I am extremely happy with the news that the successful bidder of the Service Area 11 contract is Mainroad. This means our professional, qualified and experienced members will continue to keep our roads safe in the East Kootenays.

It was just over a year ago that meetings started with the Ministry of Transportation to address the issue of successorship for Service Area 11 in the East Kootenays. Government’s decision not to include successorship in the request for proposals was extremely disappointing. However, the component continued to work and strategize to find a way to protect our members.

We were successful because of the hard work of the bargaining committee, membership involvement from questionnaires to ratification, the staff assigned to the component, and the support of highway workers across the province.

I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to everyone involved who helped us reach this milestone in highways maintenance.

Rory Smith - BCGEU vice president – Operational Services (Component 10)