Friday, December 9, 2022

Of Floods and Fools

Members who reconnected BC to the rest of Canada in record time after last year’s floods are excluded from working on the permanent rebuilding efforts

Guide Magazine

By Wayne Prins, CLAC Executive Director

Over 275 millimetres of rain fell in parts of southern BC over a 2-day period in the middle of November last year. The unprecedented deluge caused catastrophic flooding and landslides.

You will remember the dramatic footage from the news coverage—images of raging rivers, fields turned into lakes, and crowds of people coming together with tireless energy attempting to save properties and assisting the displaced. The disaster claimed 5 lives, over 600,000 animals perished on farms that were flooded, and the economic damage has been measured in the billions.

Every road between BC’s Lower Mainland and the rest of Canada was severed. There was literally no domestic land access between Vancouver and the rest of the country. Highways and bridges were destroyed, and the severity of the situation quickly dawned on everyone. This was a disaster unlike any the province had ever faced.

In the days and weeks that followed, a miracle of human ingenuity, collaboration, and grit took shape. Work crews and heavy equipment from nearby construction sites were redeployed to repair the severed links, and teams of engineers and contractors collaborated with government officials.

Immediately after the damage was surveyed, experts predicted it would take several months before essential commercial traffic would be restored. But just 31 days after the flooding occurred, the first trucks rolled through the temporary repairs, renewing the link between three million British Columbians and the rest of Canada. Vital cargo was moving again, and so too was the economy. It was the greatest Christmas gift many could imagine.

It just so happens that the vast majority of workers who pulled off this miracle were CLAC members employed by Kiewit. On the day the highway reopened to commercial traffic, Rob Fleming, the NDP transportation minister, stood proudly in front of a crowd of CLAC members (among others) and praised their efforts saying, “The only thing that could bring the highway back was the sheer force of will of this community, for 31 days straight around the clock, to make this happen.” It was a crowning achievement for the workers, and also for his government.

The initial repairs, as remarkable as they were, were only temporary, and the work of permanently rebuilding these highways is still underway. Several months after the minister stood before CLAC members to celebrate their heroic efforts, his government signed an exclusive project labour agreement with the BC Building Trades Unions that specifically excludes them from participating in the permanent repair work resulting from the 2021 floods.

You may find this a rather shocking affront to a workforce that worked so hard in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. I was shocked, too.

I simply can’t imagine the propensity of either the BC government or the BC Building Trade Unions to leverage a disaster of this magnitude to advance their own selfish interests. That a government would specifically exclude workers based on their union affiliation from such work is shameful. That in doing so they also unnecessarily and substantially increase the cost of these repairs by limiting access to and competition for the work is like rubbing salt in an open wound.

If you are one of these members—someone who pays taxes in BC, travels on these highways, and participated in the epic repair work last year—I am truly sorry that this is how you have been thanked by your government. There is no justification for this type of discriminatory interference in workers’ freedom to choose their own union. It’s a remarkable story of heroes, floods, and fools.

Of Floods and Fools

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