Canada's Building Trades Unions applaud Energy East for Historic MOU

OTTAWA, July 14, 2016 /CNW/ - Canada's Building Trades Unions (CBTU) welcomes TransCanada's signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Pipeline Contractors Association of Canada and the Pipeline Crafts. With this MOU, TransCanada demonstrates its commitment to hiring members of the four Union Partners of PLCAC: The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA), International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), Labourers International Union of North America (LiUNA) and Teamsters Canada.

"This MOU signing is very significant for TransCanada," said Russ Girling, TransCanada's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are committed to hiring the best workers this country has to offer for the over 14,000 jobs Energy East will create annually across Canada during the nine years it will take to develop and build the pipeline. And above all, we are committed to ensuring Energy East is built safely.

Speaking on behalf of CBTU, Canadian Director Robert Blakely said: "Our membership, half a million strong across the country, is looking forward to this project. This MOU demonstrates a commitment to the men and women who build Canada. The Energy East Project will be an important employer once this project is approved and today shows the intensity with which our members are following the process. Canadians, now more than ever, need to know that the pipeline jobs and the construction jobs of this utility are not the primary employment opportunity - the jobs in the extraction and upgrading facilities in the West and in the refineries and other facilities in the East are long term, high skilled well-paying jobs for large numbers of Canadians."

"Pipeline construction work requires a large number of highly skilled workers, which in turn creates high paying jobs for Canadians," said Joe Mancinelli, International Vice-president of LiUNA. "A project of Energy East's magnitude can generate the annual income for a worker and his or her family. This MOU to work on Energy East provides our members across the country and across the pipeline route with an opportunity to contribute to a monumental project for this country that will help restore the strength of the middle class."

CBTU notes that the Energy East project still has additional reviews to undergo before final approval. It is our hope that those reviews commence quickly and be completed expeditiously, albeit with care, in order to get our members to work.

Canada's Building Trades Unions is an alliance of 14 building and construction unions that represent a membership of more than 500,000 skilled tradespeople across Canada.

SOURCE Building & Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO

For further information: Christopher Smillie, Sr. Advisor for Government Relations and Public Affairs, CBTU, at [phone], Cell at 613-620-0653 or [email protected]