November 28, 2008

REC

REC has launched its anti-recession campaign that sees the firm hiring displaced workers when the demolition company comes in to tear down former workplaces.

Plant closures can lead to local employment opportunities

Out of the ashes come re-training and jobs

PETER KENTER

correspondent

toronto

Closing and demolishing an industrial facility or plant that once employed local workers often generates negative feelings toward former employers and, by association, the company chosen to demolish the structure.

Gormley, Ontario-based Restoration Environmental Contractors (REC) — a specialist in environmental remediation, demolition, disaster recovery, plant closures and industrial site remediation — has launched a new program designed to counter those impressions.

Last month, the company launched its redevelopment strategy and anti-recession campaign, designed to re-train and employ the local workforce and to help businesses that are shutting down their plants to sell off assets, recover idle property, and save on property taxes.

“Many corporations are writing off obsolete plants, and old technology that’s been determined to be of no further value,” says Don Bremner, CEO and president of REC. “But companies will still need to pay building taxes, even though the facility is shut down.

“Further, is the effect on families and the community. The shutdown of hundreds of manufacturing facilities has meant the complete loss of hundreds of thousands jobs. All of this goes into creating a tremendously negative impression about the corporation. We’re trying to create an awareness that, out of a negative, sometimes comes a positive.”

As its template, REC is using its experience with the two-phase demolition contract for Toronto’s Regent Park revitalization program. “Part of the contract with the City of Toronto and Toronto Community Housing required us to use 20 per cent local labour,” says Bremner.

“We went in prior to the work and negotiated with the unions to find a way to accommodate those workers. Most of the 25 people we used there were younger workers who lived in the area. We trained them in construction, demolition and environmental work. Some of them worked for days while others worked for weeks, but they all saw it as an opportunity.

“Unions will obviously want to keep their own members working, but I’m sure if they can work on a contract structured like the Regent Park contract, they’d be willing to help create such an opportunity.”

Bremner proposes contracts in which up to 20 per cent of former workers are hired for demolition and remediation and 50 per cent of workers are hired from the local labour pool, including local union halls. Even if local workers are employed only throughout demolition or environmental remediation, he says, the fact that money is being spent in the community can only be viewed positively.

REC employees will also temporarily locate to the area, favouring local companies and suppliers.

Bremner encourages companies which have already made a decision to close a plant to act on their plans to demolish and remediate a site as quickly as is practical, so that workers from those plants can still benefit from the economic activity generated by the decision. “The site can also be redeveloped sooner into new commercial or industrial uses, or into new housing,” says Bremner.

While in theory the program could work anywhere, Bremner says it’s particularly suited to smaller centres where the closure of a single company or branch plant can have huge impacts, and any money spent on demolition or remediation will directly benefit the community and its workers.

“Obviously, demolition isn’t usually an emergency,” says Bremner. “It’s a well thought-out process. If we include some consideration for local workers, we can create a win-win for the local economy, the former employees or local workforce, and the parent company.”

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