MCAA Regional Report, Region I

Eastern Washington / Northern Idaho

Economic Climate
Due to an extremely slow start to 2005, bricklayer hours were down 3 percent from the previous year. The good news is that 2006 looks to be a robust year in all sectors.

A good indicator of potential construction activity for 2006 can be estimated by the quantity of work "currently on the boards" of architects and engineers. Many architects and engineers are in a hiring mode meaning there is a fair amount of work to be done.

Numerous condominium projects are underway or being planned that will add to the quantity of masonry construction.

Marketinp Activities
The Masonry Industry Promotion Group continues its successful promotion of university education at Washington State University (WSU). A hands-on demo for third-year architecture students is followed by a seven week masonry design competition and culminates with a lunch banquet and cash awards for the best designs.

The undergraduate masonry design course for structural engineers has become a popular part of WSU's regular engineering curriculum - approximately 1,000 students have completed the class since we started in 1986. We also continue a yearly scholarship for graduate students in structural engineering with a research area in masonry. Thirteen students have graduated from this program and now hold positions with engineering firms throughout Washington state and other parts of the country.

Workforce Development
We just finished two months of apprenticeship school with 39 apprentices. We were able to keep in the contract the 8 hours per year of journeyman upgrades. The journeymen do not get their annual raise unless they complete the training.

Competition/Trends in the Repion
Historically, our market region is very strong in masonry construction. Masonry is most often the choice material for designing and constructing many institutional, educational, commercial, and municipal facilities. The latest threat to our market share on commercial office buildings has been the tilt-up, with thin brick inset system. A design-build firm is aggressively marketing this system in our area. The thin brick is installed by non-bricklayers.

Western Washington

Business in 2005 was definitely on an uptrend with total bricklayer hours going past last 2004 by about 12%.

Economic reports and forecasts lead us to believe that 2006 will be another year of increased demand with commercial construction predicted up by about 7% for the year. Microsoft plans on spending $1 Billion over the next three years for more buildings to house an additional 12,000 workers. Hospitals are planning expanded campuses with Group Health announcing ground breaking on one of four new buildings for their headquarters offices. And Seattle continues to see growth in the downtown core with new buildings breaking ground and building.

There are currently four hotels under construction or in the permitting process.

Further increasing pressure on the market will come from Canada as they prepare for the upcoming 20 10 Winter Olympics. Canadian contractors will be hard pressed to do all the work available.

Architecture firms in western Washington are hiring right now and that is always a portent of things to come. We see a lot more projects on the boards and coming out to bid. School bonds generally have passed in this marketplace leading to future work.

The Washington state legislature continues to pass construction bills which include funds for university buildings and jails. Not all money will be spent this year but they may provide moment& into 2007.

Materials availability looks good, however pricing has increased and we look for more increases. The cement shortage is not predicted to affect this market severely but things could tighten as the year progresses.

A major concern is manpower availability as it is just now March and the halls becoming empty of qualified workers. Many contractors' labor needs are not being met and the pool is only so big.

Oregon

Manhours
Bricklayer manhours for 2005 continued the upward trend from the previous year registering a 9.5% increase. That was on top of a 14% increase for 2004. Most of the increase for 2005 was during the summer months. There was a marked slow down during November and December which has continued into early 2006.

Labor management relations remain good at the moment.

Training
Our Joint Apprenticeship Training Program continues to successfully train and graduate journeyman bricklayers. This on-going program is managed by both labor and management representatives and is regulated by the State of Oregon.

Repional Promotion
The Masonry Institute of Oregon continued to promote masonry directly to architects and engineers through its AIA continuing education programs. A total of 21 seminars were conducted at area architectural firms on topics covering brick and concrete block design and installation as well as sustainable design using masonry products. The MI0 also sponsored structural masonry engineering courses at Portland State and Oregon State Universities for a total of 56 engineering students. The MI0 continues to mail on a monthly basis, 160 NCMA Tech Notes to area engineers and architects.

Economic Climate
Stimulated by low interest rates and pent up demand, the State of Oregon enjoyed strong economic growth in 2005. Area union mason contractors benefited from strong hospital expansion as well as continued demand for retail and condominium projects. While there has been modest growth in K-12 and higher education, statewide and local funding of public bond measures earmarked for education is still well below 5 years ago.

OSHA
Oregon-OSHA is still focusing most of its efforts in finding ways for industry to voluntarily implement ergonomic best practices guidelines. Our local JATC program is currently incorporating a best practices guide for ergonomics in its training curriculum.

Montana

The state of Montana has shown considerable increase in Commercial, Industrial, Institutional and Residential construction over the last year. The state of Montana has let out several multi-million dollar projects in the last four months on the two major University campus's and they contain sizeable amounts of masonry. Water treatment facilities and sewer treatment facilities are being bid and constructed across the state as the growing population forces municipalities to grow. Institutional projects such as K-12 schools are beginning to let loose in all regions of the state, again, following the population growth. Residential construction is at an all time high. In Northwest Montana alone an average of 70 building permits are obtained per week.

Masonry Marketing Activities Throughout the Region
Masonry promotion is at the very beginning in this state. At this time a few vendors, suppliers and a contractor are voluntarily starting to actively promote. With support from the Masonry Industry Promotion Group in Spokane, we are sending two Montana State University professors to the University Professors' Workshop. A hands on demonstration project is scheduled in early April for Architecture students from Montana State University in Bozeman. This hopefully will be the start of many successful promotion programs in the future.

Workforce Development Activities
The workforce is continuing to grow following the demand. The state has turned over the apprenticeship program to the Bricklayers Union, which is a step in the right direction for all party's involved. The actual recruitment of apprentice's is still a necessesity that we all must move forward on.

Competitor/Trends in the Region
Recently we have seen a trend of Precast/Tilt-up wall systems coming in grossly over budget on bid day. Masonry is being value engineered in place of these competing wall systems and customers are spending less to have masonry in place of concrete. This is a success for the industry.

Alaska

No report.