We will create a contract with your employer which you will work under, this way you know what you make from year to year, this contract will establish not only a wage package but will include pension and benefits as well. All UA plumbers, steamfitters and welders have benefits and pensions. All UA plumbers, steamfitters and welders have access to all available industry training at no cost to them, gas tickets, welding tickets and backflow just to name a few. All UA plumbers, steamfitters and welders work under collective agreements securing wages. No matter what the economic environment.

We work closely with all our employers in order maintain work for our membership, all of our newly unionized employers are still operating and have hired tradesmen.

We do not have the experience of that happening because we work to make the transition as smoothly as possible with as little disruption as possible, we simply want a standard wage and benefit package for the members. If it were to happen that the employer decided to leave the industry then the tradesmen and apprentices who wished to remain as union members would have that option and would be put to out to work with a union contractor.

That is not true. We want to represent the all the tradesmen and apprentices of the plumbing and pipefitting industry in the London area. All those employees who want membership in the U.A. are welcome. We never dictate to an employer how to run their company.

The employees sign union cards if they wish to be represented, if there are enough cards then your employer will be certified, that’s all it takes.

All you have to do is sign a card, the organizer does the organizing.

It is your right in the Province of Ontario to be represented at work by a union. It is illegal for employers to fire an employee for requesting union representation.

No. Employees who sign union cards are never revealed even after the process is completed.

That’s fine we don’t want to represent your contractor we want to represent you. More than likely your employer has contracts with the people he deals with and has his own representation when he needs it. We think that the worker should too and that’s what we provide.

We think that Journeymen and Apprentices in the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry in the London Area should have a standard wage and benefit package we want a level playing field for all the contractors. There is not much in it for us we are not here to make a profit.

Layoffs are a part of the construction industry, union or nonunion we can’t control the economy. Most of our members would rather take the layoff and go work for the contractor that has the work than sit at home.

We don’t have seniority clauses so you are not always working from the bottom up just because you’re a new employee.

Your pension and benefits and wages are consistent from contractor to contractor and province to province even country to country. They stay with you the member not with the employer. Whatever happens to the employer your benefits and pension is protected.

No they don’t any more than anybody else, it depends on your employer and the economics of the industry of the area, much like the nonunion, only with us your travel and board are negotiated ahead of time.