Scholarship Donor - AIT

Donor Since: 2002
Number of Scholarships: 2
Websites: General Presidents' Maintenance Committee for Canada
Scholarship Information: General Presidents' Maintenance Committee Apprentice Scholarship (2)

History:
The General Presidents' Maintenance Committee for Canada is a Council of Unions in which all of the International Building Trades Unions participate. The Committee, working in a cooperative and positive way with industrial maintenance contracting firms, negotiates and administers multi-craft collective agreements which cover maintenance work at many major resource and industrial facilities in Canada.

The system is long standing and secure. The first multi-trade maintenance collective agreement in North America was established by the committee to cover maintenance work at what is now the Shell Canada refinery in Sarnia, Ontario. In 2002, the General Presidents' Maintenance Committee reached fifty years of continuous operation, providing skilled maintenance workers from the various local unions to meet the ongoing maintenance needs of major industrial owners.

This beginning has developed into a system that covers many industrial facilities in eight of the ten Canadian provinces. The maintenance work covered by the GPMA/NMA collective agreements provides the equivalent of 8,500 full time, high paying jobs for skilled building trades workers. A significant proportion of this work is conducted in Alberta.

The Unions that compose the Committee are committed to preserving for their members the maintenance work developed over the last 56 years. This will be accomplished by negotiation and administering fair but competitive agreements. But most importantly, it will be accomplished by ensuring highly skilled and committed trades workers are available through our local unions. It is in this spirit that we support Alberta apprenticeship and are pleased to be part of the Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training Scholarships.