Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Oct 01/01) - If a pipeline is built up Mackenzie Valley, Northerners hope they won't be shut out by unions like the last time a pipeline went through part of the same corridor.

Herb Norwegian: 'More leverage to bend the system until it suits Deh Cho residents'

Giant U.S.-based unions controlling much of the hiring promise things will be different this time.

Teamsters point to New Brunswick, where a pipeline was built a couple years ago, as an example of how their new approach works.

Nova Scotia's government took a different view when the pipeline went through that province, denying teamster participation due to fears of too many outsiders.

In Deh Cho country, sore feelings linger from the 1980's, when Enbridge's pipeline was built from Norman Wells to Zama, Alta. Leaders say qualified people wound up being lackeys, kept far from meaningful jobs in a work environment strictly controlled by the big unions.

The atmosphere is different now, and self- government negotiators like Fort Simpson's Herb Norwegian say there is more leverage to bend the system until it suits Deh Cho residents.

In the 1980s "there were no negotiations underway between the Dene and the federal government. Now we have a framework agreement and interim measures agreement, so there are some ground rules now," he said.

"Back then we were just reacting, now we're in the driver's seat."

A spokesman for one union that helps build pipelines says "our policies have become refined" to accommodate local hiring, but Greg Harris adds that a hiring hall for a Northern pipeline will likely be in Edmonton.

Harris says plenty of Northerners got work on the Enbridge line, but Norwegian calls them "grease monkey" jobs.

The impact of empty promises are still being felt by Leo Norwegian, who blames pipeline unions for the loss of $66,000 - his life savings.

A contractor advised him to buy new vehicles to shuttle workers and escort heavy loads. He did that before the company backed out and used union drivers instead.

Norwegian recalls what happened to local heavy equipment operators:

"We sent them our best. When they got to the camps, they were handed chainsaws for brush clearing because they weren't in the union."

Unions represent key trades that build pipelines: operating engineers, labourers, plus a group called the United Association, consisting of welders and transportation workers, or teamsters. They all work together.

Harris represents one of the groups, an 800,000-member organization called the Labourer's International Union of North America.

Herb Norwegian, who was a Deh Cho representative in charge of keeping an eye on the Enbridge line in the 1980's, figures the union stranglehold began with the unionized Ontario factory where the metal pipe was assembled.

"That union wanted all union people to be fabricating it and the actual hauling it onto site and of course laying it in the ground. That was entirely done by unions," Norwegian said.

"That's how we were shut out."

At the time "we had all kinds of operators capable of operating heavy equipment."

"A massive community of union people came into the area and they're the ones who did the brunt of the work."

"We got the shaft."

Some refereeing was necessary, Norwegian recalls, between locals and the parachuted-in workers.

"They were arrogant and they came to the camp, ate and were gone."

He concedes one important point to the unions - just because locals know how to weld, it doesn't mean they should be joining pipeline pieces.

"This is highly technical, specialized work...you don't want to put a bead on the pipe and find out there's a flaw. We'd be talking about an environmental catastrophe."

Norwegian wants a union local to be created in the North. Harris doesn't rule that out, but says it's too early to rush into a decision, since it's still unclear if a pipeline will be built at all.

If one goes ahead, Norwegian estimates that 1,500 temporary jobs could be created.

Teamsters' spokesman Ed Hawrysh says "the world has changed a lot...and we've adapted."

"In the past 10 years our organization has done a lot of things in regard to working in areas with aboriginals."

He points to the 80 per cent level of local labour hired for Atlantic Canada's recent gas pipeline project. That was among teamsters, but other pipeline unions failed to meet quotas, he said.

He said it's not easy meeting quotas because some leaders want cash for their communities, without being anxious to put people to work.

Doug Anguish, a management consultant hired to represent both unions and pipeline manufacturers in the North, says he's begun networking in NWT so Northerners "can get full advantage" when pipeline construction starts, "which has not always been the case in the past."

He promises union-based training will be available to Northerners.

"We're there further in advance than any construction group has ever been for a pipeline project, and I hope that shows the seriousness at which we take this in terms of our commitment to Northerners," Anguish said.