Op-Eds

October 27, 2020 By Merrill O’Donnell - Workers’ Advocate ON March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and the world as we knew it changed. Almost immediately, the focus in the construction sector was on occupational health and safety...

September 29. 2020. By Robert Kucheran Chairperson, Canada’s Building Trades Unions CANADA IS FACING unprecedented health, social and economic challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The over half a million highly-skilled women and men that make up Canada’s Building...

August 25, 2020 Executive Director’s Message by Andrew Mercier THE PAST FEW MONTHS have been marked by the emergence of the coronavirus and an unprecedented public health crisis. Construction workers have been at the front line of the pandemic, continuing to do the...

August 20, 2020 President’s Message by Al Phillips LEADERSHIP. One of the things that separates the BC Building Trades from many other organizations is our leadership. Our leaders for the most part began as apprentices, just as I did, and worked their way through the...

June 10, 2020 By Phil Venoit, Past President CANADA HAS THE WORLD’S longest national oceanic border, which continues down the Saint Lawrence seaway with the longest inland fresh waterway and border we share with the United States, our greatest trading partner. British...

May 26, 2020 THE TITLE OF THIS COLUMN is in the form of a question. What’s the answer? Simply this: Without a representative to assist you with vocational rehabilitation, you stand a good chance of getting your butt kicked! The first thing I tell the workers I...

May 18, 2020 By Andrew Mercier, Executive Director With the public debate focused on the question of dialling-up our economy in these trying times, it is important that we do not forget the important role of workplace safety enforcement going forward. Construction is...

February 28, 2020 By Andrew Mercier, Executive Director Members of the BC Building Trades are in for a busy 2020. LNG Canada, the Coastal GasLink pipeline, Site C, the Trans Mountain pipeline and the ongoing upgrades at YVR all require a steady supply of skilled,...

By Phil Venoit - IBEW Local 230, RSE President’s View It has been no secret that union busting and impeding the right of workers to form unions has been in vogue since the 1980s. Unionization rates in the private sector have fallen dramatically. The result has not...

By Merrill O'Donnell - BCBT Workers' Advocate Reprehensible behaviour The pullout of the B.C. business community from the Workers’ Compensation Review in August was a disheartening, if not totally unexpected, action by a group of so-called business leaders who are...