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Speak Up

Delays and setbacks continue to plague Nackawic's largest employer.

AV Nackawic was scheduled to shut down on Tuesday morning so could be done on the Alpha Project, but the could be delayed as several contracted union tradespeople refused to go to Monday morning.

They were showing their support for fellow union members of Local 131 Heat Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers, who staged a peaceful information demonstration outside the mill gates, seeking to get their message out about the company's unfair contract awarding practices.

A spokesperson for Local 131, Chris Melvin, said AV Nackawic was to shut down later this week to do some insulation , and the contract was to be bid union.

But in New Brunswick, he explained, contractors are double-breasted, meaning they can union or non-union. So when one contractor failed to get the bid to do the insulation at the mill, Melvin said, the same contractor decided to bid as non-union to secure the lowest bid.

"And the company gave it to him non-union," explained Melvin. "Now you have a job site that is 99-per-cent union, and, when you bring in a few non-union guys, it creates uneasiness."

In addition, he added, the winning contractor brought in union sheet metal ers from Nova Scotia, taking away from jobs from New Brunswick ers.

This is unfair, Melvin said, considering the provincial government supplied $24 million for the project.

"Our own people in New Brunswick are sitting home because contractors are bringing in people from other provinces because they can," Melvin added. "They aren't even the proper tradesmen for the job and got them to do it. It doesn't even make sense. So now they have other union tradesmen, who are not skilled in this , doing it. Safety practices will start to diminish when you put unskilled people doing skilled trades."

Melvin's group couldn't stop other union trades from going to at the mill on Monday nor could it put up a picket line. All it could do, Melvin said, was pass information along to other ers and company officials that double-breasting by contractors is an unfair labour practice, lowers the quality of and is against the union ers' rights.

"The concern is you have tradesmen ing against tradesmen, unskilled people doing other skilled trades and you have companies going between union and non-union, whatever s in their favour," he explained. "It is not a fair business practice."

Their pleas did not go unheard.

"Not one tradesman went to (on Monday morning)," Melvin said. "They all stayed out. There was about 300 to 400 of them here to show their support saying, 'yes it is an unfair labour practice.'"

There has been no word from the company concerning the situation, Melvin added, other than mill officials have contacted the Construction Board to come up with a resolution to get things rolling again.

"As far as the mill is concerned, they have already awarded the project and can't change that now," Melvin explained. "It is up to the board to see if we can come up with something that is acceptable here."

Calls to AV Nackawic and company officials were not returned by press time.

Melvin added he and the others hope a quick resolution can be reached soon, so they can all get back to .