Op-Eds

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...

By Tom Sigurdson Thank you! Thank you for giving me the honour of being your executive director for the past number of years. I was first hired into the position in 1997 and left in 2003 to work in Ottawa as the director of political and legislative affairs for...

President’s View by Phil Venoit The Red Seal Program was established following the first National Conference on Apprenticeship in Trades and Industries in Ottawa in 1952 and first certificates were issued seven years later....

View From Ottawa By Arlene Dunn Canada’s Building Trades Unions are preparing for this fall’s federal election. The need to get out the vote is more important than ever. Before the Trudeau Liberals were elected in 2015, the building trades had been fighting for...