October 1, 2008

Wage dispute prompts Golden Ears bridge project workers to walk off the job

Vancouver

A group of temporary foreign workers from Serbia walked off the job at the Golden Ears bridge construction project, after not being paid by a European sub-contractor.

The Golden Ears Bridge is a six-lane bridge that is under construction across the Fraser River, between Langley and Maple Ridge, B.C.

The new bridge is owned by TransLink, who hired the Golden Crossing General Partnership to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the bridge for $808 million over a 35.5-year period.

The partnership is wholly owned by German-based Bilfinger Berger.

Eighty workers left the jobsite shortly after lunch on Sept. 23 after not being paid by Baulex Projects Ltd.

“Bilfinger Berger is the general contractor on the bridge project and they sub-contracted some of the bridge work to an Eastern European labour broker called Baulex,” said Mark Olsen, business manager with the Construction and Specialized Workers Union 1611.

“This is the first contract that Baulex has had in B.C. and they brought in 80 temporary foreign workers from Serbia. We organized these workers and our business rep just ratified a collective agreement for the crew, which called for a raise retroactive to Aug. 1.”

Olsen said Baulex had their bank accounts frozen by Revenue Canada, for non- remittance of the workers income taxes.

Therefore, even though Bilfinger Berger provided the funds to Baulex to pay the workers, they have not paid been paid for two weeks.

“This could jeopardize their housing because they have not been paid and have no money. We don’t know if they can stay where they are,” he said.

The workers, who come from Belgrade, are now without jobs.

— DCN STAFF

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