Masonry Magazine February 1996 Page. 8
FROM THE PRESIDENT
By L. C. PARDUE, JR.
President, Mason Contractors
Association of America
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
HAVE YOU ever taken a stick and poked it and stirred it around in an ant hill? The ants go crazy running around trying to repair the damage to their precious nest. It seems that my last article regarding IMI has had this effect at IMI's office.
I have been a good loyal Union member since I began working in the summer, while attending school in 1958. I completed my apprenticeship, worked in the field and finally took the helm of our company in 1970. We have always been and are currently 100% Union. It is important for you to understand that I am not a Union hating. Union breaking individual.
The following is a letter which I received from Ms. Joan Baggett Calambokidis, President of IMI regarding my last article.
Dear Mr. Pardue:
I read your bylined column, "P.T. Barnum Rides Again in the November/December issue of Masonry with dismay, for two reasons.
First, I was saddened to think we have reached the point where a president of the Mason Contractors Association of America publishes in the Association's journal a column that wades inappropriately into union politics.
Secondly, you apparently did the wading in a dangerously irresponsible manner, choosing to ignore facts and instead settle for distorted hearsay, exaggerations and outright lies. It is hard to imagine any motivation for this grossly irresponsible behavior other than a direct intent to harm the International Masonry Institute and to justify MCAA's double-breasted direction.
The very basis of your column is false. You say you were inspired by "an article that came over my desk," but in fact, your column was based entirely on a single piece of campaign literature produced by Jerry Carlisle ("BAC to the Members," Volume 1, Issue 7, published by the Carlisle Campaign of September 7, 1995) in his unsuccessful challenge to Jack Joyce for the presidency of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen (BAC) this fall.
A simple phone call to IMI would have provided you all the accurate details sorely missing in that highly subjective campaign literature. That small effort also would have avoided exposing a lot of innocent, hard- working union members and contractors to untrue, and certainly undeserved, rumor- mongering.
Please allow me to set the record straight:
1. You write that "only 20 per cent of IMI's $8,471,000 budget for 1995 is spent on local area training and promotion programs." That's wrong - grossly wrong. The correct percentage is 52 percent, and the correct amount is $4.4 million.
2. You write that "the balance of IMI's budget is spent on 'comprehensive programs', according to former IMI director Ray Lackey." That's absolutely untrue and Ray Lackey never said or wrote any such thing. Here's what the balance of the IMI budget went for in 1995:
* National training, promotion, research and labor-management relations programs: $1.5 million, or 18 per cent.
* Comprehensive programs and activities (such as Trustee and Area/Regional Program Board meetings, Masonry Camp, Annual Meeting, Masonry Craft Fair, newsletter, exhibits): $1.2 million, or 14 percent.
* Administration and financial management: $1.4 million, or 16 percent.
These figures and they are correct, audited figures show that in 1995 IMI spent $6 million, or 70 per cent of its budget, on training and promotion at both the area/region and national levels. This provides no support whatsoever for your contention that IMI "has deteriorated into an essentially empty series of efforts that are largely designed to further the personal agendas of Jack Joyce and the select few who comprise his inner circle?"
You also make the exaggerated assertion that IMI pays for "Jack Joyce's travels." The fact of the matter is that in 1994 IMI's reimbursements for his travel costs in attending Trustees and Program Board meetings, and in participating in IMI programs and activities totaled $19,200. The total for 1995 is approximately the same. That of course, is the expense side only it doesn't deal with income and benefits that flow from Mr. Joyce's travels on behalf of IMI. Those are very considerable.
You also state that I, as IMI's President, "Pull down $200,000 per year after being asked to leave the Clinton White House as Director of Political Affairs where she was earning $126,000." I want you to know that I earn my salary - I don't "pull it down." Further, my salary as IMI's President is, according to the American Society of Association Executives, in the lower range of salaries paid to CEO's of associations with budgets and operational ranges similar to IMI'S. I was, in fact, asked to remain at the White House, and 1 Continued on Page 54