Scaffold winner part of family trio!
Little did anyone suspect that in the early 90’s, when the federal government slapped a moratorium on the Newfoundland cod fishery, they were doing Local 1325 a big favour…20 years later!
Sister Bonnie White – whose skills won her the 2011 Provincial Scaffolding Competition – was just a tyke back then, but today she’s one-third of a Whitecourt-based powerhouse trio of sisters of Local 1325 scaffolders with a great track record of expertise, warm hearts and good humour.
“We used to fight like cats and dogs, but since we grew up and got into our own separate lives, we really like each other now. We have a pile of fun when we’re on the same jobs together,” says 23-year-old Bonnie of her (real-life and Local 1325) sisters Jodi, 31 and Crystal, 35.
In fact, the three sisters are the centre of quite a critical mass of scaffolding talent. Both of Bonnie’s sisters’ boyfriends are scaffolders too, and the three women have other friends and relatives who are also in the industry.
Bonnie’s a bit of an exception. “I love working with scaffolders, but when it comes to my private life, I want to keep work separate.”
Bonnie’s family paths began drifting toward scaffolding after the cod moratorium in 1991 shut down the fish plant that employed Bonnie’s parents in their eastern coast town of Princeton. Their parents separated, and her mom raised the girls on odd jobs and not a heck of a lot of money.
“We were happy. We may have fought with each other, but we were really happy, and now we’re best of friends.”
“Jodi moved to Alberta looking for work in 1998. Her boyfriend at the time was in scaffolding, which got her involved. Crystal was working at the Jasper Park Lodge for five years, but then she also moved to Whitecourt and got on as a scaffolder.
“I was working in a SAAN store and doing penny jobs, so I put my resume in at Steeplejack, and got in on the insulation side. But every chance I had to do scaffolding, I managed to get them to assign me to it…eventually I was doing it full time and I had joined the union.
“Seeing my sisters being such successes really attracted me. I couldn’t believe my first paycheque in scaffolding – $20 an hour, compared to $6.40 at the SAAN store, wow!”
Bonnie aced the 2011 Provincial Scaffolding competition at the Alberta Carpenters Training Centre in early July, winning both the scaffold-build and the written portions of the competition. Before she knew she’d won, she said she was totally thrilled just to have been chosen to compete.
“I doesn't matter if I place last out of six competitors. Everyone in this competition is so awesome, it’s an honour just to be considered worthy to compete here with them.”
Bonnie’s happy working mainly maintenance in the paper mills and gas processing plants around Whitecourt, rather than in the camps where the “big money” is.
“I really like working my eight hours, then going back to my home and living life.
“I prefer not to work turnaround hours…I’m not crazy” she jokes.
When this story was written, sister Jodi was back home in Newfoundland, hanging out with friends and family – in true Newfoundland style – while waiting for work back in Whitecourt.
Below is a photo of Bonnie, her Mom Jocelyn, and sisters Jodi and Crystal.
