Sept. 15, 2022

Open letter to owners,

The Building Trades of Alberta is writing you today with concerns that our local unions are not seeing equal treatment among the incentive bonuses received by building trades affiliates.

You provide incentive bonuses to help attract and retain skilled trades professionals to the jobsite – and at a time when demand for skilled labour is ballooning, and the Alberta advantage is disappearing, unequal incentive bonuses are only adding to worker shortages in Alberta.

This is harming our trades workforce, our industry and our economic recovery.

This is not acceptable and there should be NO DISCRIMINATION among the trades regarding incentive bonuses, when we all know each project requires an all-hands-on-deck approach to get the job done.

This is causing friction among the skilled trades and we need to resolve this.

Please consider this communication as a formal request to harmonize incentive bonuses received by building trades affiliates at the initial incentive rate you landed on for the mechanical trades you needed to attract. Again, there should be NO DISCRIMINATION among the trades.

Had you consulted with the Building Trades of Alberta, we would have told you that, double time for overtime, hours earned on pensions and benefits, and a fairly negotiated wage rate, have helped attract much-needed skilled trades to Alberta. ‘

To be clear, it is the degradation of working conditions that have led to skilled trades talent leaving the province.

We must work to reverse this, now, together.

Sincerely,

Terry Parker,

Executive Director, Building Trades of Alberta