Teamsters Local 213 condemns the BC Conservatives in their latest attack on the working people of British Columbia.
The Conservative Party of BC’s new bill, the Public Sector Construction Projects Procurement Act, is an attack on local workers and local B.C. communities.
“The entire premise of their argument seems to be based on a lack of understanding,” said Teamsters 213 principal officer Tony Santavenere. “There is no limitation as to who can work on public infrastructure projects and there never has been.”
The only requirement of a worker to participate in a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) or Project Labour Agreement (PLA) project is that they sign a union card. The process takes less than a minute. In signing that card, workers receive excellent wages, benefits and safety protections all guaranteed by union-negotiated collective agreements.
CBA and PLA projects are intended to ensure local workers and local communities benefit from government infrastructure investments. And the evidence says they’re working as intended.
81 per cent of hours on CBA projects have been worked by local workers. 94 per cent of hours worked on CBA projects have been done by B.C. residents. That means billions of dollars of government spending re-circulates within B.C. communities.
In addition, 13 per cent of CBA workers have been Indigenous and 8 per cent have been women. All of the above metrics far exceed construction industry averages.
“The Conservatives say this bill is about fairness, but it’s really about a race to the bottom,” said Santavenere. “By removing high-quality union employment standards from construction procurement, they’re opening the floodgates to unsafe projects with untrained workers, all in the name of more profit for their wealthy donors.”
Teamsters Local 213 urges all members of the B.C. legislature to put local workers and local communities first by voting against this short-sighted bill.
