Following is a story from a recent Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario convention that was published Oct. 25 in Daily Commercial News.
Gallagher, Cunningham urge Building Trades convention attendees to support OCOT boards
Construction stakeholders and new members of the Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) Appointments Council Mike Gallagher and Ian Cunningham teamed up to urge delegates attending the recent convention of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario to get on board with OCOT and start nominating trades representatives to various boards.
Gallagher, business manager with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, and Cunningham, president of the Council of Ontario Construction Associations (COCA), said in their addresses to delegates there is an urgency to recruit new board members.
There are already openings on various boards and, in the next year, numerous terms will expire, requiring a major influx of new appointees.
“We need strong, committed, connected people to fill these vacant positions on the trade boards, the division boards and on the board of governors if the College is going to work for the best interests of the industry,” said Cunningham in an interview following his address to the delegates in Niagara Falls.
Gallagher explained in his interview, “There are some 40 vacancies that are coming up in the next year on the employer and the employee sides on the various trade boards at different levels, and people should be thinking who should be on those boards.
“And the Appointments Council, we have a pool of applications that are presented to us, and if it’s not a very big pool, we have to pick the best. So the idea is to encourage more applications so we have better options in terms of people that are there for the right reason.”
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