Job Shops | COVER STORY | 17
business development at Universe Machine Corp. in Edmonton,
AB, also has a bone to pick with the federal government, and
the NDP one currently in charge in Alberta. In his case, it’s their
approach to the oil patch, a big part of Universe’s customer base.
“Our NDP government and the federal Liberals came
in with grandiose ideas of shutting down Canadian fossil
fuels, without considering how to pay for better alternatives,”
Feigel says. “I hope they’re both starting to realize how out
of touch with reality those ideas are, and that they need to
support the Canadian resource industries that provide our
wealth and future. This will support investment, strengthen
businesses, and keep and grow jobs–which is positive for all
of Canada.” Feigel says the wealth generated can be put to
work to diversify businesses and to set in motion a prudent
strategy for developing cleaner energy alternatives.
“We need more kids to understand the importance of trades,”
says Lisa Burgess, owner and general manager at KSM Stainless
Steel Fabricators in Langley, BC. “I have a young niece and
nephew, and in high school metalworking is half of a semester,
mixed in with woodworking. They’re not encouraging it. There
are so many jobs that are going to be opening up when the guys
we have now start retiring, and there’s not going to be anybody. I
don’t know if I’ll have a fabrication division in 20 years.”
More incentives to hire young workers would be a big
help, Burgess says, especially if they were targeted more
broadly to the whole population, in addition to groups that
have historically been underrepresented. She recalls one
instance when KSM wanted to hire a young person but
couldn’t get the required government support because the
candidate wasn’t part of a minority group. “We actually had
a particular person in mind for a position. The government
support should be more broadly applied.”
Marcon Metalfab in Delta, BC. actually found itself going
toe-to-toe with the federal government to hang on to its skilled
workers a few years ago. In a much-publicized announcement in
2011, Ottawa awarded an $8 billion dollar shipbuilding contract
to Vancouver-based Seaspan Marine to build Coast Guard and
civilian ships. The call went out for skilled metalworkers and
Marcon found itself fighting uphill to keep its talent in-house.
“They came in with wages that were 25 per cent more than
anybody was expecting,” says president Ari Burstein. “We’re
paying fabricators $35 an hour and the shipyards started offering
people $45. They killed us by 20 to 25 per cent. And they
demanded that anyone offered a job had to walk off their shift.
We had people with 10, 12 years here walking off the floor.”
Burstein understands that employees felt they had to grab
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the opportunity. “It’s a complete lifestyle change to go
from $65,000 a year to over $100,000,” he says, “but it was
disrespectful to the industry.” Marcon made sure to offer
employees who left on good terms the chance to return, and
eventually nearly half of them came back.
A challenge for shops with a greater variety of work–or a
plus, depending on how you look at it–is the flexibility required
of the employee. For Jacobs Industries, the Yukon’s extreme
winters have a lot to do with it, as you’d expect. In the winter
the volume declines, seasonal workers go back south, and
the bitter cold means slower work, as pieces stored outside
have to be warmed up indoors before they can be machined.
Employees are expected to chip in any way they can.
“The welders here have to do a lot more than just weld,”
Jacobs says. “They have to be a machinist, a mechanic, work
on hydraulics–even be a carpenter some of the time. Not to
mention shoveling snow.” That variety can add interest to the
work but it’s very different from what employees find in larger
and more specialized firms in the south.
“Most people want to stay down in Alberta where they can
