From Small Beginnings

In March 2008, employees of a small start-up glass fabricating company named Vitrum Industries Ltd. (vitrum is Latin for glass) joined Local 68. Since then, the company has grown to become the largest glass fabricator in the Pacific Northwest, employing close to 300 CLAC members in its 140,000-square-foot facility. It is the largest manufacturing site in BC where CLAC represents workers.

With the ability to produce 14 million panels of tempered glass and 600,000 sealed units per year, Vitrum has supplied glass to many high-profile construction projects in western Canada, such as Kwantlen University in Langley and the stunning Sparkling Hills Resort in Vernon, BC, as well as in the US, such as the luxury condominium towers the Grande Santa Fe Place, in San Diego, and the Escala, in Seattle. When the CLAC Langley Member Centre was constructed in 2008, all the glass for it was supplied by Vitrum.

Vitrum employees come from nearly every ethnic community, but a large majority of the members are from the Canadian Filipino community. Many individuals moved directly from the Philippines to British Columbia, and Vitrum was their first job in their new country.

From small beginnings, the dedicated work of these Local 68 members has helped create a very successful new company. And for some of them, a very successful start to a new life in Canada.