Masonry Magazine September 1972 Page. 6
Bricklayers' Union Re-elects Murphy and Joyce
The 31st biennial and 72nd annual convention of the Bricklayers, Masons & Plasterers International Union of America was staged in Las Vegas, Nev., at Caesar's Palace, September 11-15.
Thomas F. Murphy was re-elected president of BM & PIU, along with John T. Joyce, secretary, and Edward Bellucci, treasurer.
Elected 1st vice president was James Richardson, and the the new 6th vice president is T.D. "Ted" Harris.
Re-elected were: Francis M. Bachofer, 2nd vice president; Don Williams, 3rd vice president; James F. McHugh, 4th vice president; Louis Weir, 5th vice president; Clarence Kurlinski, 7th vice president; Howard J. Thaller, 8th vice president; Robert Shepherd, 9th vice president, and Thomas J. McIntyre, 10th vice president.
Addressing the huge gathering were United States Vice President Spiro Agnew and Labor Secretary James D. Hodgson.
Mr. Agnew said that under President Nixon's administration real wages of American workers have risen steadily. He explained that "real wages" is a shorthand term used by economists and statisticians to describe the difference between the purchasing power of the dollars we are now receiving and the purchasing power of the dollars we received some years ago.
According to Mr. Agnew, between 1965 and 1968, real earnings of workers rose by less than one per cent. "In short," he said, "after the typical workman had finished reading the newspapers and hearing on television for three years about the tremendous amount of economic growth experienced by our country, he was only one per cent better off in the marketplace. Inflation ate up the rest.
"We inherited this situation and attempted strongly through conventional, accepted government policies to reverse the tide in 1969 and 1970. And we found that the momentum of inflation was difficult to overcome. However, in 1971 our efforts began to pay off."
According to Mr. Agnew, real weekly earnings rose by 2.5 per cent annually in the first eight months of 1971 and at the rate of 3.8 per cent annually after President Nixon's New Economic Policy was initiated. He also said that 2.2 million new jobs have been created since the start of the new economic policy just a little over one year ago.
He said that he regretted the initiation of wage and price controls, but that "we intend to rid ourselves of them as soon as we can and move to get government out of collective bargaining as soon as we can."
Labor Secretary Hodgson told the convention delegates that the construction industry "is the victim of a lot of myths that should be dispelled." All industries have their problems, and construction is no exception, he said, but major improvements have been made and "the construction industry today is one of the brightest spots on the national labor scene."
In support of that statement, Secretary Hodgson said unions and contractors have faced up to their problems and have gotten together in a cooperative effort with government to solve them. "You (the unions) showed a degree of responsibility and cooperation that not only made collective bargaining in the industry respectable again but helped start the industry out of the doldrums," he said.
"Wage increases that had become a target for every two-bit critic were scaled back. You sliced both the number of strikes and the duration of strikes just about in half. It's been a fine, solid performance and a tribute to the building trade unions in particular."
The increased cost of housing, Secretary Hodgson said, has been unfairly attributed to labor costs. He noted that land costs have skyrocketed.
"Materials," he said, "represent some 44 per cent of the construction price. Actually, less than one-fourth of the cost of building a house, exclusive of land costs, goes to labor. A factor, to be sure, hardly worth all the critical wailing."
The Secretary said that between 1962 and 1967 on-site man-hour requirements for construction of single family homes fell an average of about 2 per cent a year.
Frank Camisso Named CMCA President
Frank Camisso, Jr., president of Dominion Masonry & Stone Contractors Ltd., Toronto, has been appointed national president of the Canadian Masonry Contractors Association, succeeding Harry Morstead of Calgary, Alta., who is retiring from the mason contracting industry.
Camisso is a founding member of the Canadian MCA and served as first vice president the past two years. Robert E. Beaupre of Morstead Masonry Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., will replace Camisso in that post.
Camisso along with other leading mason contractors in Canada belonged to MCAA prior to establishment of the Canadian Association. CMCA contractor members receive the benefits of MCAA membership through an affiliation agreement.
Camisso announced that the 1973 annual conference of CMCA will be held in Quebec City, Quebec, Feb. 19-21.