Masonry Magazine August 1968 Page. 25
Mason Contractor News...
Building Trade Wages Rise
Hourly wage scales of unionized building trades workers averaged $5.09 on July 1, 1968, according to the Labor Department's Bureaus of Labor Statistics.
The all-trades average rose by 18.8 cents during the second quarter of 1968, or 3.9 percent, raising the Bureau's index of union building scales to 153 (1957-59). This was the largest increase since reporting of the quarterly data began in 1948.
The second-quarter 1968 survey of 7 major building trades in 100 cities showed scale advances in about three-fifths of the 700 contract situations covered, reflecting the traditional spring bargaining pattern. Scale revisions affected 2 out of 3 workers surveyed, and averaged 28 cents an hour.
Newly negotiated increases and deferred advances from earlier agreements resulted in hourly scale changes of 25, 30, and 35 cents, equally distributed among three-eighths of the workers; 50 cents or more for one-eighth; 15 or 20 cents for one-tenth; and 40 to 50 cents also for one-tenth.
Compared to a year ago, the level of hourly wage scales was 5.5 percent higher. The year-to-year advance amounted to 26 cents on the average, for all trades, and varied from 20 cents for building laborers to 33 cents an hour for electricians.
Plumbers had the highest average hourly scale among the six journeyman crafts, $5.67 an hour. Their basic scale varied from $4.30 an hour in Charleston, S. C. to $7.35 an hour in Oakland. For the other journeyman trades, average hourly scales ranged from $4.99 for painters to $5.57 for bricklayers and electricians.
The bricklayers' hourly scale ranged from $4.15 to $6.33 as of July 1, 1968. Building laborers' scales averaged $3.94 an hour.
Lenchuk Joins NCMA
Paul Lenchuk, Jr., former head of the Florida Concrete and Products Association, has been named executive director of the National Concrete Masonry Association. Announcement of Lenchuk's appointment was made by NCMA President J. W. Kingery.
Lenchuk will succeed Walter W. Underwood in the association's top administrative post. Underwood, executive director of NCMA for more than eleven years, has retired to take on new duties as a consultant to the Republican National Committee.
Active in the concrete industries for thirteen years, Lenchuk became executive director of the Florida Concrete and Products Association upon its founding in 1955. The Florida association currently represents over 90 percent of concrete block and ready-mix concrete producers in the state and a majority of precast and prestress concrete producers. In 1967, the organization expanded to include the formation of the Aggregates Association of Florida.
Lenchuk comes to the NCMA pest with a solid background in the concrete masonry industry. As Florida Concrete and Products executive director, he headed an organization whose membership comprised the largest number of block producers of any state association. In addition, production of block by association members exceeded that of any other state in the nation.
Among the projects initiated by Len- (Please turn page)
COMING EVENTS
# 1968
# September
7-11.. Annual Conference of the National Foundation of Health, Welfare & Pension Plans, Hilton Hotel. San Francisco, Calif. Contact: National Foundation 414-786-6700.
24.. All-Weather Conference sponsored by Mason Contractors Association of Columbus, Ohio in cooperation with the International All-Weather Committee. Contact: MCAA Executive Office.
# October
28-31.. National Safety Congress. Conrad Hilton Hotel, Chicago, III.
# November
9-13.. Structural Clay Products Institute, Annual Brick Industry Convention, Puerto Rico Sheraton, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Contact C. N. Farley. SCPI, 1750 Old Meadow Road. McLean, Va. 22204, 703-893-4010,
# 1969
# January
10-12..MCAA Region F Conference. Sheraton Motor Inn, Portland, Oregon.
19-22.50th Annual Meeting of the Associated Equipment Distributors. Chicago, Illinois.
# February
1-4.. Annual Convention & MCAA Educational Trade Show, Sheraton-Boston Hotel, Boston, Mass.
16-22.. Construction Equipment Exposition & Road Show, Amphitheatre, Chicago, Illinois.
MCAA
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BOSTON
SHERATON-BOSTON HOTEL FEB. 1-4,1969
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