MCAA Regional Report, Region B

Words: David Hill, Calvin Brodie, Brian Procter, Gary Joyner, John Doherty, Roy Swindal, Jerry Painter, Paul Clements, Wriston McGeeAlabama - Roy Swindal
Florida - Jerry Painter
Georgia - John Doherty
Kentucky - Paul Clements
Mississippi - No State Chair
North Carolina - Calvin Brodie
South Carolina - David Hill
Tennessee - Brian Procter
Virginia - No State Chair

Workforce Development

Alabama
At this time only one Apprentice program this is in Mobile and Panhandle of Florida. 90 to 95 percent of the masonry work being performed in this state is being contracted by supposedly Masonry contractors that subcontract their labor to Hispanic firms who pay cash. The condition does not seem to be getting better it is worse. Unless something changes in the next couple of years there will not be any Legitimate Masonry contractors in the state.

Florida
Through the Florida Masonry Apprentice & Educational Foundation, Inc. the Masonry Association of Florida, Inc. (MAF) is contributing to the development of the Florida masonry workforce in the following ways:

11 Apprentice Training Programs, 136 students, 35 Apprentice Employers; 72 Pre-Apprentice Programs, >2,000 students; 8 DOC Programs, applying for Grants; State NCCER Sponsor (ICTP Courses); Running Masonry Workshops (5 to date); MOU with Banner Center for Construction; Received 2010 FDOE Commissioner's Business Recognition Award

Georgia
Apprenticeship training classes are down due to lack of jobs for the participants. Classes could be full if employment was a possibility. The Construction Education Foundation of Georgia is making great strides in career awareness. The Construction Career Expo held in the spring is attracting 6,000 - 7,000 students statewide.

Kentucky
No report as of this writing.

Mississippi
No State Chair

North Carolina
NCMCA participated in the 57th Annual NC Department of Labor Masonry Apprentice Skills Contest at the NC State Fair in Raleigh. The contest was won by Wriston McGee of McGee Brothers Company. NCMCA provided judges, materials, cash prizes and volunteers for the event. Local NCMCA chapters have recently participated in Local High School Construction Career Fairs and are participating on masonry class advisory committees as NC adopts the NCCER masonry curriculum for all high school masonry classes. Advisory committees are required for each class. Early this year, NCMCA will begin planning for the Annual NC SKillsUSA State and Regional Masonry Contest scheduled for March, and the Association's own annual apprentice skills competition in May. NCMCA President-elect Gary Joyner and other NCMCA leaders have enjoyed some success during the past year in starting new high school masonry classes. The NCMCA Masonry Contractor Certification Program entered its Continuing Education Requirement phase in 2010 with the goal of insuring NCMCA Certified Professionals are among the most up-to-date and knowledgeable people in the business. Also, the fourth series of NCMCA Masonry Contractor Certification Classes began in October with about 62 enrolled for each class thus far. As of the end of the year, 25 companies and 169 individuals have completed the program and are certified.

South Carolina
The workforce in South Carolina has undergone a major shift within the last year. The Immigration Reform Act has taken full effect and has had greatly helped the masonry contractor that employees legal workers. All new hires after July 1, 2010 have to be verified by a strict set of guidelines. This hopefully will allow the full service masonry contractors who employee legal workers to be more successful as they bid future work. We still have the problem of an older workforce. We must find a way to reach the younger workers.

Tennessee
At the recent Brick South East Manpower Forum most Tennessee programs had not entered new apprentices in two to three years making workforce development non-existent.

Virginia
No State Chair

Economic Conditions/Forecast

Alabama
Currently we have over 35% unemployment in the construction industry in the state. Do not see much change in the next year to 18 months. We are beginning to budget some private work again but nothing is starting. Pricing levels are still below cost. Now illegal workers are being paid cash on Davis Bacon projects with sacks of cash. Hard to believe but true; the Federal jobsites are not being policed.

Florida
The construction market in Florida is in depression. Both commercial and residential markets have fallen 80+% from their peaks and continue to be choppy, some months up slightly and some months down. We feel the bottom has been reached. Residential permits are up 12%; commercial is down 41% year over year.

See attached charts for market share trends. The masonry industry was successful in achieving a 5% market share gain in commercial structures in 2009, going from 36% in 2008 to 41%. The past year has seen an increase in construction projects in the military sector which masonry is loosing market share; therefore, we are forecasting a little loss in overall share in 2010. Our goals remain unchanged - 40% share in 2010 and 55% share in 2013.

See attached Producer Price Indices for Competitive Building Materials. The masonry industry continues to be in a better overall pricing position than the wood and steel markets. Concrete products' pricing have declined while wood and steel pricing has increased.

Overall, we are bullish on the Florida masonry market and that when the market rebounds, masonry will gain market share.

Georgia
All forecast for Georgia are showing slight recovery by mid 2012. The anticipated growth rate is projected so small as to be hardly noticed. Hopefully this is the worst case.

Kentucky
No report as of this writing.

Mississippi
No State Chair

North Carolina
No good news presently and the general consensus is that Carolina masonry will not see significant improvement in 2011. Residential market is devastated and, while commercial/institutional is fairing somewhat better, competitive pressure continues to drive bidding down to desperate levels

South Carolina
There are very few bright spots in the construction markets of South Carolina. Decent work is scarce and has no provisions for overhead or profits. Schools continue to be the most available work ongoing within the state. The conditions at the present time are very concerning. In South Carolina, we still have the problem of general contractors subcontracting to labor only unit price masons. They furnish all of the materials and the masonry contractor gets paid a dollar amount for each unit placed into the wall. This makes for masons only wanting to get a count instead of installing quality work. This makes it bad for the full service masonry contractor.

The forecast for this year is probably going to be flat at best. The indicators point to a couple of pockets of good work, but also show areas of continued concern. Hospitals, which usually count as a large user of masonry, are still on the sidelines. With all of the uncertainty of health care, very few are in the expansion mode. We see the private sector continuing to lag. As we all know, the housing market must improve before we will see any major improvements. The two bright spots for the state are BMW continuing to build and the new Boeing plant in Charleston.

Tennessee
The Architects are still operating with minimal staffs indicating a very small if any improvement in work available for the future 2011. In Middle Tn. our largest project (Nashville Convention Center) was awarded to out of town competition at 25% below the next local bidder.

Virginia
No State Chair

Masonry Marketing Activities

Alabama
We are still waiting on the unveiling of 20/20 to the local market for the state of Alabama.

Florida
Recognizing the need for promotion and education to the construction industry the MAF created the ProMasonry Initiative, whose mission is: "To inform and educate decision makers in the construction industry as to the advantages of masonry over alternate systems."

ProMasonry Meetings are open to all members and are held bi-monthly at: FC&PA, 6353 Lee Vista Blvd., Orlando, FL 32822

The Commercial Lead Tracking Subcommittee was created to track commercial building in the state of Florida with the ultimate goal of converting projects from other wall systems to masonry.

The MAF includes the following as part of it's marketing efforts:

Promote masonry construction to expand the masonry industry. Our goal is to create hundreds of millions of dollars of masonry construction in Florida.
Promote our member masonry companies to construction owners and specifiers.
Provide timely local market information about construction and masonry opportunities.
Provide a source of trained labor to the industry through our pre-apprentice and apprentice training programs.
Provide engineering expertise to our member companies - Structural Engineer on staff!
Educate the industry to new ideas and business practices.

Georgia
The Georgia Masonry Institute as a part of Georgia Concrete Products is now defunct. The Masonry Association of Georgia is trying to put together a masonry promotion facet to the organization. This could be up and running mid 2011. The Southeast Masonry Promotion Alliance is alive and well. Efforts being coordinated with NCMA should have nationwide positive effects on masonry promotion.

Kentucky
No report as of this writing.

Mississippi
No State Chair

North Carolina
Our masonry contractor certification program has been underway since 2006 and has now resulted in a large number of individuals and firms being certified. With certified companies and individuals readily available, NCMCA has begun a promotional campaign to encourage specification writers and owners to include a certification requirement in bid documents. This is an important component of masonry marketing because it addresses an old complaint from architects in the Carolinas that masonry is problematic because of scheduling and installing problems, causing architects to consider alternative materials. It has been NCMCA's contention that the problem lies in the selection process for mason contractors and not the system itself. We see certification as a means to address this objection to using masonry. In November, for the tenth year, NCMCA partnered with the NC State University College of Design to provide judging and prizes for Professor Patrick Rand's Masonry Design Competition, a graded project of his "Architectural Construction Systems" class. The program, chaired since inception by NCMCA Past State President Doug Burton, is an excellent means to introduce future designers to masonry. In 2011, NCMCA will explore extending the program to Appalachian State University. NCMCA partnered with the Carolinas Concrete Masonry Association in November to present the NCMA seminar "Design a Masonry Structure in 20 Minutes" at three locations in the Carolinas. NCMCA partnered with CCMA and BIA-SE to man an exhibit booth at the North Carolina School Boards Association Annual Conference. The exhibit promoted masonry construction for schools and masonry vocational education for students.

South Carolina
We are still working with architects and engineers to prove that masonry is the preferred way to build. The Upper South Carolina Masonry Contractors Association has had several hands on joint meetings with architects, engineers and mason contractors. This has proven to be very successful. The usual comment is "I didn't realize that it was so hard to get it right". Hopefully, this bodes well for the masonry industry.

Tennessee
The Masonry Institute of Tennessee is continuing its education and recognition programs on a narrowed budget.

Virginia
No State Chair

Competitors/Trends

Alabama
Alabama has very weak laws relating to immigration. Basically no laws, therefore the state is a haven for illegal activities. Alabama is supposed to pass some type of Illegal Immigrant Legislation in the first session of 11. We will see if this is a reality in the next 3 months. Pricing is still trending down. Until the illegal activity is curtailed the industry will continue to die. Quality is at an all time low because of all the subcontracting taking place. The GC's don't really care what the work looks like but that it is at a cheap price. Most Generals are bidding work and taking prices then after they are successful they then put the job back out for bid. Most generals are making more than they ever have and most subs are losing money to stay in business. Not very logical but true.

Florida
See Economic Conditions

Georgia
Work is going very cheap. Hopefully this will not affect quality to the extent that masonry is designed out of future construction.

Kentucky
No report as of this writing.

Mississippi
No State Chair

North Carolina
Competing building systems continue to claim masonry market share in the Carolinas.

South Carolina
Work continues to be very cheap and very difficult for the full service mason contractors. The General contractor mindset is that he can use the cheap unit price mason contractors even if he has to use several different ones on the job. His thought process is that it will still be cheaper than dealing with a full service mason contractor. We still have a very long way to go before things return to some market share and profitability.

Tennessee
Out of state competition with traveling labor brokerage crews have forced many to lower the Mason wages twice during 2010. New Legislation went into effect 01.01.11 requiring Licensed Masonry Contractor be listed on envelope for subcontract over $100,000.00.

Virginia
No State Chair

MCAA Regional Report, Region B

Workforce Development

Economic Conditions/Forecast

Masonry Marketing Activities

Competitors/Trends

About: Featured

Not-So-Boring Brick: Gadi House, India

MCAA Represents at 2025 North Carolina SkillsUSA Competition

The Cornerstone of Success: Safety and Documentation in Masonry

How It's Made: Natural Stone Veneer