archives

  • 2024 (5)
  • 2023 (21)
  • 2022 (18)
  • 2021 (4)
  • 2020 (17)
  • 2019 (14)
  • 2018 (13)
  • 2017 (5)
  • 2016 (5)
  • 2015 (2)

April 2016 Newsletter

Apr 18, 2016

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Merritt and Ft. St. James Biomass Boiler Updates

The following bullet point presentation and photos of the TVE jobs at Merritt and Ft. St. James were provided by Matt Beauregard. We would like to sincerely thank him for taking time from his schedule to help out with our newsletter.

TV BM Cover

  • Summer of 2014 TVE approached FSE and Iberdrola about seeking the opportunity of bidding work on their project, at that time we were told the project would not entertain Union labour , the door was shut closed.
  • First Quarter of 2015 TVE approached the same group, again TVE was denied any opportunity.
  • Summer of 2015 we heard grumblings that project wasn’t going as fast as they would like it, they were not at the stage of erecting the boiler yet but parts were coming in.
  • Non Union Contractor PQC who has been on site from the start was asked to entertain taking the work on but said they couldn’t handle the expertise to do the work as they’re skill set was structural and some mechanical.
  • August 2015 old FSE manager left site, a Canadian manager from Montreal was hired, TVE stopped by, Wally Cousins and I discussed our capabilities, we left company references, resumes, ect.
  • Over the next few weeks we completed negotiations and were only contracted to do the pressure part welding on the water walls, a start date was confirmed October 26, 2016 small 6 man crew, at the start I was the Foreman and Wally was a Rigger/Fitter on tools.
  • November 26  30 days later TVE was awarded the Gen Bank install in 2016, crew size bumped up to about 10 as we were in full swing doing pre-assembly of the water walls at the lay down yard site.
  • Mid December, TVE was awarded the insulation and cladding work.
  • January 2016  TVE back in after holiday break, crew size bumped up a few more and pre-assembly continued, also awarded the refractory work for both Ft. St. James and Merritt , as well the Insulation and Cladding at Ft. St. James.
  • March TVE in full swing, all boiler pressure parts awarded as well as the over and under fire air handling system, lower furnace work, penthouse enclosure, etc. Also awarded piping for the entire boiler building. TVE was asked to bring Boilerrmakers up to Ft. St. James to assist client in doing a bunch of rework on the boiler water walls and super-heaters, approximately 16 Boilermakers on site and picking up more work as we go.
  • Present, running approximately 27 Boilermakers on days and 25 on nights, expect to bump up another 10% to 20% possibly, all water walls are in place, Gen Bank, 30% done, super-heaters just getting started as well as working on the air ducting.
  • In summary great support from Lodge 359 administration, crews, ect. Team effort all around, customer FSE, Prime Iberdrola and owner Veolia very impressed with TVE and the union labour.
  • Expect to have most of the pressure work completed by early summer, probably have a small contingency of Boilermakers doing small stuff through the summer, all other TVE trade work Pipefitters, Insulators, Sheet Metal Workers, Bricklayers, Instrumentation and controls will work through the summer and into the early fall.

Bullnose hanging IMG_1831 IMG_1506

South Wall Header IMG_0955 IMG_0960

Continued on welding wall joints on North wall , approx 13 joints left to complete by tomorrow (2) IMG_1774

Letter From Merritt/TVE Job Steward Trevor Hunter

Well Brothers and Sisters of Boilermakers 359, this is Trevor Hunter writing this letter from out here in Merritt B.C. giving you guys an update and I guess a bit of a play by play as to what has gone on since we have showed up.

We started here at the end of October 2015 with the understanding we were coming in for a very short time to handle a few of the specialty areas when it comes to the boiler being built. We were told 5 -10’s for 3 to 4 weeks. The crew started off doing some odds and ends, lots of grinding and buffing and really just assessing the situation at hand. A small crew of guys on a strictly non-union site, for a very short period of time. I would like to thank Matt Beauregard and Wally Cousins for their work getting us in here and cracking that door open.

We are now sitting halfway through April on a 12 on 2 off schedule. The hard work, dedication and pure craftsmanship of the Union Boilermakers on site has guaranteed us this entire boiler. All pressure and non pressure parts that go with it. TVE has also picked up the piping coming off this boiler, the insulation and cladding wrapping it and some mechanical parts involved.

This work is all going to Union tradesmen and supporting each and every one of their families. I would like to thank every person involved with this job. It has truly been an eye opener for me in more ways than one. The Union skill here on site has really kicked down that door that was cracked open for us, hopefully solidifying this work to us in the future.

So thank you again to all Brothers and Sisters involved and to any who haven’t made it here, I hope to see you on the next one.

Sincerely and Fraternally yours,

Trevor Hunter

Site C Turbine and Generator Contract Announcement

On April 6, 2016 Business Manager Martin D. Nicholson attended the BC Legislature for the announcement of the Site C Dam Turbine and Generator contract award. Voith Hydro Inc. was the successful proponent and one of three Union affiliated contractors that were short listed by BC Hydro for the project. The other two contractors were Alstom Renewable Power Canada Inc. and Andritz Hydro Canada.

It is projected that there will be approximately 150 unionized tradespeople employed during the construction of the turbines and generators portion of the project, including Boilermakers, Millwrights, Pipefitters, Electricians and other trades.

The Bargaining Council of British Columbia Building Trades Unions and Construction Labour Relations Association of BC have negotiated a Special Project Needs Agreement (SPNA) to cover the scope of work of this project, we will not be working under the AHC/CHC Agreement. The SPNA includes participation from 10 Building Trades Unions for the installation of the turbines and generators only.

BC Hydro has posted a a preliminary construction schedule and it is available by clicking here.

SiteCDam_Rendition

Aldergrove Braves Pee Wee Baseball Team Sponsorship

Boilermakers Lodge 359 is very proud to be able to support the community of Aldergrove and on January 5, 2016 a motion was passed at the general membership meeting to sponsor the Aldergrove Braves Baseball Team in the amount of $2,000.00. The team is in their first year of Pee Wee division, playing in Aldergrove, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Mission. The Boilermakers Lodge 359 sponsorship provided that all of the players on the team received full uniforms, these young men feel like professionals on the field this year.

Aldergrove Minor Baseball Association also received a $350.00 signage sponsor from the Apprenticeship & Trade Advancement Committee, a 4 x 4 sign with the Boilermaker logo is displayed at the Aldergrove Athletic Park. The Aldergrove Braves would like to thank the membership for your generosity.

Lodge 359 wishes all the best for the team during their 2016 season.

IMG_0269 IMG_0179

IMG_0211 IMG_0219

IMG_0235 IMG_0214
Election of Delegates to the 33rd Consolidated Convention

The election results of Delegates to the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers 33rd Consolidated Convention are as follows;

Ballots Mailed: 1008
Ballots Returned: 289
Ballots Spoiled: 7

Delegate by Virtue of Office

Martin D. Nicholson, Business Manager/Secretary Treasurer

Elected Delegates

Jim Wymer 168
Palmer Allen 161
Dave French 149
Jordan Streng 141
Ken Noga 141
Sat Chatta 140

Alternate Delegates

J’onn Giese 121
Gord Weel 120
Chris Paige 116
Peter Parkinson 83
Les Liszicsan 46
Kyle Lepitre 35

We would like to thank election committee Chairman Alan Dingwall and committee members Sandy McKimmie, Robert McCormack, Kent Summers, Craig Dunnett and Shan Hendy for volunteering their time to assist in the ballot count.

MemberLink Update

We are pleased to announce that at the time this newsletter was produced, 443 members of Lodge 359 have registered on MemberLink, the members only portion of the Unions website. This number includes both active and retired members. By all accounts MemberLink has been well received offering many services previously unavailable to the membership.

The development of the online posting module attached to MemberLink is nearing completion and is now under testing by UnionWare. The next step in this process will be for UnionWare to deploy the module onto our test server so that we can perform internal testing. Once we are satisfied that online posting is performing as expected it will be launched for your use. Tentative launch date for online posting is the first of June.

Below is a screenshot of Memberlink Administration, it will show number of members registered as well as a few other statistics.

UW_MLAdminPage

Joe Kiwior – Ivan Shook Training Centre

In March of this year instructor Sheldon Frank was hired to assist in welder training and is available on Monday and Tuesday of each week. Sheldon is a certified welding instructor who has worked at both the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). Any member wanting to come in on one or both of those days is asked to first contact Tranining Coordinator Gord Weel. Please give Gord at least two or more days notice prior to coming in so that coupons can be prepared and your time will be spent in the welding booth and not doing prep work.

Prior to work commencing at Covanta a few weeks ago Sheldon assisted a group of Probationary Journeymen to get up to speed welding Inconel. This was key to successfully manning this job for Lodge 359 as the welders list was near empty due to the current work picture.

Apprenticeship & Trade Advancement Committee (ATAC)

Two of the four Union ATAC Trustees recently became Pensioners and have resigned from the committee, Brothers Greg Pierce and Bill Rogers. Lodge 359 would like to sincerely thank each for their service and wish them a long, safe and happy life as retirees. The Lodge Executive Board has since filled these two positions by appointing Brothers Palmer Allen and Sat Chatta, good luck to both, the future of our Apprentices are now in your capable hands.

The ATAC committee has made the decision to only run one Foundation class in 2016 due to a low projection of man hours and the number of Apprentices currently in the system. The committee will continue to closely monitor the number of Apprentices and adjust accordingly the number of future intakes.

The table below represents 5 levels of Apprentice training achieved as compared to the total number of work hours for each level and the number of Apprentices which fall into each level.

BM 01 is Foundation, BM 02 is Level 2 Upgrade, BM 03 is Level 3 Upgrade, BM 04 is Level 4 Refresher Course, BM IP is Boilermaker Inter-Provincial Red Seal.

TRAINING LEVELS 0-1000
HOURS
1-2000
HOURS
2-3000
HOURS
3-4000
HOURS
4-5000
HOURS
5000+
HOURS
TOTAL APPRENTICES
BM – 01 33 2 0 0 0 0 35
BM – 02 31 13 5 2 0 0 51
BM – 03 2 6 7 4 2 2 23
BM – 04 0 0 3 0 0 0 3
BM – IP 0 3 12 5 10 4 34
TOTALS 66 24 27 11 12 6 146

The table below is the Apprentice training schedule for the remainder of 2016.

2016 TRAINING PROGRAMS
Course Type Location Dates
Foundation Course BCIT March – August
Apprentice Level 3 Upgrade Joe Kiwior – Ivan Shook Training Centre June 27th – July 29th
Apprentice Level 2 Upgrade BCIT October 17th – November 18th
Apprentice Level 3 Upgrade BCIT November 21st – December 23rd

Annual BBQ and Golf Tournament

Once again this year a BBQ featuring food provided by Smoke & Bones will be held the day before the Golf Tournament. The BBQ will be held on Thursday July 14th starting at 12 noon, all active and retired members are welcomed. Over the past two years approximately 150 have attended each of the two BBQ’s.

On the day after the BBQ, Friday July 15th, Lodge 359’s Golf Tournament will kick off, we will be returning to the Pagoda Ridge Golf Course in Langley. Even though it rained as hard as it could at last years event everyone had a great day, let’s hope for better weather this year.

Please mark these dates on your calendar.

Fraternally, Lodge 359 Staff

Share this article on social media