Thursday, December 24, 2009

Local Workers Will Get Work

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Owen Sound
by Jim Birchard    

A local labour union officials is putting to rest reports there are not enough local unionized trades people to work on construction of Owen Sound's multi million dollar recreation centre.

The company that was chosen to construct the centre, Aquicon Construction of Brampton has agreed to work with local tradespeople and suppliers but there were some concerns there were not enough local workers to do the job.

The President of the Grey Bruce Labour Council Dave Trumble says that's not the case as there are a good number of unionized trades people living in Grey Bruce.

He says while the union hiring halls are usually located in larger communities like Kitchener Waterloo or London, local trades people are usually hired to work on local projects.

Trumble says a perfect example of that is the massive restart project of the Bruce A nuclear reactors in Tiverton where a lot of local trades people are working -- but were hired through halls well away from the community.

He says the only time the company may have to go outside the area to hire is if there is a shortage of skilled workers.

Trumble says considering the shortage of skilled workers that already exists in many communities in the region -- then it is possible some workers may have to come from outside the area.