INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS AND BUSINESSES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (ICBA)
40TH ANNIVERSARY, November, 18, 2015
INTERVIEW OF ELMER VERIGIN BY GORDON STEWART, ASSISTANT V.P. ICBA
QUESTIONS CREATED BY: JONATHAN MCGILL, COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST, ICBA OF BC
INTERVIEW DATE: July 23, 2015
1. Can you share some memories of how ICBA started?
a. An article in the Journal Commerce in 1973, reported a group of Contractors attended a Vancouver Island Right to Work Association meeting in Victoria, where the guest speaker was Ralph J. Purdy, VP of the Saskatchewan Employers Council. The emphasis of message was that everyone had the Right to Work no matter union affiliation or otherwise.
b. This struck a tender chord for me as because it was at this time that the NDP Government of the day was legislating a Public Works Fair Employment Act (PWFEA)which seriously contravening that right.
i. Of the 100,000 Tradesman qualified by the Government Apprenticeship Programs, only 33,000 (those in the Craft Unions) would be only eligible to work on government funded projects
ii. Worse yet, competition for these projects would only rest with the unionized Contractors who employed those workers
iii. My company, with the majority would be barred from tendering
iv. Something appeared to be out of place with this scenario!
c. Contact was made with both Ralph J. Purdy and the VIRTWA and soon a convention was called in Trail, B.C.
d. This convention was attended by small individual operated firms across B.C. We were immediately recognized as an information picket line was set up in front of the Terra Nova Hotel to protest the reasons why we were meeting . It was decided that a Committee of 5 would request a meeting with the Labor Minister Bill King to consider repealing this PWFEA
e. On the trip to Victoria, the VIRWA hosted this Committee consisting of :
i. Joe Pagurut from Cranbrook
ii. Nick Plotnikoff of Creston
iii. Norm Husband of Creston
iv. Gordon Laarz of Trail
v. Elmer Verigin of Trail
f. Everyone was surprised that Bill King listened to this fledgling group for 2 and 1/2 hours in his Victoria offices
i. His reasoning for the enacting the PWFEWA was that Alberta Contractors were unfairly competing for Highways Contracts because of their “Open Shop” status and so the Act would now favor B.C. firms.
ii. When the Committee pointed out the devastation to all the Contractors in the B.C., he countered with the fact that he was not aware of all these contractors and perhaps they should organize to speak on their behalf
iii. The Founders of ICBA always considered that Bill King was the real “Founder”
iv. Due credit must be given to Mr King as he did repeal the PWFEA later during his term of Office
v. After the NDP lost the election at the end of their term, I met Bill King at the Vancouver Airport. He walked over and shook my hand and congratulated us for forming the ICBA and influencing a strong political campaign to change the government of the day.
g. Ralph J Purdy was hired to solicit members. The results were that small chapters were formed in:
1. Cranbrook
2. Creston
3. Trail-Castlegar
4. Penticton
5. Kelowna
6. Kamloops
7. Abbottsford
8. Victoria
h. The first provincial convention of all these branches was held at the Sandman Inn in Vancouver to celebrate the first open shop major project constructed on the Lower Mainland. There were several members from Vancouver but not enough to form a branch at that time.
i. The constitution that was drafted by a committee, earlier in Victoria, was approved at this convention. Much of the pertinent wording came from the ABC Incorporated , by permission, from this successful open shop movement in the USA

2. What is your strongest memory from the early years of ICBA?
a. Even though the ICBA members were active in changing the politics in B.C., it was very difficult to get government speakers to speak at the early conventions because ICBA was associated with radicals who dared to oppose compulsory unionism
b. Member firms were targeted with picket lines as intimidation tactics
c. Many executive members were threatened
d. Ewald Rempel was hit by a vehicle as he crossed the street and ended up holding the windshield wipers staring at the union driver who fled
e. Ed Rempel was jailed in Langley for allegedly attempting to run over a staged action on the picket line at the Overweigthea Foods Warehouse project. We could not believe that a 250 plus picket line was orchestrated by the BC Yukon Trades Council which physically prevented our employees to enter the site
f. Despite all these troubled times, we were able to band together as a strong association. Our conventions were full of social events such as dancing, socializing with skits, jokes, etc.
g. We were fund-raising as we were always short some $12,000 at the year end. So we organized auctions where we sold objects like:
i. Boxes of apples for $350
ii. Cartons of eggs for $100
iii. Cases of jam for $500
iv. The shirt off the auctioneer’s back for $400
v. The special lady’s undergarment (bought in an envelope) by the owner for $600
vi. A large rum and coke mixer in the function of as B.S. Grinder sold annually for about $400 each year
vii. A broken concrete block stolen from the Sandman Inn in Vancouver brought about $300 annually
viii. We even had a picture of a black and white crow on a lawn that brought the curious with $200 annually
h. The owners and their wives (who were usually part owners) looked forward to the yearly conventions

3. How did the ICBA shape the history of construction industry in BC?
a. A major change from a time when repeated work stoppages when 80 % were the norm in major construction work built by those firms employing union personnel.
b. Work stoppages on major projects are now a past history as a reverse with 80 % of the work now being constructed by Open Shop Contractors.
c. Projects can be completed on time and on budget
d. ICBA now speaks for the construction industry in B.C.

4. What are some of the challenges you faced during the first 10 years of ICBA?
a. My firm was not able to obtain trades from Canada Manpower if they were union members. Manpower refused to honor a worker request despite the fact that they had unemployed suitable candidates
b. My firm was successful on a seniors project in Castlegar but the award went to a union firm deliberately
c. There were active public relations campaigns in Trail and Castlegar, advertizing not to support the members in the Trail / Castlegar branch of ICBA by the Trail / Nelson Trades Council
d. I was threatened many times

5. Tell me about the most rewarding part of being a founder of the ICBA?
a. Meeting people in business that believed that everyone had the right to operate their businesses as they saw fit. It was a privilege to work with these principled people to initiate change
b. Establishing that these businesses had the right to hire whoever was capable of doing the job was comforting
c. Being able to establish a portable fringe benefit package for all small to medium sized firms

6. What was the biggest hurdle you experienced?
a. Overcoming union interference at Expo ’86
i. First time ever floating picket lines to interfere with delivery, by water, of pre-built manufactured sections to construct the International Pavilions
b. Overcoming intimidation and fear to successfully complete all 29 international pavilions and 10 restaurants at Expo ’86

7. What was a pivotal moment for ICBA during the first 10 years?
a. Changing an association operating policy from pursuit of an ideal of Right to Work philosophy to a business organization that could offer services to its members to make them more competitive such as:
i. Fringe benefit packages for employees at much more competitive rate than the union organizations
a. Convincing Insurance firms to risk doing business with Open Shop firms
ii. Apprenticeship delivery as an association in contract with BC Labor Ministry rendering employee contracts to be portable
iii. A strong legal opinion and defense when necessary
iv. Presentation of courses that were useful to member firms
v. Other services
b. Christina Koechl as the first female President of ICBA solicited a change in association management by recruiting Phil Hochstein away from the Mechanical Contractors Association of BC to take the position of Vice President of ICBA
i. This took away the stress of raising money at each annual meeting to balance the budget to one where the association could raise income from sources such as a premium on fringe benefits
ii. Success of ICBA followed
c. Any other pivotal moments?
i. Assisting Expo ’86 in creating an open tendering site for the government of B.C.
ii. Successfully tendering a major tilt-up concrete warehouse for Overweightea Foods and completing same by facing serious union opposition

8. What has been the biggest change since ICBA started in1975?
a. Removal of fear in operating a business in the manner which best suits an individual

9. How was the role of ICBA shaping the construction industry today?
a. Apprenticeship has increased
b. Projects can be completed on time and on budget

10. Where do you hope to see ICBA progress to?
a. The central operation needs a return to provide branches throughout BC so that educational and business support would be more readily available at a local level

11. If you could go back to 1975 and give yourself a message about the future of ICBA, what would you say?
a. It was very difficult to imagine that a group of dedicated people, with a cause, would eventually overcome a well-entrenched union philosophy in construction, especially when threats to personal safety of the members was rampant
b. Perhaps the message, is that a few people with dedication for a cause that is legal and right, in the first instance, can overcome. The example of the young man with a sling subduing Goliath still applies.

12. What are you most proud of over the past 40 years with ICBA?
a. The camaraderie once established with individuals when oppressed still exists today when I meet those pioneers.
b. I am proud that the association has grown in public support, financial growth as well as in number of members
c. Just about every time the press seeks an opinion in construction matters, I see a representative of ICBA being quoted.
d. So we need to remind ourselves that this success cannot be unattended but must continue to be nurtured and to stay viligent as the opposing forces will always remain poised to undermine and attack ICBA
e. During Expos ’86 construction, I received a phone call that identified himself only as a Director of the BC Yukon Trades. His message was ” I just wanted to tell you that I have been told to hate you but I cannot hate a man I respect.” I responded by telling him that “this is perhaps the best phone call I ever received from a union source!”
f. In 1977 after a bitter campaign in Trail against my firm while constructing a 98 unit townhouse project, my sales staff sold a unit to the President of The Steelworkers who were part of the campaign. When I called him and asked him why he would purchase a “hot” product he responded, “this is the best price for a well built product and it is what I want!”
g. In 2003, the Whatshan Lake Retreat near Edgewood, B.C., was expanding. It was suggested that young apprentices could be utilized as part of their training. So a Journeyman Carpenter, who taught at J. Lloyd Crowe High School in Trail, agreed to teach a pre-apprenticeship course in Carpentry as part of the grade 12 curriculum.
i. 15 students took the course in 2003 with another 10 in 2004
ii. ICBA signed all contracts for apprenticeship
iii. Three retired union carpenter superintendent volunteers at Whatshan Lake Retreat were responsible for the 8 week training period during actual construction of cabins, Stage and Washroom / Shower building
iv. Apprentices were all paid as per the wage scale
v. The local President of the Kootenay Carpenters Local spoke on CKNW that this was a sham and the apprentices learned nothing and that this was a typical misuse of youth and workers were not paid. Typical of Elmer Verigin’s philosophy and method of doing businesss.
vi. ICBA called me and asked permission to pursue this legally as they were not comfortable with the unfounded accusations regarding
vii. the ICBA Founding President
viii. The result was that the Union President had to apologize on CKNW and the Press. He also had to pay Elmer Verigin $5,000 damages
ix. I took this check to the Treasurer of the Whatshan Lake Retreat to deposit as a charitable donation from the Carpenters Union. A charitable receipt was then sent to the Union. We never received an acknowledgement of any sort
x. Yes I am proud of the ICBA!
End of Interview

Some of my readers have may have noted that I have a difficult time with the “Global Warming” predictions that Dr Suziki and Al Gore have been speaking on.

Dr. Helen Popova like many Russian Scientists are allowed to speak intelligently and scientifically on their observations. These gifted Scientists are not under contract to the large Corporations that “muzzle” them.
Have a look at this article and read other articles on this matter and you may soon realize that our children and grandchildren will need to prepare for when the “sun will sleep”: in about 15 years.

Yes I am also very interested to reduce emissions and cleaning up the way we live so that our planet does nor become a garbage dump but we need to recognize how the sun and the combined magnetism is a much greater power that affects us on Earth.

Elmer

Article published in “Google”………………..

“This image of the Sun was taken by NASA Solar Dynamics Observations mission on 15 July 2015, at a wavelength of 304 Angstroms. Image credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observations.
This image of the Sun was taken by NASA Solar Dynamics Observations mission on 15 July 2015, at a wavelength of 304 Angstroms. Image credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observations.
The arrival of intense cold similar to the one that raged during the “Little Ice Age”, which froze the world during the 17th century and in the beginning of the 18th century, is expected in the years 2030—2040. These conclusions were presented by Professor V. Zharkova (Northumbria University) during the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno in Wales by the international group of scientists, which also includes Dr Helen Popova of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics and of the Faculty of Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Professor Simon Shepherd of Bradford University and Dr Sergei Zharkov of Hull University.

It is known that the Sun has its own magnetic field, the amplitude and spatial configuration of which vary with time. The formation and decay of strong magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere results in the changes of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, of the intensity of plasma flows coming from the Sun, and the number of sunspots on the Sun’s surface. The study of changes in the number of sunspots on the Sun’s surface has a cyclic structure vary in every 11 years that is also imposed on the Earth environment as the analysis of carbon-14, beryllium-10 and other isotopes in glaciers and in the trees showed.

There are several cycles with different periods and properties, while the 11-year cycle, the 90-year cycle are the best known of them. The 11-year cycle appears as a cyclical reduction in stains on the surface of the Sun every 11 years. Its 90-year variation is associated with periodic reduction in the number of spots in the 11-year cycle in the 50-25%. In 17th century, though, there was a prolonged reduction in solar activity called the Maunder minimum, which lasted roughly from 1645 to 1700. During this period, there were only about 50 sunspots instead of the usual 40-50 thousand sunspots. Analysis of solar radiation showed that its maxima and minima almost coincide with the maxima and minima in the number of spots.

In this 1677 painting by Abraham Hondius, “The Frozen Thames, looking Eastwards towards Old London Bridge,” people are shown enjoying themselves on the ice. In 17th century there was a prolonged reduction in solar activity called the Maunder minimum, which lasted roughly from 1645 to 1700. During this period, there were only about 50 sunspots instead of the usual 40-50 thousand recorded. Image credit: Museum of London.
In this 1677 painting by Abraham Hondius, “The Frozen Thames, looking Eastwards towards Old London Bridge,” people are shown enjoying themselves on the ice. In the 17th century there was a prolonged reduction in solar activity called the Maunder minimum, which lasted roughly from 1645 to 1700. During this period, there were only about 50 sunspots recorded instead of the usual 40-50 thousand. Image credit: Museum of London.
In the current study published in 3 peer-reviewed papers the researchers analysed a total background magnetic field from full disk magnetograms for three cycles of solar activity (21-23) by applying the so-called “principal component analysis”, which allows to reduce the data dimensionality and noise and to identify waves with the largest contribution to the observational data. This method can be compared with the decomposition of white light on the rainbow prism detecting the waves of different frequencies. As a result, the researchers developed a new method of analysis, which helped to uncover that the magnetic waves in the Sun are generated in pairs, with the main pair covering 40% of variance of the data (Zharkova et al, 2012, MNRAS). The principal component pair is responsible for the variations of a dipole field of the Sun, which is changing its polarity from pole to pole during 11-year solar activity.

The magnetic waves travel from the opposite hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere (odd cycles) or to Southern Hemisphere (even cycles), with the phase shift between the waves increasing with a cycle number. The waves interacts with each other in the hemisphere where they have maximum (Northern for odd cycles and Southern for even ones). These two components are assumed to originate in two different layers in the solar interior (inner and outer) with close, but not equal, frequencies and a variable phase shift (Popova et al, 2013, AnnGeo).

The scientists managed to derive the analytical formula, describing the evolution of these two waves and calculated the summary curve which was linked to the variations of sunspot numbers, the original proxy of solar activity, if one used the modulus of the summary curve (Shepherd et al, 2014, ApJ). By using this formula the scientists made first the prediction of magnetic activity in the cycle 24, which gave 97% accuracy in comparison with the principal components derived from the observations.

Inspired by this success, the authors extended the prediction of these two magnetic waves to the next two cycle 25 and 26 and discovered that the waves become fully separated into the opposite hemispheres in cycle 26 and thus have little chance of interacting and producing sunspot numbers. This will lead to a sharp decline in solar activity in years 2030—2040 comparable with the conditions existed previously during the Maunder minimum in the XVII century when there were only about 50-70 sunspots observed instead of the usual 40-50 thousand expected.

The new reduction of the solar activity will lead to reduction of the solar irradiance by 3W/m2 according to Lean (1997). This resulted in significant cooling of Earth and very severe winters and cold summers. “Several studies have shown that the Maunder Minimum coincided with the coldest phase of global cooling, which was called “the Little Ice Age”. During this period there were very cold winters in Europe and North America. In the days of the Maunder minimum the water in the river Thames and the Danube River froze, the Moscow River was covered by ice every six months, snow lay on some plains year round and Greenland was covered by glaciers” – says Dr Helen Popova, who developed a unique physical-mathematical model of the evolution of the magnetic activity of the Sun and used it to gain the patterns of occurrence of global minima of solar activity and gave them a physical interpretation.

If the similar reduction will be observed during the upcoming Maunder minimum this can lead to the similar cooling of the Earth atmosphere. According to Dr Helen Popova, if the existing theories about the impact of solar activity on the climate are true, then this minimum will lead to a significant cooling, similar to the one occurred during the Maunder minimum.

However, only the time will show soon enough (within the next 5-15 years) if this will happen.

Dr. Helen Popova of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics and of the Faculty of Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Image credit: Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Dr. Helen Popova of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics and of the Faculty of Physics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Image credit: Lomonosov Moscow State University.
“Given that our future minimum will last for at least three solar cycles, which is about 30 years, it is possible, that the lowering of the temperature will not be as deep as during the Maunder minimum. But we will have to examine it in detail. We keep in touch with climatologists from different countries. We plan to work in this direction”, Dr Helen Popova said.

The notion that solar activity affects the climate, appeared long ago. It is known, for example, that a change in the total quantity of the electromagnetic radiation by only 1% can result in a noticeable change in the temperature distribution and air flow all over the Earth. Ultraviolet rays cause photochemical effect, which leads to the formation of ozone at the altitude of 30-40 km. The flow of ultraviolet rays increases sharply during chromospheric flares in the Sun. Ozone, which absorbs the Sun’s rays well enough, is being heated and it affects the air currents in the lower layers of the atmosphere and, consequently, the weather. Powerful emission of corpuscles, which can reach the Earth’s surface, arise periodically during the high solar activity. They can move in complex trajectories, causing aurorae, geomagnetic storms and disturbances of radio communication.

By increasing the flow of particles in the lower atmospheric layers air flows of meridional direction enhance: warm currents from the south with even greater energy rush in the high latitudes and cold currents, carrying arctic air, penetrate deeper into the south. In addition, the solar activity affects the intensity of fluxes of galactic cosmic rays. The minimum activity streams become more intense, which also affects the chemical processes in the Earth’s atmosphere

The study of deuterium in the Antarctic showed that there were five global warmings and four Ice Ages for the past 400 thousand years. The increase in the volcanic activity comes after the Ice Age and it leads to the greenhouse gas emissions. The magnetic field of the Sun grows, what means that the flux of cosmic rays decreases, increasing the number of clouds and leading to the warming again. Next comes the reverse process, where the magnetic field of the Sun decreases, the intensity of cosmic ray rises, reducing the clouds and making the atmosphere cool again. This process comes with some delay.

Dr Helen Popova responds cautiously, while speaking about the human influence on climate.

“There is no strong evidence, that global warming is caused by human activity. The study of deuterium in the Antarctic showed that there were five global warmings and four Ice Ages for the past 400 thousand years. People first appeared on the Earth about 60 thousand years ago. However, even if human activities influence the climate, we can say, that the Sun with the new minimum gives humanity more time or a second chance to reduce their industrial emissions and to prepare, when the Sun will return to normal activity”, Dr Helen Popova summarised.
.

Bradford University

climate

Dr Helen Popova

Dr Sergei Zharkov

Earth

Hull University

Little Ice Age

Lomonosov Moscow State University

magnetic field

Maunder Minimum

NAM2015

Northumbria University

plasma flows

Prof. V. Zharkova

Professor Simon Shepherd

Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics

Sun

sunspots…………………………..”