Masonry Magazine December 1993 Page. 7
FROM THE PRESIDENT
By RICHARD MATTHEWS
President, Mason Contractors Association of America
What Ever Happened to Loyalty?
Loyalty is out of fashion in today's world. Everyone would rather switch than do what's right, not only in the marketplace, where customers rapidly switch to suppliers who offer better deals, but also in their personal, political and even their social lives.
As soon as they think they might do better elsewhere, baseball players change teams... coaches and professors leave their colleges... even husbands and wives abandon each other. Rather than trying to build better relationships where they are, people abandon their old associations and enter into new ones.
Breakdown a Result of Selfishness
Maybe this can explain what is happening between the BAC and MCAA. The breakdown of loyalty is not only a result of selfishness-it also has ideological roots.
It has been argued that people should not make decisions based on what is best for themselves, but instead based on impersonal calculations of what is best for the unit as a whole. These ideas have had an effect on the way many educated people think, but they certainly haven't produced a society in which people act, or even feel better.
Many people reject the old-fashioned belief that we owe loyalty to those who are close to us and helped to make us what we are. In this case the union doesn't believe they owe loyalty to an association who worked with them over the years for benefits they now enjoy.
The BAC has sought to remove MCAA as the association to represent management on the Bricklayers and Trowel Trades International Pension Fund, even though MCAA contractors employ the majority of their members and were partners in forming this pension fund.
The expansion of this, yet another power play, is very troubling to a majority of our members. Most have been union affiliated all their lives and want to continue. But these same contractors think that's a wrong turn for union construction.
Most of the reasons given are too lengthy and far fetched to list. But the biggest factor dates back to 1986. MCAA losing members in mass because of a misunderstood International Agreement, voted to allow each member the right to decide whether they wanted to be bound by this agreement. Hence Article 24 was approved by the membership, and revised and modified since.
This stopped the bleeding and we began a steady upward progress in membership. Hopefully this consistent progress will continue. A strong MCAA is good for the masonry industry and should be a positive factor for both labor and management.
Of course the Union doesn't agree. Does it matter what the Union officials think? Certainly it does. They have respctability and clout. But we should be working together to the benefit of an industry-not destroy it from within; make it not only better but stronger.
Many false rumors are being voiced: Only the union has all the answers (if this is true, why are they losing so many members); MCAA is non-union Association; MCAA top officers are non-union; ICEBAC was formed so it would solve all the union's woes; MCAA contractors are probably an unchangeable foe and replaceable.
These are really dumb ideas, brought up by short-sighted people. BAC and MCAA should continue to provide the leadership, commitment, and the means to carry this industry forward into the 21st Century and beyond.
Loyalty Builds Strong Relationships
A one-sided, individualistic approach such as we have now may work as long as things are going well, but it's likely to fail when problems arise. Loyalty builds strong, long lasting mutual relationships that can help overcome temporary set backs; it leaves both sides better off in the long term.
As former Senate Chaplin Peter Marshall once said in prayer, "Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen."
As MCAA members, we must continue to have that determination. We must continue to make the right things happen for our employees and their families as well as our own. MCAA should not give up its right to