CLAC and PCA develop collaborative and flexible model for construction industry labour relations Canadian Design and Construction Report special feature Two co-operating union and employer associations believe there is a third option for construction industry labour/man- agement relationships: avoiding the jurisdictional rigidity and adversarialism of the traditional building trades model, while allowing workers the benefits and advantages that accrue from a modern and collaborative collective bargaining ap- proach. Employers associated with the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA) and union leaders representing the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) believe their model, which focuses on labour-management collabo- ration and workplace flexibility, while ensuring workplace health and safety, benefits and fair wages, has succeeded and is gaining traction across the country. “We’ve developed the model over six decades,” says CLAC executive director Dick Heinen. “It’s very successful. We’re seeing other unions are finally realizing that the future is with partnership rather than adversarial relationships. The mainstream unions today are recognizing that they get a whole lot further if they act collaboratively.” PCA president Paul de Jong said the old model resulted in a polarized construction economy. Most large industrial con- struction projects were built by contractors associated with the traditional craft unions. In contrast, smaller residential and commercial construction projects were undertaken by con- struction firms where employees did not belong to a union. Many of these non-union employers acknowledged their employees’ right to unionize, but wanted to avoid “costly and energy draining adversarial struggles with the building trade unions” – and so appreciated the more broad minded ideas behind CLAC, which “has more of a partnership mindset, with a co-operative labour relations philosophy,” de Jong said. “CLAC has an appreciation of the broader ecosystem where business takes place.” The Canadian Design and Construction Report — March 2016 – 45