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Bricklayers Ply Their Trade Around the World

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following articles from the Spring and Summer 2007 issues of TRADEtalk, published by the British Columbia and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council, are reprinted with their permission.

Joshua Berson Photographics

This copper mine in Chile is located in the Atacama Desert. One of the driest places on earth, there has been no measurable rain for over 100 years.

It’s tough work but someone had to do it. Four members of [BAC Local 2 British Columbia] just returned from nine months of work in Barbados. Masonry supervisor Graham Mott, Pat Murphy, Rick Opitz and Dean Haight were building a 1,200-person prison for Commonwealth Construction.
Several other members of the Local, working on mining operations for Canadian Stebbins Engineering and manufacturing, have just returned from Chile and Australia.

Field supervisor [and Local 2 member] Al Geddes has worked for the company since 1975. “I’ve worked all over the world.” Over the past 10 years, that includes Chile, Peru, Mexico, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, the U.S. and half the provinces in Canada.

He returned to Vancouver for three months in November after spending two years in Australia. “It never starts off that long,” he said.” It was supposed to be six or eight months, but the project was delayed and they had me work on other projects in the meantime.”

Joshua Berson Photographics

The $2.5 billion Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine in Australia.

It’s not easy being away from his wife and 20-year-old daughter, he said, but he enjoys meeting new people and learning about different cultures. “Australia has a similar shortage of tradespeople as Canada and it is not uncommon to find yourself in a group of 20 workers with only 3 or 4 of them Australian-born,” he said. “I am happy to say that Canadian tradespeople are highly valued wherever they go, and I am always relieved when I know some B.C. brick masons are on the way.”

Joshua Berson Photographics

Local 2 BC bricklayer Al Geddes with some fine brickwork in Australia.

Hazards are a little different in Australia (crew members collided with kangaroos on six occasions on their way to work in the past year), he said. However, the working conditions are as good or better. That wasn’t the case when he worked in Mexico. “Our subcontractor would pick up men on the side of the road and, if they had trowels stuck in their belts, then that was who your bricklayers and helpers were for the day.

“One of the things I have come to realize, from working in other countries, is that the benefits that have been won by workers in B.C. make it a wonderful place to come home to.”

By Lon Roberts