The National Maintenance Agreements Labor-Management Policy Committee (NMAPC) recently held its First Quarter Labor Management Meeting in conjunction with the Building Trades Departments' Governing Board of Presidents Mid-Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida in January.  The forty plus Labor Management Committee was also joined by union construction professionals from Canada, whom were in attendance as part of the various meetings scheduled and were welcomed to participate in the NMAPC meetings.

National Maintenance Council of Canada report

Budrow Tozer, Chairman and Steve Smillie, Executive Director of the General Presidents Committee / National Maintenance Council (NMC) for Canada presented to the Committee that Canada's Maintenance sector reflected a similar short-falling of the total number of man hours worked in 2009 as the United States when compared to 2008.  Mr. Smillie added however, that starting March 2010 the NMC for Canada is forecasting a labor shortage of approximately 3,300 skilled craftspeople for scheduled shutdowns in Canada.  The forecasted labor shortage is so daunting that the NMC for Canada has been working closely with the Canadian Immigration Council to streamline Canada's existing immigration laws to make it easier for U.S. tradespersons to receive working visas.  The highest demand is predicted to include; Boilermakers, Welders, and Insulators.

2009 Third Quarter Work Hour report

The NMAPC announced that the number of total work hours reported during the third quarter of 2009 were 11,066,693.  The number represents a decrease of 1,088,281 when compared to the same quarter in 2008 or a drop of about 9%.  Since the inception of the agreement the total number of work hours reported has exceeded 2.1 billion.  It is important to note that although there was a decrease in work hours reported in 2009 there were no work stoppages.

In-Plant Holiday and Guaranteed Forty (40)

Due to the placement of the 2009 Holiday Calendar the NMAPC reported fielding a large volume of phone calls concerning the topic of In-Plant Holidays and its effect on the Guaranteed Forty (40) Hour contractual language contained within the Agreement and asked for the Committee's assistance.  The Committee has sent this topic to Agreement Analysis Committee for additional Clarification.

National Maintenance Agreements revisions

The Committee's representatives spent time discussing tactical logistics in anticipation of scheduling a number of meetings in 2010 to move forward with a review of purposed revisions to the National Maintenance Agreements.  Labor Co-Chairman Brent Booker and Management Co-Chairman Bob Hoover jointly laid out the ground work to begin the process of joint labor-management discussions that will focus on updating and enhancing the NMA's.

January 28, 2010