Journeymen can now supervise up to two apprentices
The rules changed on January 31st, increasing the ratio from 1:1.
Even though critics say safety will be compromised, a government spokesman says it will not.
Kevin Donnan with Alberta Education and Technology says the same standards and practices will apply.
He tells the Edmonton Journal a number of industry people have come forward to say the ratio is more than adequate.
Gil McGowan with the Alberta Federation of Labour fears the new rules will water down the quality of apprentice education and could also compromise workmanship.
iNews 880, Sat Feb 5 2011
Some seniors working past retirement age
As a senior citizen, McDonald and his wife Lynne, who works part-time, are part of a small group of people who are working well into retirement age, whether by choice or necessity.
For the McDonalds, working past retirement age is a necessity.
When his job as a pilot disappeared, McDonald said the couple was close to paying off their condominium in St. Albert.
"Our plan was we would have had it paid off if I had had my job for another two years."
Feeling they didn't have enough saved for retirement, the couple decided to sell their condo and invest the money.
"We're hoping that will grow long enough and that we can work long enough that it will be enough to retire," said Lynne, who works part-time as a substitute teacher.
"That and win the lottery," added McDonald.
In the meantime, the couple now rent a condominium and continue to work until they feel their retirement savings are adequate.
But Lynne says she worries about what might happen when they are no longer able to work.
Lynne, who has been divorced twice, said she didn't save enough for retirement when she was younger because she wasn't able to.
"Early on, the idea of RRSPs and that kind of thing, it just wasn't out there very much," she said.
"We struggled for years just to survive."
While McDonald did contribute to a pension at one of his previous jobs, that money had to be used in the late 1980s when a recession hit and wiped out all of his savings.
"The money had to be used. It was gone. You couldn't recover," he said.
The issue of how retirees in Alberta will support themselves is becoming critical, according to the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL). It points out in its 2009 report, The Looming Crisis in Retirement Incomes, that Albertans have the lowest retirement savings in Canada, partly due to inadequate pension plans.
According to the AFL, pension coverage has been in decline since the 1990s and only 33 per cent of workers in Alberta are covered by a Registered Pension Plan (RPP).
And with a large number of baby boomers approaching retirement age, the AFL says there could be a serious rise in poverty rates among senior citizens.
But Dr. Norah Keating, a professor at the University of Alberta's Department of Human Ecology, doesn't agree.
"One of the big policy successes that Canada has is that we have an income security system for older adults that has actually reduced the rate of poverty and it's gone down consistently over the last 30 to 40 years," Keating said last week.
"There's good news here. We have an old age security pension, which is a universal pension for older adults and then the Canada Pension, which people who have been in the labour force can get after retirement," said Keating.
"At a national level, looming crisis in terms of retirement income, I don't see it."
Keating does point out that the recent recession has had an impact on retirement incomes, especially for those who were already retired when the recession hit.
"People who have investments that they're counting on to augment their retirement incomes often have lost a huge amount of equity in that downturn in the market," she said.
"They have no way to recoup lost equity. For them, if they need to live off dividends and interest off the investment, many of them saw their incomes go down substantially."
The Alberta government has also taken note of the issue of more seniors working into their retirement years.
One of the policy directions included in its Aging Policy Framework, released last fall, says Albertans who choose to continue working in their senior years must be adequately supported. Specifically, it calls for age-friendly employment policies and practices, as well as resources for employers who oversee a multigenerational workforce.
Keating says seniors who continue to work past retirement and also those who wish to re-enter the workforce do face challenges.
"It can be very difficult, primarily because of your age," she said.
"It is a barrier in some cases if you need a lot of physical stamina to do a job, but in many cases, it's not a matter of age but experience and problem-solving skills."
With longer life expectancies pushing the age of retirement up past 65, Keating said people increasingly will be retired for as long as they were in the workforce.
"You could easily be retired for 30 years, it's a really long time to have to organize your finances and think about how far they have to stretch," she said.
"As we move past this assumption that people are retired at age 65, we'll probably see more flexibility, more people in the labour force as they get older."
St. Albert Gazette, Sat Feb 5 2011
With Morton out of cabinet, Alberta must reverse position on pension reform: AFL calls on government to revive CPP proposal, as poll proves it’s what Albertans want
A new poll shows that two out of three Albertans want the government to work with other provinces to increasing CPP benefits and 77 per cent believe CPP benefit increases should be the top priority for improving retirement security for all Canadians.
"It is clear that the Alberta government is not doing what Albertans want," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 140,000 workers. "Former Finance Minister Morton led the opposition to increasing CPP benefits. He pressured Canada's other finance ministers into opting for a private pooled pension plan that will benefit banks and other finance industry professionals more than it will help Canadians," he says.
"Now that Morton is no longer Finance Minister and is no longer in cabinet, the Alberta government should revert to its earlier position, where it recognized the need for pension reform and understood that increasing CPP benefits could be part of the solution. Canada's finance ministers meet again in June. It's not too late for real pension reform. We must not miss this historic opportunity."
The poll was conducted by Environics Research Group for the Canadian Union of Public Employees. It surveyed 1,012 Albertans between January 20 and January 31, with an error margin of +/- 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20. It showed that only 32 per cent of Albertans agree with their provincial government's opposition to increasing CPP benefits and that 56 per cent believe the federal and provincial governments are moving too slow in making changes to Canada's pension system. A total of 59 per cent of Albertans with an opinion are against the decision to delay CPP benefit increases in favour of the proposed private pooled pension plan.
"The Alberta government has a real opportunity to listen to its people. With Morton no longer pushing the cabinet to the extreme right, the government can withdraw its opposition to increasing CPP benefits and work with the rest of the country to improve retirement security for all Canadians," says McGowan.
"It was Morton's ideological opposition to government involvement and his unbending faith in the free market that led him to push for the private-industry option. The economic collapse on 2008, led by the poorly regulated global financial investment industry, has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the market must not be allowed to decide something as important as this."
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Media Contact:
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour @ cell 780-218-9888 or office 780-483-3021
For more on the poll, go to www.cupe.ca. For more on pension reform, go to www.realpensionreform.org.
On-site investigation of CNRL coker fire continues
"The crane was put into place on Saturday and our officers have been utilizing it since then to get a better perspective of the extent of damage from the fire," said Barrie Harrison, Alberta Occupational Health and Safety spokesman this morning.
The fire which was captured on video and posted on YouTube, sent two men to hospital with burns: one suffered first degree burns while the second suffered second and third degree burns. A third injury confirmed to an Alberta Occupational Health and Safety investigator was treated at the site and released. The two men who went to hospital were CNRL operators. Two other men were injured however, OH&S said the injuries were not related to the incident.
A stop-work order issued by OH&S remains in effect at the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. site about 75 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.
"Our stop work order in the immediate area of the incident remains in effect until we can complete this initial on-site phase of the investigation which is likely to take a number of days yet," added Harrison.
Meanwhile, no further statement or interview has been offered by CNRL since Jan. 10. No timeline when an update can be expected from the company has been offered.
With the stop-work order in place, synthetic crude oil production has been suspended. It has not yet been determined when production will resume.
The fire was successfully extinguished a little under four hours after it started. Prior to that, the fuel source had been isolated, containing the fire to the coker in the primary upgrading area, a portion of the plant that converts bitumen into crude oil products.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by regulators as well as CNRL. OH&S has two years to complete its investigation.
A U.S.$2-billion umbrella insurance package for the Horizon facility will cover repairs of damaged plant and equipment, said a Jan. 7 CNRL update, and offers business interruption insurance to effectively cover ongoing operating costs incurred on the site after 90 days.
Meanwhile, the Alberta Federation of Labour continues its calls for a timely and transparent investigation given what has happened with the government's response to the last major accident that occurred on the Horizon site: the tank farm collapse of April 2007 that killed two Chinese temporary workers and injured four others.
"Nearly three years have passed since that incident and we still don't know what happened. We don't know what problems were at the root of the collapse and we don't what steps, if any, have been taken to fix those problems," said AFL president Gil McGowan.
"To put it bluntly, what has happened with the investigation into the tank farm collapse simply can't be allowed to happen to the investigation into (the) coker explosion."
A third workplace fatality happened at Horizon on Sept. 3, 2008 when a Clayton Construction employee drowned after the floating excavator he was driving when it flipped onto the operator's side and sank in the tailings pond.
Charges were laid against the two companies just one day shy of a two-year time limit.
OH&S laid seven charges against Clayton Construction including failing to maintain the health and safety of a worker. The other charges, including failing to operate equipment in accordance with manufacturer's specifications, primarily focus on mechanical-related and training issues with the equipment.
Two charges were laid against CNRL that translate into the company failing to monitor the contractor when it came to safety performance and compliance with the occupational health and safety code.
The case is expected back in court in early March.
Fort McMurray Today, Tues Jan 26 2011
Byline: Carol Christian
Audit reveals safety violations on construction sites
The special audits - which involved 298 occupational health and safety inspections of 146 commercial construction employers - resulted in a stunning 214 orders being issued for safety violations.
A quarter of the orders (39) were stop-work orders: meaning the site was too unsafe for work to continue. A full quarter of the orders were for fall hazards.
"The violations uncovered in these audits are obviously just the tip of the iceberg and they demonstrate why Alberta continues to be the most dangerous place in Canada to be a worker," says McGowan, adding that the government is learning all the wrong lessons from the special audits.
"Sadly, the results of the audit are no big surprise to those of us who have been calling for a crackdown on safety violations in construction," says McGowan.
"What is a surprise is that the government isn't pledging to provide any more resources to deal with what is obviously a very big and very pervasive problem."
McGowan says that the Department of Employment is trying to spin the audit as a good news story - on the grounds that the audit proves the government is taking safety seriously.
"But this is the opposite of good news. The government has documented a huge problem, but now they say they're going to move on to do audits in other sectors instead of conducting even more random inspections in construction. They've demonstrated that were facing an epidemic of unsafe work on construction sites around the province, but they don't seem to have a plan to deal with that epidemic."
He added, "These audit results are a wake-up call. But the government seems determined to keep sleepwalking past the problem."
Alberta's workplace fatality rates are consistently among the highest in Canada.
Two years ago, the last year for which comprehensive national statistics are available, there were 5.9 deaths per hundred thousand workers in Alberta.
In the rest of Canada, the 2008 national average was 4.2 deaths per hundred thousand workers.
The fact that Alberta spends less on workplace safety is particularly alarming when you consider that, as a proportion of our workforce, Alberta has far more people working in construction and other dangerous industries than other provinces.
"Given the fact that so many Albertans work in dangerous industries, we should be spending more on safety and doing more in terms of inspections and enforcement than other provinces: but we don't. As the economy picks up, especially in the oil patch and construction sectors, the government of Alberta needs to take immediate action to improve health and safety," says McGowan.
"The recession gave us a short reprieve, but if simple and common-sense changes - like hiring more inspectors - aren't made today, Alberta will, once again, regain its title as the province with the highest number of workplace fatalities in Canada," added McGowan.
Hanna Herald, Fri Jan 21 2011
Alberta employment minister under pressure to change farm safety: Stakeholders write letters to minister asking for legislative changes to cover farm workers
"Three more Alberta farm workers have died in recent weeks, and yet the government continues with its absurd policy of excluding farms and ranches from the laws designed to make workplaces safe in other industries," said Gil McGowan, president of the AFL, which represents 140,000 workers.
The AFL sent a letter to Lukaszuk calling on him to extend the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and the Workers' Compensation Act to cover all paid farm workers.
The AFL also requested that the Farming and Ranching Exemption be amended to allow for investigations into all farm-related deaths, serious injuries or injuries involving a child. This could be accomplished by extending section 38 of the OHSA, which permits a minister to convene a board of inquiry into the circumstance of an accident, to apply to the farming and ranching industries.
There have been more than 160 accidental farm deaths in the last decade in Alberta, according to the AFL.
"There is a growing feeling in Alberta that farm workers deserve the same protection that other Albertans enjoy and that accidents on farms must be investigated," said McGowan.
Similar letters are being been sent to the minister by NDP MLA Rachel Notley, the Alberta Liberals and by Wayne Hanley, national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada.
Canadian Safety Reporter, Sat Jan 21 2011
Employment minister under pressure to change farm-safety laws: There are growing calls to extend legislation to cover farm workers, says AFL
Edmonton - As the death toll continues on Alberta farms, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) today called on Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk to do the right thing and extend health and safety laws to protect farm workers.
"Three more Alberta farm workers have died in recent weeks, and yet the government continues with its absurd policy of excluding farms and ranches from the laws designed to make workplaces safe in other industries," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 140,000 workers.
Today, the AFL sent a letter to Minister Lukaszuk, calling on him to extend the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Workers' Compensation Act to cover all paid farm workers.
The AFL also requested that the Farming and Ranching Exemption be amended to allow for investigations into all farm-related deaths, serious injuries, or injuries involving a child. This could be accomplished by extending Section 38 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which permits a Minister to convene a board of inquiry into the circumstance of an accident, to apply to the farming and ranching industries.
The letter says: "We note that in the recent deaths Occupational Health and Safety inspectors have been unable to conduct investigations due to the continuing exemption of paid farm workers from the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It is inconsistent to say the province wants to improve farm safety when it does not investigate accidents to establish how they happened."
This change to the Farming and Ranching Exemption could be accomplished by a simple Order-in-Council and would result in a legal avenue for investigations into serious incidents involving paid farm workers.
There have been more than 160 accidental farm deaths in the last decade, clear evidence that farms are industrial worksites like any other and that farm workers deserve the same protection as other Albertans. "These tragic accidents underline the absurdity of paid farm workers being excluded from the protection that other Albertans enjoy," says McGowan in the letter.
"There is a growing feeling in Alberta that farm workers deserve the same protection that other Albertans enjoy and that accidents on farms must be investigated," says McGowan. Similar letters are being been sent to the Minister by NDP MLA Rachel Notley, the Alberta Liberals and by Wayne Hanley, national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada.
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Media Contact:
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour @ cell 780-218-9888 or office 780-483-3021
Growing number of Albertans lose pension plans: Report
For the same period in 2007-08, there were 30 private pension plans discontinued, affecting only 582 people.
Last year, slightly more than half of affected members had their pensions merged with another plan. In most of the other cases, members didn't lose their funds (which could be transferred to locked-in accounts), but companies stopped offering pensions for various reasons, according to the provincial government.
Dennis Gartner, superintendent of pensions and an assistant deputy minister for Alberta Finance, declined to comment on his new report.
Department spokesman Bart Johnson said the growing number of discontinued plans is a symptom of the economic downturn, and that private pension plans are solid vehicles worth pursuing.
"The private-sector solution is working," Johnson said.
"There are uncommon instances where you get companies that run into bankruptcy or (other situations). But, by and large, people in pension plans are well protected by the standards that we have in place."
In the 2009-10 period, thousands of people lost their Alberta employer pension plans for a number of reasons, including: bankruptcy, dissolved companies, financial or administrative considerations, a switch to group RRSPs, or "other" reasons.
For example, 1,321 members from four plans last year had their pensions discontinued because of companies dissolving, compared to none in 2007-08. Five plans were replaced by group RRSPs, affecting 316 people, compared to 132 people a few years ago.
Furthermore, 204 members last year had their plans discontinued for financial-administrative reasons, versus only three people in 2007-08.
Another 990 people (in 11 different plans) lost their pensions for reasons simply listed as "other."
"It's a trend that's showing up almost everywhere," said Norma Nielson, a business professor at the University of Calgary specializing in risk management. "The riskiness of the pension plans is going to follow the ups and downs of the economy."
Employer pension plans have disappeared because companies struggled during the downturn, Nielson said, while firms on more stable footing are moving away from pensions because of the high costs of offering them.
As the province's population has grown, so has the overall number of members in Alberta pension plans. The latest reporting period saw 234,290 pension plan members, up nine per cent in two years.
Provincial Finance Minister Ted Morton has been advocating for Canada to adopt a private-sector voluntary pension plan as governments look to bolster retirement savings for Canadians.
He strongly opposes the push by labour groups and other provinces for an enriched public Canada Pension Plan.
It is estimated six in 10 Canadian workers in the private sector have no private pension plan.
Morton, along with his federal and provincial counterparts, agreed in December to create a private-sector pension vehicle to boost retirement savings. The Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPP) are targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, and the self-employed who don't have a workplace pension option.
"The across-the-board CPP hike is kind of a shotgun approach," Morton said Wednesday, calling CPP a payroll tax that will stifle job creation. "We feel what is required is a targeted solution."
Morton said the pooled pension option will provide more stability compared to individual private plans because a large number of people will invest in it.
Liberal Leader David Swann strongly disagrees, saying a modest increase in CPP contributions would dramatically improve retirement income for Albertans.
"If we don't solve this now, it will just become a bigger problem in the future," Swann said. "It's a much more cost-effective approach for the majority of Albertans."
The new report also shows more Albertans are falling on hard times and needing to tap retirement savings.
The number of people facing "financial hardship" - and forced to apply to the superintendent to access emergency funds from locked-in accounts - has more than doubled from boom times to 2,433 in the latest period.
Also, the amount of money released nearly tripled to $24.7 million from 2007-08.
The largest number of applications for emergency dollars were due to low income (1,483 cases), according to the latest report, while 107 applications were for mortgage foreclosure and 77 for rental eviction.
"The trends are clear and they're ominous," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which supports increasing CPP contributions.
McGowan said the latest numbers prove the provincial and federal governments' plans for a private-sector option is short-sighted because many Canadians are losing their pensions.
"If nothing is done to address these trends, then I think more and more Canadians - perhaps millions - will face poverty in retirement," he added
Calgary Herald, Thurs Jan 20 2011
Byline: Jason Fekete
Smart employers will see unions as tools for improving workplace
This is someone's livelihood and it's best to proceed with caution and with clear process. That's where unions -- and negotiated collective agreements -- can be a real benefit to an employer, as well as offering real protection to workers.
This issue has come to media attention recently concerning the case of Edmontonian Maia Soukonnik, who was killed by her mentally disturbed adult son in 2008. She had called 911, but the call was lost and the dispatcher may not have followed up. The dispatcher was dismissed and the Edmonton Police Association has filed a grievance against the dismissal. The issue will now go to an arbitration panel.
Any potential job dismissal will likely have boss and worker on edge, acting and reacting emotionally, with feelings sometimes overwhelming logic.
A case with tragic overtones such as this one is a perfect example and will also include outside observers and the public in those sentiments.
This is exactly why unions and employers work so hard to craft precise and clear terms, agreed upon by both sides at a time when heads are clear and emotions are calm. These policies act as a map through a minefield that allows the correct decision to be made.
The usual language in collective agreements concerning dismissal is that it must be for "just cause." It's a simple enough concept. Did the worker do something worthy of losing his job? Is dismissal justified?
A recent article by lawyer Howard Levitt in The Journal's Working section said that the "just-clause" requirement is one way unions erode employer control over the workplace.
This is far from the truth and it is disturbing to see a lawyer practising in the field so misrepresent the principle.
The just-cause element of collective agreements simply spells out the test to ensure that the employer's decision to terminate the worker is justified -- that it is a fair and reasonable response to what has happened. An employer who wants to be fair will welcome this.
If these conditions are met, the employer can relax in the knowledge that a difficult decision has been taken cautiously and that it was the right decision, not one based on anger or fear.
Employees, meanwhile, know that with this kind of process in place, they do not face the prospect of being unjustly fired and that they and their co-workers will be treated fairly.
The rigour applied to the process allows employer and employees to establish what really happened and in certain cases make changes to policy or procedures to avoid similar situations in the future. Instead of a war zone, a calm process allows for a successful resolution.
Unions are stakeholders in the workplace. They make sure that terms and conditions of employment reflect the needs and desires of the workers. They help workers feel secure and appreciated. A happy worker is, after all, a productive worker. A contract that reflects their needs encourages employees to apply and to stay put. Smart employers will recognize this and work with their unions.
Levitt's suggestion, to record all minor workplace errors, even for mistakes that may be fairly common, and his claim that workers would lie and that their unions would encourage such a thing creates a war-zone mentality.
Modern labour-relations policies recognize that these approaches are likely to create a toxic and unproductive workplace atmosphere and make having a union painful for the employer.
Levitt's advice to employers is to make the union and employees their enemy.
Although that might be good for his business, I suggest it isn't good for employers, their employees or their businesses.
Nancy Furlong is secretary-treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour and has been a full-time labour-relations professional since 1980. She has spent many years presenting arbitrations on behalf of unions in the Alberta labour relations community.
Edmonton Journal, Wed Jan 19 2011
Byline: Nancy Furlong
January 2011: CEP welcomes new members; New Union Magazine; Victory for IAMAW Lodge 99; NUPGE/CLC commit to examine raiding issue
- There were 226 reasons that the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada was celebrating on New Year's Day. That's the number of new members it has, after the Alberta Labour Board confirmed on January 1 that Bee Clean workers at Suncor in Fort McMurray had voted to join CEP Local 707. For more information ...
- Twenty years of bad decisions on tax and royalty policy by successive Conservative governments have left our province's vital public services extremely vulnerable to under-funding. But our broken revenue system can be fixed. That's the theme of the latest edition of Union magazine. Read the online version of the magazine. Get a free subscription to the print version
Victory for the Fighting 99
- The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) Local Lodge 99, has won a battle at the Labour Relations Board. The case was about the employer, Finning, creating a subsidiary, OEM, and inviting the employees to join the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC). The Labour Board decided that this was unfair and that there needed to be an opportunity for the Machinists to keep the group. Over the next few months a run-off against CLAC will occur. For more information...
NUPGE and CLC commit to examine raiding issue
- The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) have agreed to continue working together on the issue of raiding. A statement from NUPGE said: "We commend the leadership of CLC affiliates for the commitment they have made to find a resolution to a practice that destroys labour unity." For more information ...
Urgent Action
Hockey Day in Little Buffalo
- The federal and provincial governments have dropped the ball when it comes to dealing fairly with the Lubicon Cree. Now it's time for us to drop the puck - at the new hockey rink in Little Buffalo. The AFL Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee's Operation Hockey has raised funds to build a rink to benefit the Lubicon Cree youth. The rink opens with a big match on February 6th. To join in the celebration, contact the AFL at 780-483-3021 or email [email protected]. For more information on the Lubicon Cree issue ...
Events
February 4 - Deadline for nominations for 2011 AFL International Women's Day Award
February 6 - Hockey rink opens in Little Buffalo as part of AFL's Project Hockey to benefit the Lubicon Cree youth
February 11 - Deadline to register for AFL Equity Conference (February 25 and 26). Note: Room block cut-off date is January 26; registration deadline is February 11.
February 18 - Deadline to register for 2011 Edmonton and District Labour Council School (www.edlc.ca)
February 20 - UN World Day of Social Justice
February 21 - Alberta Family Day
February 25 - Deadline for nominations for 2011 AFL May Day Solidarity Award
February 25-27 - 2011 Edmonton and District Labour Council School (www.edlc.ca)
Did you know ...
• More than half the cost of natural gas used by oil sands extractors is paid for by taxpayers, according to thetyee.ca.
• 88 per cent of Albertans didn't think we were getting our fair share of revenue from the oil industry, according to a Calgary Herald/Edmonton Journal poll in 2007.
• 58 per cent of Albertans (including two-thirds of Progressive Conservative Party supporters) were opposed to the March 2010 cuts in royalty rates, according to the Calgary Herald.
• The Alberta government aims to capture 50-75 per cent of the oil industry's financial surplus, or "rent," but has failed to capture even the minimum amount almost every year in the last decade.
• Corporate profits in Alberta have soared in the last two decades from $3,635 per capita in 1989 to $15,050 in 2008 (adjusted for inflation).
• Since 2001, Alberta has cut its corporate tax rate to 10 per cent from 15.5 per cent, making the lowest in Canada and depriving the Alberta treasury of $1.1 billion annually.
For more information ...