Local 793 praises historic agreement on Energy East Pipeline

Mike Gallagher, Business Manager of Local 793 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, says a MoU signed for work on the Energy East Pipeline Project is important because it will ensure thousands of jobs for unionised trades.

"Local 793 is fully supportive of this memorandum of understanding because the project will create thousands of high-paying jobs for Operating Engineers and other unionised trades that do pipeline work," he said. "The project will deliver significant economic benefits to the entire country."

The Operating Engineers are one of four trades that signed the memorandum with TransCanada Corp. The agreement ensures the US$15.7 billion pipeline will be built to the highest safety standards by the four union partners.

"We have a long history of working with TransCanada," said Gallagher. "Pipelines like Energy East are true nation-building projects and we are ready and willing to work with the other unionized trades and contractor partners to get the job done. We will ensure the pipeline gets built right."

Gallagher said Local 793 has been preparing for projects like Energy East by investing in a pipeline-training program at the Operating Engineers Training Institute of Ontario (OETIO) campus in Morrisburg. The three-week programme was introduced in anticipation of more pipeline work coming on stream.

Gallagher said he is hopeful the National Energy Board of Canada will approve the Energy East project because it makes more sense to transport oil from reliable domestic suppliers in Western Canada to refineries in the East, rather than importing 700 000 bpd from overseas.

"Pipelines are the safest way to move oil. We all need to get behind Energy East and build it with Canadian unionized trades."

Local 793 of the International Union of Operating Engineers represents more than 14 500 highly skilled crane and heavy equipment operators across Ontario.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/equipment-and-safety/15072016/local-793-lauds-historic-agreement-on-energy-east-pipeline-701/