ao.

IWA CANADA

INDUSTRIAL WOOD & ALLIED
WORKERS OF CANADA

° Outside the new 4,000 square foot union headquarters are (I. to r.) Chapparal’s operations manager Tom Sommerfeld, Local 1-423 President Troi Cald-
well and First Vice President Ben Landis.

Local 1-423 moves into union-made
- headquarters built by Chapparal

hen I.W.A. CANADA

Local 1-423 started

tolook for anew build-

ing earlier this year,

it had some concerns.
The building it has been housed in
for the last 27 years was going to be
quite expensive to fix up to the mod-
ern-day building code.

It looked around for a unionized
general contractor that employed
construction trades people and was
coming up empty handed. There’s
hardly any union construction trades
in the Kelowna region and the local
thought it was going to have to
become the general contractor.

What to do?

When local union president Troi
Caldwell mentioned the dilemma to
I.W.A. member Liz From, plant

chairperson at Chaparral Industries
(86) Inc. in Kelowna, Sister From
replied; “Why don’t we build it?”

Great idea. The local phoned up
the company’s operation manager
Ted Sommerfeld and got the ball
rolling with a few meetings, some
drawings and an estimate that didn’t
cost much more than it would to
renovate their old building.

“Getting the crew at Chapparal to
build our new office was a good move
— both for the local union and for
the crew,” said Brother Caldwell.
“These people can build anything
and they proved to us, without a
late whata superb job they can

0.’

With the unanimous approval of
its executive board, the local pur-
chased a piece of property on Rut-

e Brother Caldwell (right) symbollically piss a cheque to Mr. Sommerfeld.

in exchange for door key.

land Road, on the
outskirts of
Kelowna, and then
struck a deal with
Chapparal. Part of
the agreement was
that Chapparal
would also be the
general contractor
for the site.

The company
coordinated the
excavation and
foundation work,
and everything else | -
from paving to
landscaping. R

“We wanted it
union built and we |
got it union built,”
said Caldwell, who
is proud of the fact
that the job created
about 1,000 person
hours of employ-
ment.

“Nobody can
believe when they
see this building
that it is a modu-
lar built home,” added Caldwell.
“It’s an extremely professional job
and we are extremely pleased.”

The new 4,000 square foot facility
has a large reception area, six spa-
cious offices, a large conference
room (exceeding 1,000 square feet),
a lunch room and two wheelchair
accessible washrooms.

The local union had its new head-

quarters built with growth in mind.

eer our old place, one business
agent was working out of the board-
room, 80 we really needed the new
space,” said Caldwell. “And even
though the industry has been ina
downturn in B.C., we have held our
own and have organized new mem-
bers. We are looking to build our
local union biguer and stronger in
the years ahea

e In reception area are Brothers Caldwell and Landis
with local secretary Connie Evans.

The modular units came over on
flatbeds from Chapparal’s plant
only about 2 km away. It took a
giant crane about six hours to put
the four major modular components
into place.

Two of the components measured
14’ x 70’ while the other two mea-
sured out at 14’ x 68.’ The structure
consists of 2” x 6” walls with R-20
insulation in the wall and 2” x 4” on
the interior wall along with R-28
insulation in the walls and floor.
The outer walls are covered with
styrofoam insulation and an acrylic
stucco.

The floors and walls were assem-
bled in the factory and the dry-
walling and roof were applied on
the site. The ceilings measure at

Continued on page thirty-two

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1998/15