The Highway 1 project is keeping a lot of our owner-operator members in the Fraser Valley busy. This
paving contract is being done by unionized contractors. Paving of the final stages of the Southern
Perimeter Road is also being done union.
Renewal collective agreements have been negotiated for the paving sector and proposal meetings will
be held soon for dump truck owner-operators in the utility sector.
Nationally, energy exploration has resulted in construction and expansion in the Alberta oil sands and
created a need for more union members to work on these sites. The Keystone Project, transporting oil to
the southern U.S., has American Teamsters lobbying for additional pipeline construction in Canada.
The local union currently has over 100 Teamster members working on the Rio tinto aluminum smelter
modernization project. Members are working as articulated rock truck drivers, semi-truck drivers,
warehousemen and bus drivers.
The Waneta and Mica dam sites in the Kootenays are putting a lot of Teamsters to work.
The outlook for the future is very promising, particularly in northern British Columbia. Local union
representatives have attended numerous meetings on new projects. Shell Oil has had a number of
meetings with the B.C. Building Trades to discuss a potential project labour agreement on an LNG Plant
in Kitimat worth $7 billion.
