MCAA Regional Report, Region E

Words: Douglas NicholsIowa - No State Chair
Kansas - No State Chair
Minnesota - Dick Dentinger
Missouri - Mike Heitkamp
Nebraska - No State Chair
North Dakota - No State Chair
South Dakota - No State Chair

Workforce Development

Minnesota

The Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 MN/ND Apprenticeship Training Center has a busy year scheduled offering Apprentice and Journey level classes to its members. The Training Center also hosts workshops for high school students, and community non-profit organizations. The BAC Outreach Programs serve high school youth (general student population and at-risk youth; at-risk can be defined as economically at-risk, criminally at-risk, academically at-risk, and a number of other factors), community supported adult programs, and college level programs promoting BAC crafts. The Training Center is located in St. Paul, MN.

Apprenticeship, Journey level, and Outreach Classes began in September. Currently the BAC has 119 Apprentices. 63 of the 119 are actively participating at the Training Center. The remaining 56 are working towards completing their apprenticeship hours.

The Training Center is pleased to announce the University of Minnesota Architecture Masonry Workshop will begin January 25, 2013. Historically, this was a 2 credit Studio Workshop. It will now be a 3 credit program. The additional credit is due to the total hours of the program increasing. The BAC, IMI, and MMPC have worked together to bring this program forward. The program continues to be one of the fastest enrolled workshops at the U of M. Bricklayer Instructor Dave Mensing will be the instructor for the course. The Apprenticeship Coordinator, Rick Martagon, was elected as the President of the Apprenticeship Coordinators Association of Minnesota for a term of two years.

For additional BAC Apprenticeship/Journey Level training information, visit: www.bactraining.org.

According to Mike Cook, president of the Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local 1 of MN/ND, bricklayers hours worked totaled 1,842,446 in 2012 compared to 1,699,616 in 2011. That is an increase of 8%. The hours worked in 2011 were an increase of 5.5% from 2010.

Missouri

Although the use of new apprentices has slowed, our apprenticeship training center is focusing on journeyman upgrade training, such as:

Rigging
Signaling
OSHA 10-Hour and 30-Hour Training
Historic Restoration
Refractory

Economic Conditions / Forecast

Minnesota

Masonry construction continues slowly to recover from the recession in this country. Residential construction in Minnesota is occurring at double the rate of last year. Commercial construction remains slow, however. Construction is wrapping up on the Central Corridor project that will provide light rail service between St. Paul and Minneapolis. Our members have realized some work on this project and more build out along the rail line is expected in terms of commercial and residential building. The Legislature has just gone back into session and will be looking at a bonding bill that would include building construction including schools, public buildings, and the Capitol itself. A bonding bill would also be expected to include roads, bridges, and the next light rail project called the Southwest Corridor line. Last session the Legislature passed bills to authorize and pay for a new Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis and a new Saints baseball stadium in lowertown St. Paul. These projects are expected to include our general contractors and masonry contractors in completing that work.

Missouri

As of November 2012, Missouri’s unemployment rate is 6.7%, much better than 2011’s 8.5%.

Residential masonry construction has seen a slight uptick. Patrick Sullivan, the Executive Vice President of the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri, recently delivered the good news in his presentation, “Homebuilding in 2013 and Beyond.” Mr. Sullivan reported that in 2012, new home permits were up 17% over the same period last year; the first time new home permits have been up since 2006. He forecasted that, nationally by 2014, single family units would increase by 30% and multifamily units would increase by 16%.

The institutional and commercial markets continue to be the growth area. St. Louis County is moving its Family Courts building to downtown Clayton, with a $100 million General Obligation Bond approved by the voters to cover construction cost. The MCA St. Louis and International Masonry Institute (“IMI”) are partnering to convince county decision makers that masonry exceeds their needs. In August 2012, a consortium of three St. Louis construction companies (Alberici Corporation, Clayco Corporation and S. M. Wilson Company) were awarded a $1 billion contract to expand and renovate BJC HealthCare’s Central West End campus over the next decade.

Masonry Marketing Activities

Minnesota

As of January 1, 2013 the MC&MCA took over all marketing and promotional efforts conducted by the Midwest Masonry Promotion Council. For the past five years contractors, suppliers, and producers contributed into a promotional fund which targeted the architectural community in Minnesota. MMPC Executive Director Craig Hinrichs conducted 80 lunch time seminars with architectural firms promoting masonry products and masonry workmanship. He has become an employee of the MC&MCA and will continue to office with Architecture Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The MC&MCA continued to participate in a structural masonry promotional effort involving the bricklayers, the IMI, Laborers, and LECET. Through this effort the target is engineers and engineering firms. The MC&MCA has four representatives on this Minnesota Masonry Council which also includes four representatives from labor. Both Craig Hinrichs of MC&MCA and Mark Swanson of IMI work together with the MMC and are expected to coordinate additional promotional and marketing of masonry and union labor throughout Minnesota and the upper Midwest.

MC&MCA and other masonry management and laborers organizations feel strongly that the marketing and promotional efforts in these slow economic times will pay dividends when the market turns around and begins to grow once again.

Missouri

On September 25, 2012 the Masonry Institute of St. Louis (“MISL”) kicked off its 2012-2013 seminar year with a presentation, “Energy Efficient School Design” by Professor Mark McGinley of the University of Louisville. MISL has since hosted seminars by:

Tyler Witthuhn, National Concrete Masonry Association : “Direct Design Software”
Jason Thompson, National Concrete Masonry Association: “CMU Update: ASTM C90 and MSJC Unit Strength Method”
Michael Schuller, Atkinson-Noland & Associates: “ASCE 41: Seismic Rehabilitation of Existing Buildings”
Edgar Glock, Jr., Glock Architecture, LLC: “Basics of Quality Masonry”
Darrell McMillian, MISL: “Masonry Then and Now”

Upcoming speakers and programs include:

Panel of Stephen Gantner, Jr. of Archimages, William Stewart of Code Doctor and Darrell McMillian of MISL: “Masonry Potpourri: Special Inspections”
Jim Moody, Heitmann and Associates: “Designing Masonry and Opening Interfaces”
J. Gregg Borchelt, Brick Industry Association: “Anchored Brick Veneer Detailing”
Bill Streeter, a local filmmaker: “Brick by Chance and Fortune”
Diane Throop, IMI: “Tips for Optimizing Structural Masonry”
John Harris, CASCO: “2009 IBC Strength Design: Girder Loads”
Darrell McMillian, MISL: “Masonry Submittals”
Darrell McMillian, MISL: “Earth, Wind and Fire: Disaster Planning with Masonry”

MISL reported that sponsorship of these weekly seminars were quickly snapped up by local mason contractors and area suppliers since it provides affordable promotional exposure to 150-200 design professionals per session.

In addition to these regular lectures, the MISL is partnering with our local apprentice school to host hands-on masonry sessions at the school on June 18-20, 2013. The architects, engineers and code officials will pick up trowels and learn firsthand how basic masonry materials come together to form durable and safe building components. Apprenticeship instructors and local mason contractors will be on hand to assist attendees with converting project document information into real-world masonry systems.

The MISL’s 15th Annual Masonry New Products Show will be held at the St. Louis Masonry Center on February 12-13, 2013; mason contractors are targeted on the first night and then the exhibitors’ focus turns to the design professionals on the second day.

McMillian continues his trifecta of masonry marketing duties: in addition to providing technical assistance to contractors and design professionals and conducting educational programs on and off site, McMillian returned to teach a structural masonry course two days a week on the campus of the University of Missouri — St. Louis to students on the campus of the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, using distance learning technology. University officials have been so impressed with enrollment to this course that a structural masonry professor has been hired for the Rolla campus. They will offer the course in the Fall 2014 and if enrollment remains near the same level, the course will become a permanent fixture to their course offerings. McMillian continues to foster structural masonry education by discussing the course offering with engineer educators at St. Louis University.

In Fall 2013 semester, the Southern Illinois University — Edwardsville (“SIU-E) will be offering a Masonry Design course, after the success of the Fall 2009 and 2011 offerings. The MISL and the Masonry Institute of Southern Illinois helped finance the initial 2009 course and it was so successful, the university was able to provide funding going forward.

MISL’s partnership with Dr. Jie Gong, Ph.D. of SIU-E to develop building element models and model creation tools for masonry materials that will be incorporated in Building Information Modeling (“BIM”) software has almost come to fruition. Despite delays from Dr. Gong taking a position with Rutgers University in the Fall 2012 and subsequent schedule busters with SuperStorms, he anticipates the rollout of the BIM module in early 2013.

The MCA / OSHA Partnership continues to flourish. The 9 contractors in the partnership reach over 55% of all local industry hours. The partnership’s DART (Days Away Restricted / Transferred Duties) has decreased from its revised baseline of 1.9 to 0.9 as of September 30, 2012. The partners meet once a quarter with the OSHA Area Director and general contractor safety professionals to discuss best practices. The meetings provide a great opportunity to demonstrate to our customers the hard work and skill that our workforce have regarding safety and quality.

At the 2012 Spring Advisory Board Meeting, the Governing Board and past presidents approved implementation of a 2-prong marketing initiative, expanding the masonry message on a local and regional basis. MCA Area Director David Gillick humorously nicknamed this promotional coordinator “Clark” as Superman Clark Kent will be needed to cover our mission. The Board discussed that on a local basis, the MISL currently takes an indirect marketing approach (i.e., seminars for design professionals) to encourage masonry use. However, the Board sees a need to take direct action to reach the earliest possible decision-makers on a project. MCA and MISL are using this direct approach in getting masonry on the upcoming Family Courts project in St. Louis County, partnering with IMI and approaching the five design/build teams being considered for the project.

On a regional basis, the Board approved taking our existing distribution system and expanding our geographic base to:

Bring together existing contractors
Best use of local promotional dollars
Reproduce the MISL promotional model
Extend the MCA advocacy for better industry
Education
Safety
Legislation
Portability
Negotiations

Competitors / Trends

Minnesota

Our competition continues to be precast. The entire effort behind the masonry promotions through working with architects, engineers, developers, and owners is to work to win a larger share of the market in the near future.

Missouri

Overly tight pricing continues to be the trend for the region.

Contractors have been casting their nets further in hopes of landing work.

Currently in Missouri, the House and Senate have a Republican Super Majority. This means if the Republicans hold together, they have the votes to override the Democratic Governor’s veto. We will see how this affects the business climate over the next two years.

MCAA Regional Report, Region E

Workforce Development

Minnesota

Missouri

Economic Conditions / Forecast

Minnesota

Missouri

Masonry Marketing Activities

Minnesota

Missouri

Competitors / Trends

Minnesota

Missouri

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