Greetings Members,
I am hoping my letter finds you all in good health and staying safe during these difficult times. Congratulations to all of the successful candidates elected to Local 488’s various committees. I have already reached out to the negotiating committee and scheduled a meeting for May 1st. The Fraternal & Building will meet on May 8th, and Supplementary meetings are presently being scheduled. The Benevolent Committee has met several times, and I will be reaching out to all of the committees going forward to set up some conference calls.
We have been approached by the owners and contractors regarding the GPM and the NMA conditions. Some outages have changed their scope of work and have been adjusted to increase their duration and mirror the long-term conditions. Outages that normally take weeks will be extended to months for completion. Some concessions being made are, flexible stop and start times, the removal of a half hour break, working 10 hours with 1 paid and 1 unpaid break. Members working 12-hour shifts will have 3 half hour breaks, the 1st and third break is paid, and the second is unpaid. The clients have implemented masks and other safety measures to their sites, along with other steps currently in place, like social distancing, tagged bus seats, lunchroom separations, take and go food options, and please remember no handshaking and to cough into one’s elbow.
We are in the process of loading Local 488’s trailer with essential products to go to the Ft. McMurray area to help their citizens and aid their food bank shortage, which is in dire need due to the recent flooding. We will be accepting food bank donations from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Thursday April 30th, this load will be driven up to Ft. McMurray late afternoon tomorrow.
Regarding negotiations, the ICI is suspended until May 11th, 2020. We are in the early stages of talks with our fab shop contractors and there is really nothing to report at this time. The fab shop negotiation talks will continue, as we are the only trade union required to do so with the contractors.
In closing please reach out to a friend or family member you have not spoken to in a while, it will do you both good.
Fraternally Yours
Rod McKay 
PDF Document:
business_managers_message-april_30-2020.pdf