MCAA Regional Report, Region B

Words: Roy SwindalAlabama - Roy Swindal
Florida - Jerry Painter
Georgia - John Doherty
Kentucky - No State Chair
Mississippi - No State Chair
North Carolina - Calvin Brodie
South Carolina - No State Chair
Tennessee - Brian Proctor
Virginia - No State Chair

Workforce Development

Alabama

Currently the only apprentice program is in the Mobile/Pensacola area. All of the other work, unless the project is extremely complicated, is being performed by masonry contractors that hire labor subcontractors to perform the work, therefore, the workforce is almost exclusively Hispanic. In essence, the masonry contractor we have been for 50 plus years is almost extinct. In this state we are the only company performing any work with our own forces.

Florida

No report provided as of this writing.

Georgia

More positive things happening on this front. The Masonry Association of Georgia’s apprenticeship program is projected to be restarted in the Fall of 2013. The Construction Education Foundation of Georgia will put on its 9th annual Construction Career Expo on March 21 and 22. Over 7000 attendees are expected. Focus is on middle school, high school and technical college students. This is held in conjunction with the Skills USA statewide competitions. The state of Georgia is entering the second year of the “Go Build Georgia” campaign. This is a statewide effort at career awareness for the construction industry modeled after “Go Build Alabama” program. Our biggest problem is that a permanent funding mechanism is not in place as it is in Alabama. The state has also redone its career pathways in high school in an effort to get students directed toward a post high school pathway at an earlier age rather than have the student flounder around after graduation trying to figure out which direction to head in.

Kentucky

No State Chair

Mississippi

No State Chair

North Carolina

High school vocational programs remain the main systematic means of attracting and training future masons in North Carolina. NCMCA continues to partner with BIA-SE, the Carolinas Concrete Masonry Association and the North Carolina Masonry Instructors Association to host the SkillsUSA Regional and State Masonry competitions, an event with some one hundred students participating. North Carolina apprentices won recognition in several national competitions during 2012. In February, Wriston McGee claimed First Place in the MCAA Second Year International Skills Competition. In June, Jordan Hartsell claimed a Gold Medal for Post Secondary Masonry at the SkillsUSA National Competition in Kansas City. It was recently announced that Dylan Ennis will represent the USA in Leipzig, Germany in the Bricklaying competition during the biennial WorldSkills Competition. Ennis will compete as a member of the USA “WorldTeam.”

South Carolina

No State Chair

Tennessee

Training is still at the forefront of most of the reputable firms, however; this has decreased due to the lack of work. We have had some career days with a masonry booth to try to show the students that there are other options to consider besides going to college. Most suppliers are doing training for any firm that requests it to try and get their products involved in the project. There seems to be a lot of training for the air and vapor barriers systems. ABC of Middle TN has started a masonry apprenticeship program. It is a 3 year program and the students meet 2 nights a week.

Virginia

No State Chair

Economic Conditions/Forecasts

Alabama

Alabama’s Building Market is very weak. There is less work and more people bidding. This year has been the slowest since we opened our doors in 1955. The New Year has not started any better. There are fewer jobs to look at now than there were in 2012. All of the masonry companies have downsized. We are in the process of downsizing again. Everyone’s volume is down and the pricing is below cost by as much as 25 to 30 percent.

One bright spot on the horizon, the architects report a 25% to 30% increase in fees over the last 3 to 4 months. This should relate to more work for the masonry contractors in the next year.

Florida

No report provided as of this writing.

Georgia

A slight uptick in the construction economy is projected for 2013. The Atlanta area is lagging other areas around the state. Until the housing situation in Atlanta gets back to a more positive mode the metro area will continue to lag. Columbus, Albany, Augusta and Savannah are seeing more activity.

Kentucky

No State Chair

Mississippi

No State Chair

North Carolina

Residential construction has improved during 2012 especially in the larger markets. Tract builders are stepping up activity compared to the three previous years. Commercial construction also somewhat improved in 2012, again mostly in the larger markets. However consensus for 2013 is that we won’t have a significant increase in either segment of construction compared to 2012. Sever competitive pressure has not eased.

South Carolina

No State Chair

Tennessee

The conditions are still fragile, but there are some positive indicators. We are seeing more and more out of town firms entering the market. Architect firms are reporting some uptick in projects. The private sector is improved and appears to be stabilized, which could lead to some negotiated projects for contractors in the near future. The biggest portion is in the hotel market and mixed use construction.
We have not seen the boom in the Restoration Market that we thought we would see, although there is more Renovation to price. What has been let has had increased competition and been government funded. Government work continues to be steady, but with fiscal issues it is hard to forecast the year ahead with negotiations upcoming in congress.

Virginia

No State Chair

Masonry Marketing Activities

Alabama

Unfortunately at this time the only marketing that is taking place is being done by suppliers. The mason contractors don’t have the staff for marketing.

Florida

No report provided as of this writing.

Georgia

Promotion activities are not moving as one would hope. Isolated promotion by individual companies is more prevalent than the concerted industry wide efforts in either brick or block. Funding seems to be the recurring problem.

Kentucky

No State Chair

Mississippi

No State Chair

North Carolina

Emphasis continues to be on promoting certified masonry both to owners, and to designers and specification writers. Also to masonry contractors as potential participants in the certification program. In the fall of 2012, NCMCA began the fifth series of certification classes (11 classes per session) with some 34 students participating. The effort to promote certified masonry with specification writers has begun to show results with several projects either underway or completed that required the masonry subcontractor be certified. NCMCA is investigating ways to make the NCMCA and MCAA certification programs more closely aligned. The leadership of NCMCA remains fully committed to certification as a means to maintain masonry market share by improving perception among not only owners and architects, but also general contractors and masonry contractors themselves. NCMCA has partnered closely with the Carolinas Concrete Masonry Association in the CCMA’s “Understanding Masonry” initiative, a program CCMA developed with the Masonry Institute of Michigan to dispel misconceptions about the cost and performance of masonry wall systems. The program has been presented to architects, material suppliers, masonry contractors and construction mangers across both Carolinas.

South Carolina

No State Chair

Tennessee

All of the Associations are putting forth a great effort in getting the “Masonry Message” of sustainability, green and cost comparisons into the market place. There is never enough involvement in working with the Associations. As with most, it is a handful of firms doing all the work with the industry reaping the benefits. Some masons are trying to get involved with the early stages of Design-Build. This, for some unknown reason is much harder than one would think. Sadly, most large General Contractors still do not believe what we can bring to the table if we are included early enough.

Virginia

No State Chair

Competitors/Trends

Alabama

We have only lost a couple of players in the market and they have all re-opened with another name. The competition as stated earlier is Masonry Contractors that hire Labor subcontractors to perform all of the work with only a supervisor. Ninety- five Percent of personnel on masonry projects and, for that matter, all wet trades are now Hispanics working as subcontractors furnishing their own insurance or no insurance of any kind. This leads to extremely low pricing with no margin for error.

The masonry trade as we know it is disappearing and will continue to diminish until the city, county and state officials become serious about the loss of tax revenue in the construction industry. The percentage of labor subcontractors paying their workers cash is increasing yearly. It is becoming a, what I would call, Black Market Construction Economy.

The other trend that is very concerning is the requirements of all Sub-Contractors on all projects work a minimum of 6 days a week, 10 hours a day. This is being required because the owners, G.C’s and CM’s want the project finished faster and they know that the Hispanic population would like to work 10 hours per day 6 days a week and don’t have to worry about the increase related to overtime because most of the sub-contractors pay cash. This scheduling issue is costing normal masonry contractors that use their own forces almost all of the projects because most people do not like to work 6 days a week, 10 hours per day.

Florida

No report provided as of this writing.

Georgia

Competing products seem to having the same marketing problems as masonry. Unfortunately the competition did a better job marketing prior to the downturn and those results are still being seen.
The Georgia market for masonry contractors is still filled with labor brokers. Very few contractors have their own employees and therefore their interest in marketing and promoting our industry is lacking. These affects are more far reaching than meets the eye and could have long term negative impacts.
A personal concern of mine is what affect is Obama Care going to have on the whole of the construction industry. Union companies have their answer built in. Merit Shop companies such as Pyramid do not have all employees covered in that a large number opt out due to cost. When all employees have to be covered I’m not sure if the dollars required to make that happen will allow us to remain competitive. I would be interested to see what approach other Merit Shop contractors are taking.

Kentucky

No State Chair

Mississippi

No State Chair

North Carolina

Most disturbing is that NCMCA and its partner masonry associations in the Carolinas have struggled to maintain membership and financial support as individual members (and former members) face a continuing challenging economy. Numbers and money are required if the associations are to have an impact on the markets. The leadership of NCMCA is committed to using financial reserves for the foreseeable future to maintain programs. Unfortunately, other masonry promotional groups in the Carolinas do not have that option and have scaled back. Even so, masonry seems to be holding its own as a preferred building system.

South Carolina

No State Chair

Tennessee

Competition is still very competitive in the area. There were a couple of reputable contractors go out of business in the past year. All were due to pending Union negotiations and withdrawal liability. Currently there are 3 contractors still signatory to Local 5 BAC. There is less qualified competition and with an uptick in private work, the potential to be able to get some money in some projects with contractors who are looking for masons that will perform has increased.

Virginia

No State Chair
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