ICBA celebrates 50 years of serving open shop construction this year, and we are looking back every week at some of the significant moments, milestones, and people who helped ICBA become Canada’s largest construction association.
Today, we wind the clock back to the mid 1980s and a significant ICBA member service that helped members and made the organization financially sustainable.
The interviews and other original research on which the ICBA50 series is based were conducted by writer Kevin Hanson. We appreciate Kevin’s work capturing the people, events, and milestones that shaped ICBA’s first half-century.
Philip Hochstein became well known over his 30 years leading ICBA for many of his public comments and advocacy stands. But it was an internal member service that really changed ICBA’s fortunes, leading the organization out of its chronic funding challenges.
How the Hour Bank works — from a 2021 website
In the mid 1980s, Hochstein launched the “Hour Bank” group health and dental benefits plan, also known as the Construction Industry’s Benefit Plan. Originally provided through an arrangement with a third party, and later brought in-house, the Hour Bank was both affordable and well-suited to construction realities, providing portability and contributions tied to hours works. It quickly proved popular, enabling more open shop contractors to provide benefits to their employees, and attracting new ICBA members.
“The health plan came just at the right time,” Hochstein says, since it coincided with open shop growth, and was an effective replacement for a typical union service offering. At the same time, the plan – and a broader range of benefit services that ICBA began to build out – greatly increased non-dues revenue, establishing a stable funding model that remains in place today. The turnaround in the association’s financial fortunes came as a welcome surprise to Christina Koechl when Hochstein conveyed it to her: “I said, ‘look, we have like $30,000 in the bank. Maybe we should have another account?’ She said, ‘$30,000?’ She couldn’t believe it. We usually had minus three. And it just sort of took off.”
The Hour Bank just kept growing. In the early 1990s, ICBA research confirmed that availability of benefits was a major factor influencing the satisfaction of member employees. And NDP interventions – such as the threat of top-down, sector-based organizing of new workplaces – made it all the more important for open shop contractors to focus on the wellbeing of their workforces. Ongoing administrative and other improvements were made over the decade to the association’s benefits program, and the scope and quality of available coverage was built out.
ICBA staffed up to take over the administration of its benefits plan directly in 1992, with the Hour Bank Plan remaining the core offering.
Today, the Hour Bank remains ICBA’s most-used member service, with thousands of companies across the country. It’s a model that has been replicated by ICBA-aligned associations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.
Perfect for construction, seasonal, and mobile workforces, the Hour Bank ensures coverage follows workers, even when hours or jobs change.
- Banked-hour tracking for eligibility and portability
- Ideal for contractors, trades, and field crews
- Different levels to match any price point
- Smooth transitions between Hour Bank and traditional plans
- Built-in EFAP, wellness, and critical illness coverage
- Fully administered by an expert Canadian team
Hour Bank delivers the flexibility crews need — and the dependability and predictability the office loves. It’s simple to administer and saves companies both administrative time and money.
No wonder it’s still the gold standard for construction companies, and ICBA’s #1 service.
