The National MCAA Update

Volume 4, Number 13 - March 29, 1999

MCAA STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE'S FIRST MEETING SET, MEMBERS NAMED – MCAA's 1999 Strategic Planning Committee, announced by MCAA President Bill McClure at the recent convention, will hold its first meeting on May 12-13 in St. Louis. The Committee's task is to "examine the many issues facing our association and the needs of all our membership, regardless of size or form of ownership, so MCAA can plot a course for the future that will make sense for all our members." Committee members are: Immediate Past President James J. Murphy, Jr., chairman (Murphy Company, St. Louis); Victor Bach (Western Plumbing & Heating Co., Inc., San Francisco); Smitty G. Belcher (Huxtable & Associates, Inc., Lawrence, KS); Stephen E. Dunbar (Dunbar Mechanical, Inc., Toledo, OH); James B. Humphrey, Jr. (Humphrey Company, Ltd., Houston); Stephen L. Lamb (MCA of Chicago); Kathy J. McFadden (Mechanical Contractors D.C. Association, Washington, DC); Frank Norton (Commonwealth Air Conditioning & Heating, South Boston); Thomas L. Williams (McKenney's, Inc., Atlanta); and John Yale (J.B. Rodgers/Kinetics, Tempe, AZ).

MCAA/UA JOINT ACTION – The leadership of the MCAA and the UA last week released the details of two client-oriented developments adopted at a joint MCAA/UA executive boards meeting at the MCAA Convention. The first is the adoption of the MCAA/UA Model Substance Abuse Testing and Treatment Policy designed to be used as an outline for local collective bargaining in meeting the ever-increasing requirements of various owner-imposed drug policies nationwide. The MCAA and UA leadership negotiated the model policy to help local groups again demonstrate the flexibility of local collective bargaining in crafting high-value-added responses to market requirements…Customers Count – During the same convention meeting, the MCAA/UA joint committee also agreed to conduct a joint market survey of industrial clients nationwide. This effort will enjoy the support of the influential Business Roundtable Construction Committee in conducting and soliciting responses to the survey. The survey respondents will be anonymous, and the results of the survey will be analyzed by the Construction Labor Research Council, a respected construction industry research organization. Analysis of the response will be used by MCAA and the UA in ensuring that member performance remains at the top ranks of specialty contractors in meeting owner requirements. Target dates for the final survey report are the October 16-19, 1999 MCAA/UA Labor Relations Conference in San Antonio, Texas, and the Business Roundtable’s Annual Construction Conference set for November 15-18, 1999. UA General President Maddaloni has been invited to address BRT’s conference this year.

NEW STUDENT CHAPTER STARTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON – MCAA’s newest student chapter is at the University of Washington in Seattle. The University of Washington Mechanical Contractors Student Chapter was chartered in early March with the signing of a letter of intent by the Department of Construction Management Chairman, Dr. Saeed Daniali and by Brian Garvey, Executive V.P of the Mechanical Contractors Association of Western Washington. David Riley, Assistant Professor in the Construction Management Department, will serve as the faculty advisor for the student chapter. This makes the seventh mechanical student chapter; the others are at Purdue, Nebraska, Iowa State, Ferris State, Wisconsin and Texas A&M. For more information on forming student chapters, contact Dennis Langley at dlangley@mcaa.org.

DAVIS BACON REPEAL RETURNS –The Senate Republican budget resolution proposed illusory savings through repeal of the federal prevailing wage law – the Davis Bacon Act. The MCAA/NECA/SMACNA Alliance sent a letter to the Senate on March 25, once again explaining the crucial importance of high labor standards in our industry needs and the key federal role responsibility in meeting that public policy goal…All these issues and more are on the agenda for the Alliance Legislative Conference set for April 25-27, 1999 in Washington DC. We urge you to register before the April 2 cutoff; rooms are filling up fast. Contact Shawn Durand (shawn@mcaa.org) for registration information.

PUBLIC CONTRACTING DEVELOPMENTS – State and local procurement code --The American Bar Association’s Public Contract Law Section recently released a draft update of its 1979 Model Procurement Code, which is available for adoption for state and local purchasing authorities across the country. The 1999 model code would affect construction purchasing practices by raising design-build (DB), design-build-finance-operate-maintain (DBOFM) and design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM) all on a par with the traditional design-bid-build construction project delivery system. Also, the model code would open up negotiated source selection procedures for the DB methods as alternatives to low-bid selection methods for the traditional project delivery system. The model also sets 100% performance and payment bonds for construction projects, in line with the Federal Miller Act reform proposal…Miller Act Reform Bill introduced -- Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced the "Construction Industry Payment Protection Act of 1999" (H.R. 1219), that provides subcontractors with greater payment bond protection on Federal construction projects. Eleven Representatives are cosponsoring the bill; mark-up of the bill and floor action are anticipated in the next few weeks…Public project labor agreements -- Following up on last week's report that the National Association of School Board’s opposition to the Davis Bacon Act was dropped this year, this week’s news brings a report from the Bureau of National Affairs that the Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously approved adoption of a project labor agreement for a $2 billion of school construction and renovation over the next ten years.