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The recent collaboration agreement between the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 793 and the Carpenters’ Regional Council has rekindled friction with the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA).

Joseph Mancinelli, international vice-president and Central and Eastern Canada regional manager of LIUNA, said the deal has left him puzzled, given the long standing animosity between the Labourers’ and Carpenters’.

“I’m not sure why the Operating Engineers and Carpenters’ would have an alliance of some kind,” Mancinelli said. “The Carpenters’ are a rogue organization that has been raiding all the trades across the country. They have a bad reputation. Why the Operating Engineers would join forces is suspicious.”

LIUNA and the Carpenters’ have been battling for decades, but that hasn’t involved the Operating Engineers 793 until recently.

Business manager Mike Gallagher says, in fact, his union had a no raid agreement with LIUNA until two years ago.

“They walked away from it and didn’t renew,” he said. “I don’t know why.”

Gallagher said LIUNA has been poaching members in the demolition sector who operate heavy equipment and other machinery while Mancinelli counters 793 has been trying to lure his members in the environmental, remediation and demolition sector.

“Still, we’ve have always got along with the Operating Engineers and I’m not sure if Mike thinks there is something nefarious here,” he said. “Why he would tie to the Carpenters’, an organization in freefall, this could be a disaster and it’s kind of odd.”

Behind the back and forth is a letter dated April 24, 2023 to all members of Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU) signed by all construction trades, except the Carpenters’.

It admonishes the Carpenters’ for “undermining” the progress made by building trades unions. It singles out the Carpenters’ Local 585 in Newfoundland and Labrador and the National Construction Council (NCC) Local 199 — which it says was created by the Carpenters’ in the Prairies.

“These two entities seek to take away our jurisdiction and undermine our ability to create a highly specialized and skilled workforce,” the letter stated. “Similar to CLAC (Christian Labour Association of Canada) in Western Canada, Local 585 and NCC have put forth sub-standard agreements that, in the long-term, may cause irreparable damage to our unions. We cannot accept being paid less nor can we permit the harm this causes to our pension and benefit plans, our members and their families.”

One of the signatories to that letter was Sean Strickland, executive director of the CBTU, and it remains unclear as to whether the concerns raised and levelled at the Carpenters’ have since been settled or if this is a breakaway move.

Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful as were attempts to reach another signatory, Patrick Campbell, regional Canadian director of the IUOE.

Ironically, the issue of damage to building trade unions was also raised by Gallagher.

“We invest a lot of resources into training culture similar to the Carpenters’, and we respect the tradition of construction unions, but we face some unprecedented challenges such as coming out of COVID, the high cost of living and construction workers being undervalued,” he said pointing to CLAC and inroads by Building Union Canada (BUC). “We reject that model. We (both Operating

Engineers and Carpenters’) want to ensure non-union workers are organized and remain competitive and not getting involved in a race to the bottom with non-traditional unions.”

CLAC declined to comment in rebuttal, but Craig Bromell of BUC said his relatively new union is more interested in organizing non-union workers and delivering value.

“We don’t have debt, we don’t have an international union we’re forced to send money to,” Bromell said. “So our overhead is lower and our dues are lower and we can charge $5 to $6 an hour less to contractors.”

Gallagher, however, continued: “We’re not in this just to grow the organization. We believe in training, not to create a ghetto for workers with no power and no training options. We provide those things and proper world class benefit plans.”

He also suggested BUC was working with LIUNA but both Mancinelli and Bromell said they merely have a no raid agreement in place.

“Some 90 per cent of our members are from non-union shops,” said Bromell. “We’re building a training centre in King City. Gallagher should worry about his own job and forget about us.”

Finn Johnson, director of government relations at the Carpenters’ Union, was more circumspect, sticking to the key message of the original press release.

“The most important thing is for us to work together to organize the unorganized. We believe that by working more closely and collaborating we can support and better represent workers,” he said.

“Operating Engineers are a very strong union and together we can better represent members. We’re stronger when we work together and the Operating Engineers share a lot of values.”