MCAA Regional Report, Region D

Words: Lynn VasquezIllinois - Tom Vacala
Indiana - Dan Kwiatkowski
Wisconsin - Anna Weickhardt

Illinois

Workforce Development

Industry and Union STILL have a call for Apprentices. Union will enforce a ratio of 1-5 and Contractors are snatching them up. Our DCTC (District Council Training Center), is the Bricklayer Apprenticeship School for the area. IUBAC still uses the facility for nationwide training sessions on occasion. Their website is www.bac2school.org. A labor management group called CISCO (www.cisco.org) and our own MAC (www.masonryadvisorycouncil.org) has picked up the slack recruiting high schoolers, trade schoolers and anyone interested. The DCTC has had full classes and 2019 will be at capacity.

The IUBAC has searched out and promoted other areas of construction that Bricklayers and their Union is claiming. It is a new category you may look at the International Masonry Institute is titled it “NEW WORK OPPORTUNITIES” (www.imiweb.org).

Chicago remains thrilled with the DCTC and the quality of the instruction awarded our Union Bricklayers. There will be a class starting in January and the school is able to train 30+.

Our recent assumption that “of the bricklayers who left for other work many will jump back in for the $45+ an hour plus benefits.” That did not occur originally but we are having some success. We were pretty confident they can be lured back into the industry with the Wages and Benefits and this would be the single biggest blow to Non-Union. Restoration Contractors (which many of our contractors have morphed into doing this work now) have had consistent hours but the Non-Union element has taken leaps and bounds in this arena as well.

MCA of Greater Chicago members want any dollars spent on Workforce Development programs for and by the MCAA to be documented and shared with all the MCAA members to make sure that all members of the MCAA are receiving the benefit of their efforts and dollars $$. We have all the confidence in the national and trust we can all make masonry attractive for young people across the country. We also understand we can do much more together than we can apart.

Economic Climate

2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
1056.76	1035.83	1183.79	1137.75	1330.77	1264.15	JAN
1062.1	754.67	951.7	1243.29	1236.62	1229.39	FEB
967.38	709.96	1088.09	1417.71	1364.74	1490.11	MAR
1194.99	946.03	1433.9	1639.87	1608.65	1503.05	APR
1422.14	1444.94	1484.5	1842.05	1730.08	1859.76	MAY
1552.25	1645.13	1653.96	1647.08	1697.22	1675.64	JUN
1943.28	1537.74	1835.28	2108.46	2110.68	2162.87	JUL
1413.13	2269.65	1750	2193	2269.08	19116.11	AUG
1627.95	1939.08	1904.52	1899.26	2297.4	2235.66	SEP
1681.02	1665.88	1930.5	1884.73	2263.31	2556.93	OCT
1438.97	1907.99	1507.91	1817.29	1801.58	2235.66	NOV
1036.01	1355.71	1521.11	1642.18	1593.45		DEC
16395.98	17212.61	18245.26	19334.92	21304	20129

These figures are based on Safety Money ($0.01) per hour ie 2009 = 2.77 Million hours

A list of Union Bricklayer hours worked and reported for each month in the past 6 years. Hours worked have grown from the 2013 but no were near the “banner” year of 2003 (6 million Hours). Restoration of commercial buildings continues to be a market some have found profitable. The Bricklayers Union merged with Tuckpointers in regards to training and working together in the future. This should be a very positive merger and contractors are encouraging the sharing of information. New Masonry has picked up and hours have increased steadily over the past 3 years, but we (a Union Mason Contractor Association) are still feeling the pinch of our 3 biggest enemies — Competing Products, Non-Union and “Quasi” Union Mason Contractors.

Membership Growth & Chapter Activities

No Good news to report - membership is stagnant in the greater Chicago chapter. We continue to lose more members due to failures. We have had some surprising former members completely leaving the industry and most likely for good. Unfunded Liability issues restrict these contractors from alternative construction contracting. “Supporting Members” have been very active and generous, allowing the chapter’s social activities to continue but they are not growing for now. We have added 1 new member for 2018….sad but that’s it!

OSHA & Safety

Locally the MCA of Greater Chicago continues to support the Chicagoland Construction Safety Council (CCSC). Our donations and (1 cent) contributions from the CBA, the Laborers, Bricklayers and Operating Engineers along with others should give the CCSC the needed funds to operate. CCSC serves our Bricklayers and Laborers well.. Search the web @ www.buildsafe.org they can help you too!

SILICA — we rely heavily on the MCAA to guide us through these turbulent time. We have not been disappointed. The MCAA has lead the way with their Train the Trainer Series and all the support they have given contractors…..Thank you MCAA. OSHA is continuing to place employers in the Severe Violators Enforcement Program (SVEP) when they are found to disregard safety and health, and issued repeat or willful violations. Other items we can expect are increased enforcement in programs such as violence in the workplace, Whistleblower Protection Program, recordkeeping and fall protection — now SILICA.

Lobby Efforts

And Certainly nothing has changed here — except maybe for the better - More Contractors, more involvement and MORE INFLUENCE!!!! The MAC PAC Rocks!!

MCA of Greater Chicago is very pleased with the efforts put forth by MCAA It remains a bright spot, one of many that keep Chicago is enthused with the MCAA. WE BELIEVE in the MCAA. Jeff and MCAA’s efforts continue to show our chapter why we should support the MCAA. We are too small to fight this alone a strong national organization and grass roots are the only way we can effect change. The willingness of our MCAA to help in all aspects has made it easy to stay involved. Concrete Masonry Units “Check off Program” Passed, largely due to the support of MCAA — NCMA of course took the lead but the Contractor involvement “greased the skid” for the manufacturers and this will create more jobs, more masonry and better building practices throughout the United States. Pension Reform remains one of our largest issues. Go MCAA Legislative Committee!

CMU Check-Off Program, PASSED — Let’s get this thing going………AMAZING work by MCAA, NCMA and our IUBAC was instrumental as well. Thank you Jim Boylan and Jim Allen.

Southern Illinois

We continue our efforts of market recovery (a result of competing products) by visiting St. Louis Metro East and Southern Illinois architectural firms with the Masonry Structural Coalition/Dave Gillick based out of St. Louis. We are currently investigating other ways of promoting masonry. With the hot topics of Silica and CMU Check-off we greatly appreciate the efforts of MCAA. Our membership is also stagnant, but the participating members (masonry contractors and suppliers) seem to have a stronger desire to support and assist with the efforts of the Masonry Institute of Southern Illinois.

Indiana

Things in Indiana remain very strong thus far with parts of the State busier than others. It’s so good to be busy again and have winter work lined up as well. The down side is that the man power shortage remains very severe and we are seeing some redesigning of some projects to reduce Masonry in some cases because of the shortage.

Our Apprentice training is going very well with close to a 100% increase in apprentices State wide. But as we all know it takes time to turn them into Journeymen & Women. We of course are not the only trade experiencing this labor shortage problem, nor is it just in our State.

So thus far the bidding remains strong and indications are that it should remain as such for the foreseeable future.

We in Indiana are also excited to see the roll out of the new Health insurance program UHC thru MCAA. We Union Contractors anticipate being able to provide better insurance for our office personnel at a competitive cost. As I’m sure some if not many of our Non-Union competitors feel the same for all their employees.

We here in Indiana are very pleased with the new Masonry Magazine as well. A lot of very good content and I for one like the informational advertising. In many cases it has helped us find new and useful products. Keep up the good work.

Wisconsin

Labor shortage continues
OSHA silica law has not been enforced, based on word of mouth, roughly 85% of masonry contractors are still not compliant as they are not taking this new law serious and probably won't until citations are issued
Building Codes (proper installation practices) are also continuing to be ignored for both commercial and residential projects - we have however seen an increase in the amount of lawsuits which I am thrilled about as this means these shady General Contractors are finally being held accountable for their work and responsible for fixing it
New construction for Residential and Commercial are still on the rise - the amount of new Apartment Buildings has not slowed down (in the Dane County area)
The most positive news I have for the state of WI is regarding the Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau annual Workers Compensation rate adjustments.

The prior rate was 15.1 and has been LOWERED to 13.51. As per our insurance agent, this rate was based on masonry contractors investing more time into the safety training for new employees which resulted in the number of workers comp claims in 2018.

MCAA Regional Report, Region D

Illinois

Workforce Development

Economic Climate

Membership Growth & Chapter Activities

OSHA & Safety

Lobby Efforts

Southern Illinois

Indiana

Wisconsin

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