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IN CANADA –Union Alliance Celebrates 60th AnniversaryWith Record-Breaking GrowthEditor’s Note: International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Assistant to theGeneral President Jack White is a table officer on the General Presidents’Maintenance Committee/National Maintenance Council.In a year that promises to be challengingfor Canadian labour, oneunion organization is in the moodto celebrate. In 2012, the GeneralPresidents’ Maintenance Committee/National Maintenance Council forCanada (GPMC/NMC) will mark 60years of activity and growth. Theorganization has added more than amillion work hours to its agreementsevery year for the last decade, and itis looking ahead to a period ofunprecedented expansion.The GPMC/NMC is an alliance ofall the building trades required forindustrial maintenance. It negotiatesand administers multi-trade agreements,which can cover from one to13 trades, for maintenance work onindustrial facilities.GPMC/NMC may not be a householdacronym, but the organizationplays an important role in theCanadian economy. GPMC/NMCagreements provide secure full-timeemployment for more than 14,000skilled tradespeople and are worth$1.1 billion in wages and benefitseach year. The organization workswith more than 120 employers andhas agreements in eight out of 10Canadian provinces.The alliance administers maintenanceagreements in key industrialsectors including oil sands extraction,oil refining, petrochemicals, mining,electricity generation, pulp andpaper, natural gas processing, offshoreoil and gas processing, steelproduction and consumer product production.Over its 60 years in operation, theGPMC/NMC has earned the trust ofunions, employers and maintenancecustomers by providing stable multitradeagreements that cover criticalmaintenance activities. The agreementsadopt the basic monetary termsnegotiated by the 13 unions in thealliance, and feature a cooperative,streamlined grievance process. Theyalso incorporate a clause ensuringthat there will be no strikes or lockoutsto disrupt essential maintenance activities.“Our maintenance agreements providestable, long-term labour/management relations with a processthat’s about as simplified as you canget. We meet owners’ needs in waysthat would be impossible with13 separate agreements,” saysBudrow Tozer, UA InternationalRepresentative and Chairman of theGPMC/NMC. “We also provide constructionworkers with long-term jobswhere they can make good money ina work environment with very fewgrievances.”The GPMC/NMC succeeds bydelivering value to all of its stakeholders.It provides maintenance customerswith the highly skilledtradespeople they need to maintaincomplex industrial facilities. It helpscontractors develop pragmatic, flexibleapproaches to upcoming projects,and provides them withvaluable information they can use tobid on maintenance work. And itoffers skilled tradespeople the chanceto earn good money in stable, longtermjobs that continue after constructionis complete.“The system works because theparties realize that it’s in their interestto trust each other and make it workfor everyone,” Tozer says.The GPMC/NMC has been buildingtrusting partnerships betweenowners, contractors and tradespeoplesince 1952, when it negotiated itsfirst contract at what is now the Shellrefinery in Sarnia, Ontario. By theend of the 1960s the alliance hadagreements in four provinces and hadexpanded into the mining and chemicalsectors. During the 1970s and1980s, it signed new agreements inthe fertilizer and power generationsectors, expanded activities inAlberta, and added new customers inNova Scotia and New Brunswick. By1990, GPMC/NMC agreementsaccounted for more than seven millionwork hours annually.During the 1990s the number ofwork hours climbed to 10 million asnew projects in Newfoundland andManitoba came online. Over the followingdecade the alliance expandedf u r t h e r i n B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a ,Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario andNewfoundland, and the number ofwork hours doubled to 20 million.Today, the GPMC/NMC agreementsaccount for over 28 millionhours of maintenance work annually.According to industry observers, thattotal could easily double over the nextdecade as industrial plants currentlyunder construction are brought intoproduction and become subject toroutine and intermittent maintenanceschedules.“Our industry has enjoyed greatsuccess and growth over the past 60years,” says Steve Smillie, ExecutiveDirector of the Committee. “With thesupport of local unions, employersand skilled tradespeople, we willbuild on that success over the comingdecades. To do that, we need to stickto our principles and deliver secure,competitive and stable collectiveagreements that meet the ever-changingneeds of our clients.”This article is reprinted with permissionby the GPC/MA.A P R I L - J U N E2 0 1 2 • J O U R N A L15