Telford Bashing The Director of Canadian Affairs, John Telford does not make decisions that will change the direction of U.A. Canada lightly. Nor does he make these decisions on his own or as some of you may think, - on the golf course. A number of years ago John formed the strategic planning committee; this committee consists of five business managers from across Canada that were appointed by U.A. General President Hite. The business managers have experience in the Industrial, Commercial, Residential, Service and Shipyards which gave a variety of experience within the committee. The business managers also have strong leadership skills and proven locals. Our goals to start were to make the U.A. the union of choice for people in the piping trades. We met with all of the business managers in Canada and asked for their input. We took the top five recommendations and proceeded to act on them. One thing for sure was we needed market share in all sectors of our trade. If local unions were losing work or had lost it many years ago the question was why and then we need to figure out how to get it back. The strategic planning committee set goals based on input from all the business managers in Canada; a) Implement a Standard for Excellence b)Future Leadership Training for Business manager, Agents, & Officers of the locals c) Find out local union market share d) Apprentice mentoring program e) National Organizing program f) National Marketing program g) National Health Care Plan The strategic planning committee through our quarterly meetings advise the Director of Canadian Affairs on what direction he should take U.A. Canada into the future. For those of you who say he is like Mr. Harper, your dead wrong, John is very good at communicating and taking advice. He will also tell you his point of view with no uncertain terms. As for the consolidations in Ontario, General President Hite made those decisions. I was one of the three hearing officers appointed by U.A. General President Hite to conduct the hearings in Toronto. After the hearings, the hearing officers submitted our reports and recommendations on each consolidation to U.A. General President Hite for his consideration. To all the U.A. members in Ontario, the three hearing officers did not take any of those consolidations lightly. We were asked to do a job by General President Hite and we did it. The decisions on these consolidations were out of John Telford’s hands. The decision was made by the U.A. General President. I urge all of you, look within your locals if you are not working at home ask why? Do you have market share in all of your sectors? If not why? How can you get it back? Play a part in your local. Sometimes we have to look in the mirror and ask why am I not working? If any of you are ever travelling to Victoria my door will be open to continue this conversation. I am proud to say my local has market share in all of our sectors. Dale Dhillon Business Manager/financial secretary UA Local 324 Victoria, British Columbia
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 17:16:29 +0000