The IAM in BC represents mostly skilled trades. We stand ready and able to represent any workplace but historicially skilled workers have come to the IAM for representation.
Our Union started in 1888 as Craft Union representing the trade of machining for the railways. Fierce arguments raged within the IAM in the early days whether to include helpers and other non-skilled employees in the Union. By the 1930s, the Machinists were signing wall-to-wall agreements at workplaces representing all the non-management workers on the shop floor.
As the IAM were tradesmen who won good Collective Agreements, it was not a suprise when our Union became the first choice of other trades for representation.
In British Columbia, the IAM represents significant numbers in the following certified trades:
- machinists
- fabricators
- welders
- auto technicians
- bodyshop trade persons
- heavy duty and commercial mechanics
- partspersons
- warehouse persons
- painters
We also represent non-certified skilled jobs such as service writers.