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Maritime
Machinists tug at Global market
Quality workmanship creates world product demand!
Georgetown P.E.I.
– Having a level playing field, competing in a Global Economy,
maximizing market potential; terms the media uses to describe the
daily challenges businesses must overcome to be successful. But life
in the business world is not always fair and sometimes you have to
create your own level playing field and your own market to be
successful in a Global economy. Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax,
specializing in small complex vessels is a case in point.
The building of large cargo vessels is almost exclusively the domain
of Korean and Chinese shipyards and cruise ships slide down the ways
in yards in Scandinavia and Germany, Canada created a market niche
for itself too. While the rest of the world is building big, Irving
is capturing its share of the small vessel market. The world’s
largest bulk carrier, the mega oil tanker, Hellespont Fairfax – a
wonder of modern construction - can’t get in and out of port without
assistance from a vessel a fraction of its size – the Canadian
designed and built Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tug is a fine example.
Whether it’s nudging giant bulk freighters through the Panama Canal
or up the St Lawrence River, no task is too big for these tugs. The
ASD tug is a product of an Irving subsidiary, East Isle Shipyard and
the pride of the workers who build them, the 96 members of IAMAW
Local Lodge 1934. “We currently produce about three vessels a year
and the goal is to get production up to five vessels annually,” said
Lodge president Rick Jenkins. “We now have five under construction
and we’re bidding on another eight, so things are looking
promising.”
The tugs are 101 feet long and 37 feet wide and weigh just over 500
tonnes. Originally designed by renowned naval architect, Robert
Allan, Irving has refined the design based upon the input from its
customers. Based on a common hull design, the tugs can be outfitted
with a range of propulsion machinery, deck machinery and other
options. With twenty of these vessels delivered or on order, they
represent one of the most successful ASD designs in the world today.
“These vessels can either be built to order or offered for sale
during the construction phase to ensure that delivery times match
the requirements of our customers,” said Jenkins. “We have a good
relationship with our employer, our workforce is stable and the
members take a great deal of pride in the fact that they produce one
of the best ocean-going tugs in the world,” Jenkins said.
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New Brunswick Federation of Labour elects first full time president
Moncton
N.B. – Delegates to the 47th annual Convention of the
New Brunswick Federation of Labour made history this week when they
nominated and elected their first full time president.
Brother Michel
Boudreau of CUPE was elected as the Federation’s new president. He
replaced Blair Doucet of USWA who retired after a six-year term.
Machinist delegates to the three day convention included Richard
McGuire, President of IAMAW Local Lodge 835, Edmond Lamoreux,
Recording Secretary of Local Lodge 1505 and Brian Beaton, GLR and
member of IAMAW Local Lodge 2418.
The IAMAW made
history of its own at this convention when both Richard McGuire and
Edmond Lamoreux were elected as Alternate Vice Presidents to the
Federation’s Executive Board, representing unions with under one
thousand members. George Leaman of the Backers Union and Kyle
Houlston of the Moncton Firefighters Union were elected as the two
Vice Presidents.
The
convention, which ran from May 1-4, also featured a solidarity march
by delegates to Moncton City Hall in support of the 48 members of
ATU Local 1290 who have been on strike at Codiac Transit since April
8, 2005. The demonstration was an attempt to facilitate the
resumption of negotiations.
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