The United Steelworkers, Local 9176, has been on the picket line for eighteen months against Crown Holdings, Inc. in Toronto. Crown Holdings, Inc., is a profitable multinational company with more than 140 plants worldwide. In the year prior to the labour dispute, Crown Holdings-Toronto Plant was named one of the premier plants in the organization. Despite that, the employer has sought concession at the bargaining table, the main concession being a two-tier wage proposal.
The Canadian Labour Congress has a approved a request from the United Steelworkers to boycott Crown Holdings, Inc. There are several activites being initiated in Ontario, but the United Steelworkers have suggested that union members Canada-wide could support Local 9176 by refusing to purchase aluminum cans made by Crown Holdings. Crown's main customers in Canada are Molson, Coors, Labatt, Creemore and Stem Whistle, Budweiser, Bud Light. They also manufacture soft drink cans for Cott, a leading provider of private label soft drinks (e.g. President's Choice). The attached infographic will help you identify Crown cans.
The Spanish multinational corporation Abengoa, which includes companies in the domains of energy, telecommunications, transportation, and the environment, has won a a $155 million contract with Emera subsidiary NSP Maritime Link to build some 400 km of overhead power transmission lines in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
In Newfoundland, Abengoa will develop approximately 160km of 230kV AC lines from the Granite Canal substation to the Bottom Brook substation. Around 142km of 200kV HVDC lines will be added from Bottom Brook to Cape Ray and 23km of 5kV grounding line from Bottom Brook converter station to Indian Head.
In Nova Scotia, where the transmission portion of the project is much smaller, the company will build 46km of 200kV HVDC transmission lines from Point Aconi to the Woodbine substation and 41km of 5kV grounding line from the Woodbine converter station to Big Lorraine.
Abengoa said an average of 200 jobs will be created over the construction period, which is expected to begin in Q2 2015. The project is expected to take two years.
The $1.577 billion Maritime Link project will connect the island of Newfoundland, through a 170 km subsea cable, with Nova Scotia and the North American grid for the first time.
Swiss giant ABB is also working on the converter stations for the Link, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2017. Abengoa is based in Seville, Spain with U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. Read their press release here.
A random draw was made on February 27th at the IBEW First District office in Mississauga, and the following family of IBEW members will receive $1000 scholarships each toward their continuing education:
Michael Corey – Local Union 1574, Whitehorse YT
Kali Morgan – Local Union 2351, Churchill Falls NL
Michael Methot – Local Union 37, Fredericton NB
Timothy Li – Local Union 636, Mississauga ON
Teighan Francis – Local Union 2034, Winnipeg MB
Brother Bill Daniels, International Vice President for First District offers his congratulations to these five applicants.
As per the Local 1928 property disbursement policy, the Business Manager/Financial Secretary has declared two grey, wheeled desk chairs to be surplus to the Local and is offering them up to Local 1928 members on a first-come, first-served basis. Sorry that we can't deliver. After ten days, we'll let them go a non-member who can make use of them.
The latest edition (January/February 2015) of First District's (Canada) newsletter "Coast to Coast" is available for download on the First District website (scroll down). Find out what's going on with the IBEW and the Candian labour movement.