewer I choose plumbing so getting my grade 12 I got hired with Germains plumbing and heating went to Musquodobolt to work on a new school just at the time you were getting ready to unionize I had plenty of knowledge of unions because I had been shop steward for about twenty years and as well recording secretary for cupe local at my job.I guess I'm old school because I don't believe that I should have to pay some one to protect my job if my work isn't up to par then I shouldn't be doing that job with unions every one is protected the workers and the loafers and this isn't fare.So anyway back to my story because of my opinions on unions my boss Brian Comeau decided that I wasn't doing my job and had me removed from the job and sent back home giving me the impression that I was needed back in Yarmouth but when I got there the boss told me that there wasn't any work and couldn't understand why this had happened so I told him this same story and he agreed that something was wrong but couldn't prove it so I worked in the back shop as a labor for two days in three weeks. At this time my wife told me when I got home on the last day I worked that I had to do something else or we were going to lose our house as two days pay wasn't going to pay the bills so she went to the on line job bank found four jobs that I might be interested in and sent them a resume in less than 12 hours I had I job sight unseen this company hired me just on my work history and guess what they aren't union and Make more money than a union journeyman here in Nova Scotia and I don't have to wait 8 years to do my apprenticeship and I'm doing plumbing as well as carpentry and electrical granted I had to sell everything including my house and move to B.C. BUT MY WIFE IS HAPPY AND SO AM I and this company that I work for now hired my wife because they didn't want to lose me to some other company so now you know my story and the moral is you can go a lot farther on doing than talking.
Whether any good comes out of this or not at least I feel good that I succeeded without the help of having to pay some one to speak for me.
Sincerely
Bill - UA Member - Canada [Top]
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