Skilled Trades

More than 125 Skilled Trades delegates, observers, and Unifor staff from across Canada came together from May 23 to 25 in St. John’s, Newfoundland for the National Skilled Trades Council. What unfolded was a passionate, pointed, and powerful exchange of ideas, solutions, and solidarity amid rising challenges — including the escalating trade war.

The ongoing trade war with the United States was top of mind as Unifor National Skilled Trades Council delegates from across the country met to discuss major challenges facing the union’s 50,000 Skilled Trades members. 

There is a friendly face on billboards throughout the city of Halifax representing the workers at the Halifax Shipyard. Unifor MWF-Local 1 member Krista Lee Langille’s confident smile proudly represents the more than 1,200 unionized workers inside the imposing white structure more than four football fields long that sprawls along the edge of the Halifax Harbour.

Skilled Trades delegates from across the country met to discuss issues, including shortages of Skilled Tradespeople, barriers to women entering the trades, work to expand apprenticeship programs while ensuring qualification standards, and protection of Skilled Trades work at the National Skilled Trades Council in Niagara Falls, Ontario on February 9-11.

Unifor has donated a $300,000 grant to Sheridan, Durham, Fanshawe, and St. Clair Colleges towards a new initiative to support women in the Skilled Trades.

Skilled Trades members from across the country poised the trades for the future as they voted to elect the Skilled Trades Executive and Committee members who will serve for the next three years.