aT

. Peter Lansdowne, operations |
manager for Nechako Northcoast

Construction Services, says the
transfer of highways road and
bridge maintenance responsibil-
ity went "very" smoothly Satur-
day night. At midnight on Satur-
day, Nov. 30, most North Coast
Road Maintenance staff simply
parked their vehicles and drove

‘off in different vehicles owned

by their new employer, Nechako
Northcoast.

Nechako Northcoast’s 28-
month road maintenance contract
took effect Dec. 1 and Lans-
downe says they have now hired

most of the North Coast Road

Maintenance staff with the same
union seniority, terms and condi-
tions that were in effect with
their previous employer. Hiring
the North Coast staff was im-
portant, says Lansdowne, in
order to retain their expertise
and knowledge of roads in this
area.

Many management people,
however, are new. Lansdowne is
in charge, and assisting him will
be planner Rob Schibli, senior
road supervisor Blaine Scott, and
senior road foreman for the
Terrace area, Bob Howard. Fore-
men in Nass Camp, Salvas and
Kitimat are the same staff who
worked those jobs for North
Coast Road Maintenance.

All is not rosy in the world of
privatization, though. There are
the companies who had contracts
and lost them in this most recent
round of bidding. And one of
those, of course, is North Coast
Road Maintenance here in Ter-
race.

Originally, North Coast Road
Maintenance was formed by
Kentron Construction of Kitimat

Contract clicks for teachers

A directive from the provincial
government Nov. 18 finally
allowed School District 88 to
pay out the salary increase it
negotiated with the Terrace
District Teachers’ Union at the
beginning of 1991. District sec-
retary-treasurer Barry Piersdorff
said Nov. 28 the first portion,
covering July to December of
1990, was to be paid out Nov.
29 and the balance, the increase
for 1991, will go out Dec. 13.

The agreement was retroactive
to the expiry of the previous
contract, giving teachers an
increase of about seven percent
for each of two years beginning
in July 1990. The district had
been legally restrained from
paying out the increase because
the contract wasn’t approved by
Compensation Fairness Commis-
sioner Ed Lien. Since the change
in provincial government in
October, Lien has been fired and
replaced by a new appointee. All
boards in the province have been
given the go-ahead to pay out
any wage increases they had
negotiated with teachers.

Piersdorff said his department
was still "in the process of pro-
cessing" the wages, but esti-
mated the total would come to
about $1.2 million. He con-
firmed that the return on short-

re ee! en ee oe ee ee

specifically for the purpose of
taking on the responsibilities of

highway maintenance. In its &

brief three-year life, it did just
that. There was a change of
ownership ‘in 1989 when Sintra
Construction of Montreal pur-
chased Kentron, but North Coast
forged ahead. Now, it appears

North Coast will simply fade |

away.

Bob Mair, a recently hired
supervisor for North Coast, says
Nechako Northcoast brought
their own heavy equipment with
them, and equipment used by

North Coast wil! either be sold ©

off or redistributed amongst
sister companies in the Sintra
group. The fate of the Thornhill
property where North Coast
‘intended to build a new high-
ways works yard is unknown,
but it may be sold off as well.

He says nine management
positions were affected by the
change. Two found management
positions. with Nechako North-
coast. Two moved back with the
union and are now working for
Nechako, But three are out of
luck. Their jobs have dis-
appeared.

Mair is one of those three and
right now he says he’s not sure
about short-term, privatized
maintenance contracts. There
may be a displacement of man-
agement and staff personnel
every three years, and that could
create serious problems for the
industry. He says there are other
opportunities, but there may be
none here. And that’s what he
really wants. He has three
children and five grandchildren
living in the Northwest and he
doesn’t want to leave.

tered money accounted for part
of the operating surplus
announced by the board in Sep-
tember.

TDTU president Rob Brown
Said he couldn’t place an aver-
age on the amount for each
teacher, but said for most
teachers it would be less than
$2,000 after taxes.

Although the wage increases
are just now being paid, the
current contract expires in June
1992, Brown said negotiations
will start up again in the spring,
and he hopes they will go more
smoothly in the coming round.
"It should be less combative
than it has been in the past,
mainly because I expect less
government interference," he
said. ,

Brown said he has reccived no
indications of what the new
NDP government may be con-
templating in the way of legis-
lative changes to education.
"The B.C. Teachers’ Federation
has a list of changes they would
like to see, and so does the
BCSTA (B.C. School Trustees
Association) and all the other
stakeholders in education," he
said. "Up to now, the govern-
ment has been non-committal."

The legislature is expected to
resume. sitting in the spring.

Pare MrT)

SPORTSTER
MODEL SPT 1000

» * AUTO STOP

COLOR TV
MODEL AVM 2857
«ON SCREEN SET UP
°25 KEY REMOTE

ANSWERING SYSTEM

MODEL TAS 345

+ DUAL CASSETTE
* ROOM MONITOR

$9998

SKEENA
MALL

Terrace

635-4948

Terrace Review —— Wednesday, December 11, 1991 5

SANYO
PORTABLE STEREO

MODEL MCD 211
* CD PLAYER -

BASSEXPANDER

* COMPANDER See gg ea
«1 WEEK STANDBY &

» 25 SECURITY CODES 7”
©

/ PORTABLE Gaga
CD STEREO

MODEL XL-P70
- HYPER BASS
* PROGRAMMABLE
«5 BAND EQUALIZER

Cation CAMCORDER
MODEL E-61
*Bx 200M - REMOTE
HIGH SPEED SHUTTER

$8995

RUPERT
SQUARE

Prince Rupert
624-4236