Masonry Magazine March 1982 Page. 4
Mason Contractors and Bricklayers Union
Announce Plan to Reduce Work Stoppages
The Mason Contractors Association of America and the International Bricklayers Union on February 18, 1982 announced joint agreement on a plan designed to reduce work stoppages arising from disputes over the terms of collective bargaining agreements between chapters and locals of the two organizations.
The disputes settlement plan, developed with the Union and the Association by Harvard professor and former Secretary of Labor Dr. John T. Dunlop, establishes a three-step process: 1) Joint monitoring by the national organizations of collective bargaining by BAC local unions and MCAA chapters and members; 2) joint mediation and conciliation efforts by the two national organizations; 3) when disputes cannot otherwise be solved, an agreement by the national parties to utilize in a limited number of cases final and binding arbitration procedures. The plan also calls for the use of an impartial umpire to help develop procedures and resolve disputes.
Announcement of the plan was made by AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland at a press conference in Miami Beach, Fla. attended by Dunlop and the heads of the association and union-BAC president John T. Joyce, MCAA immediate past president Louis J. Helbert, Jr., and current MCAA president Donald O. Leonard.
George A. Miller and L. Gerald Carlisle, executive vice presidents of the Association and the Union, respectively, are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the plan, it was announced.
Kirkland called the plan "another positive and significant step forward by two organizations with a long history of labor/management cooperation."
Dunlop said the plan is designed not simply to avoid work stoppages but to allow the two national organizations to assist and improve local-level collective bargaining by their members. He emphasized that a key feature of the plan is its reliance on monitoring of local-level collective bargaining and on mediation and conciliation as ways to reduce the number of occasions when it would be necessary to go to arbitration. The assistance of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service will be utilized when and where appropriate.
The agreement was approved by the association's convention which concluded February 17 in Orlando, Fla. Helbert said MCAA "believes this plan will help us to more efficiently serve our clients and the public."
The BAC Executive Board earlier approved the plan, and Joyce said that the union's officers took that action in the belief that the plan "will help our local unions to serve their members more effectively, and at the same time contribute to the overall improvement of the masonry industry."
The MCAA-BAC disputes settlement plan was developed by the Labor/Management Relations Board of the International Masonry Institute, a joint labor and management trust fund created by the association and the union.
Agreement Between the International
Union of Bricklayers and Allied
Craftsmen and the Mason
Contractors Association of America
This Agreement implements one of the joint purposes of the International Masonry Institute established effective March 21, 1981, to stabilize and improve labor-management relations in the masonry industry.
This Agreement continues a relationship between the two national organizations, International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen and Mason Contractors Association of America, dating to at least January 26, 1931, establishing procedures to improve collective bargaining between local unions and local chapters of contractors, to provide joint procedures for mediation and conciliation of disputes in the negotiations of local collective bargaining agreements, and to provide for final resolution of a dispute over the terms of collective agreements between local affiliates. To achieve these purposes the national parties to this Agreement agree as follows:
1) The International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen and the Mason Contractors Association of America agree jointly to develop and administer the information and procedures requisite to monitor collective bargaining negotiations involving local affiliates, to learn of the facts and the issues in dispute, and to be informed of the proposals and steps local parties have taken to reach agreement.
2) The International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen and the Mason Contractors Association of America agree jointly to develop and to utilize procedures where disputes persist to mediate and to conciliate controversies over the provisions of local collective bargaining agreements, including resort to fact-finding with recommendations or voluntary arbitration. The national parties may elect to use internal representatives, public mediators or private neutrals as may be most appropriate.
3) The International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen and the Mason Contractors Association of America agree to develop and to utilize, in a limited number of cases of special significance, a procedure for final and binding arbitration over the terms of local collective bargaining agreements where voluntary means described in paragraph (2) above have been unable to resolve the dispute. In the event of a strike or lockout in process in such a case, the national parties shall decide whether to provide for a return to normal werk operations while procedures for a final resolution of the dispute are conducted.
4) The International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen and the Mason Contractors Association of America agree to each designate a national officer who shall jointly administer the procedures established by this Agreement.
5) The national parties shall also jointly designate an impartial umpire to assist in the development of procedures and in dispute resolution as the national parties may determine.
6) This Agreement shall be effective on approval by both the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen and the Mason Contractors Association of America. This Agreement shall be open for amendment 60 days prior to December 31st or upon mutual agreement of the parties. This Agreement shall run from year to year unless terminated by either party in the 60 days prior to December 31st of any year.
7) Other national labor organizations representing workers engaged in masonry construction or other national contractor organizations employing such workers may, with the approval of the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen and the Mason Contractors Association of America, become parties to this Agreement or utilize its procedures in particular cases.