Nick Orford’s grandpa was a trucker.
His dad was also a trucker.
Nick’s uncles were truckers.
And his brothers…they’re truckers too.
They all worked in the oil and gas industry in B.C.’s Peace Region.
But not Nick. He was the black sheep of the family. Not a trucker. Not even a little bit.
At least not at first.
Orford was pursuing a career as a chef in famous Vancouver fine dining restaurants like L’Hermitage and Bistro Pastis. He loved to cook, but was finding it harder and harder to survive working low-wage culinary jobs in an expensive city.
Then a simple conversation changed the trajectory of his career and his life.
“Here I am sweating my bag off, barely making ends meet. Meanwhile my brother had so much work, he was trying to take days off and he tells me, ‘I made $160,000 last year’, said Orford.
“I thought, ‘Jesus, I’m obviously in the wrong industry’,” he said.
At the age of 40, Nick was ready for a big change.
“I changed careers and I never looked back,” he said. “I’m kind of chapped I didn’t do it earlier.”
Nick got a job with Revolution Resource Recovery, which was a CLAC employer at the time. Nick liked the job, but the rat union left something to be desired.
As Orford explained it, “we all hated them, they were useless. They’re a union in name only. I actually have a sticker on my hardhat that says ‘friends don’t let friends do CLAC’.”
Nick and his co-workers were sick of CLAC. So they decided to make a major change and bring in a real union.
“We ended up firing them and we brought Teamsters Local 213 in and that was the beginning of my Teamster journey,” Orford said.
Today, Nick works at Amrize (formerly Lafarge). He made the switch after a conversation with his business representative Barry Capozzi, who helped connect him with the company. He’s been working with Amrize for the past four years and loves the job.
A Terrible Accident
As Nick described it, “It was a bad day.”
That much is for sure.
It was Monday, July 31st, 2023. Nick was back from a weekend away camping with his family. He was riding his motorcycle in the sunshine on the way to an afternoon shift.
He drove past a Teamsters Local 213 picket line outside of the Coca-Cola Bottling facility near the Port Mann Bridge in Coquitlam.
Nick pressed the motorcycle’s throttle lock and raised his right fist in the air, at the same time reaching with his left hand to honk the horn. That’s when the chaos took over.
“My throttle lock got stuck and I was picking up speed going through the corner with my fist up in the air and I was like ‘oh no’,” said Orford.
“I started veering over across the line, quickly thinking, ‘I need two hands for this’.”
Nick hit his brakes and was able to maneuver back into his lane. He was relieved. But he forgot one crucial detail. The throttle lock was still on.
“As my guard was down and I was chill again, my bike just shot out,” he said.
“I saw a dump truck coming at me…I flipped the throttle lock off, hit the brake and tried to maneuver around the truck, but by that time I was far too close and I just went straight into it.”
The accident was catastrophic. Medical staff told Nick they would have to amputate his left leg from the knee down. And they did.
Somehow, despite the shock and horror of such a terrible accident, Nick was able to maintain a positive outlook. And he did that with the help of two specific goals he set for himself.
One, was that he would walk down the beach to marry his then-fiancee. The wedding was planned for seven months later in the Dominican Republic.
The other goal was to get back to work.
“I had a goal: ‘I’m walking down the beach in February. I don’t care what happens’,” he said.
“That just kind of kept me going. I never had any down thoughts. My wedding and going back to work were really the only two things that were always top of mind.”
And with that positive attitude and total will power, sure enough, Nick walked down the beach with his bride, Nicol. And incredibly, he returned to work only eight months after the accident.
“You can’t explain how good it is to get off the couch and back into society as a contributing person,” he said. “Sitting on the couch for eight months, it’s garbage. I don’t want anybody to do that. It’s good to have a purpose for waking up in the morning.”
Teamsters Prosthetic
Nick has two prosthetic legs. One for work and one for the rest of his life. Work boots require a specific kind prosthetic design.
When he thought about the design for his work prosthetic, Nick decided he wanted to celebrate his work, his commitment and his union. He now has the Teamsters 213 logo proudly emblazoned on his work prosthetic.
“I just thought that it’d be cool to use an old one of my Teamsters shirts as the design on my work leg,” Orford said. “I’m a proud Teamster, that’s my work leg and I’m gonna rock it at work.”
Teamsters Local 213 is deeply honoured by Nick’s decision and is proud of his recovery and continued work.
“Nick represents the heart and soul of what it means to be a Teamster 213 member,” said Tony Santavenere, Principal with Local 213.
“The guts and courage it took to go through that accident and then battle back to work and a fulfilling life is incredible. He’s a true inspiration.”
Nick, now 53, continues to work for Amrize and looks forward to continuing his career long into the future.