Masonry Magazine April 1969 Page. 8
People & Events...
Mrs. Donald "Billie" Bidwell wishes to thank the many friends who sent messages of encouragement to her during her month long stay in the hospital. Billie is now home and looking forward to the Summer meetings.
MCAA President Donald Bidwell has a new title. It's Mayor Pro-tem Bidwell. Don was recently elected to the city council of Plymouth, Mich., and has been selected as Mayor Pro-tem.
Robert N. Spolum has been promoted to Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Melroe Company, Gwinner, N.D., according to Clifford Melroe, President of the firm. Spolum, 38, joined Melroe as controller in 1963 and has served as Administrative Vice President since June, 1967.
Norman L. Scott has been named the interim manager for the independent systems building organization being established by the Prestressed Concrete Institute. Scott is President of The Consulting Engineers Group, Inc., Glenview, III.. Skil Corp. has appointed Karl B. Salanda as Group Manager of its Air Tool and Construction Equipment Divisions. Walter M. Fisher has been appointed Vice President and General Manager for Spotnails, Inc., subsidiary of Swing-line, Inc.
Sign in a bar: "If you're enjoying our color TV, you've had enough. It's a black and white set."
W. S. West has been re-elected President of the Mason Contractors Association of Cleveland. Other officers elected are: Tom Kerr, Vice President; Sam Immormino, Secretary; Steve Teresi, Treasurer and Robert Dalton, Executive Secretary. Ronald J. Cutler has been appointed sales representative for Washtenaw and Monroe counties, Michigan by Huron Cement. A. J. P. "Rig" Martini recently ad(Continued on page 26)
Award Winning Pool Design
A National Winner in a swimming pool industry design contest is the pool above. Built by Master Pools by Aqua-Qual Swimming Pool Company in New York, the pool was awarded a Gold Medal by Swimming Pool Weekly magazine in a Residential Pool competition category at the annual convention of the National Swimming Pool Institute held recently in New Orleans. The pool is located in Syosset, New York.
BNA Report
The median negotiated wage gain for all industries in 1968 rose 4.2 cents over the 1967 gain to a record high of 18.5 cents an hour, according to a year-end analysis of contract settlements by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (BNA), a Washington-based organization of information specialists. Both the amount of the 1968 gain and the amount of the increase over the previous year's gain were the highest in the 20-year history of the BNA survey.
During the past 10 years, the median settlement among contracts studied by BNA has risen 10.1 cents an hour, with the gain in the 1965-68 period amounting to 11.0 cents an hour. The size of the increase in 1969 is problematic. On the one hand, the emphasis on front-end loading-high first-year wage increases was particularly strong in 1968, and fewer major contracts are scheduled for negotiation in the year ahead. On the other hand, construction bargaining which traditionally results in high-cost settlements -will continue to be heavy in 1969. Most New York City building trades agreements run out in June, and other areas where the construction industry will be writing new contracts include the entire state of Alaska, much of northern New Jersey, and a number of large cities.
The 1968 year-end analysis, made by BNA'S COLLECTIVE BARGAINING NEGOTIATIONS AND CONTRACTS service, is based on a survey of 3,391 contract settlements covering 50 or more workers each. Quarterly figures for 1968 show that settlements peaked in the third quarter at 20.0 cents an hour, and dropped back to 19.7 cents in the last quarter. During the first and second quarters, the median gains came to 15.3 cents and 17.8 cents respectively.
In 1,751 manufacturing settlements specifying the amount of increase, the BNA survey found a median gain of 15.7 cents an hour, up 2.6 cents from 1967 and up 8.9 cents from 1964. During the 1968 fourth quarter alone, manufacturing settlements provided 17.7 cents, up 3.8 cents from the 1967 fourth-quarter figure.
Nonmanufacturing settlements included in the BNA survey of which 1,001 specified the amount of wage increase in 1968-showed a median of 24.6 cents an hour, representing gains of 5.1 cents over 1967 and of 14.2 cents over 1964. For the 1968 fourth quarter, the median gain was also 24.6 cents, up 8.6 cents from the same period in 1967.
Excluding construction settlements, the median gain in nonmanufacturing in 1968 was 19.6 cents an hour, 4.4 cents above the corresponding figure for 1967. During the fourth quarter of 1968, the median increase exclud(Continued on page 28)