MCAA Regional Report, Region B

Words: Roy SwindalAlabama - Roy Swindal
Florida - Jerry Painter
Georgia - John Doherty
Kentucky - Paul Clements
Mississippi - No State Chair
North Carolina - Gary Joyner
South Carolina - David Hill
Tennessee - Brian Procter
Virginia - Bruce Sieling

Workforce Development

Alabama
The only working apprentice program presently is in Mobile. This includes the Panhandle of Florida. Unfortunately 90 percent of the masonry work is being done by Labor subs that are working for legitimate masonry contractors. In simple terms it means that most of the work is being performed by illegal immigrants. They are being paid in cash without taxes. That is why we do not have apprentice program in the other parts of Alabama. The mentality of the young man or woman that is considering this trade as their career is limited at best. If you can work in a plant for more money and better benefits why would you consider construction except as a last resort. My comments may seem blunt, but the masonry industry in this state and in most other locations in the South where there is not a strong union, is dying before our eyes.

Florida
No report as of this writing.

Georgia
This is a bright spot in Georgia. Working in conjunction with the Construction Education Foundation of Georgia, the Masonry Association of Georgia’s apprenticeship training is thriving. Classes are full and for the most part the students are young high school graduates looking to learn a trade.

The only problem training is having, is sustaining funding. The brick, block and cement industries have severally cut back their support levels. It would be a shame to have such a successful program fall by the wayside due to funding.

Kentucky
There is nothing to report as times are hard.

Mississippi
No State Chair

North Carolina
NCMCA participated in the 56th Annual NC Department of Labor Masonry Apprentice Skills Contest at the NC State Fair in Raleigh. The contest was won by Rhett Hallman of McGee Brothers Company. NCMCA provided judges, materials, cash prizes and volunteers for the event. Local NCMCA chapters have recently participated in Local High School Construction Career Fairs and are preparing to participate on masonry class advisory committees as NC adopts the NCCER masonry curriculum for all high school masonry classes. Advisory committees are required for each class. Early this year, NCMCA has begun planning for the Annual NC SKillsUSA State and Regional Masonry Contest scheduled for April, and the Association’s own annual apprentice skills competition in May. NCMCA President Gary Manning and other NCMCA leaders have enjoyed some success during the past year in starting new high school masonry classes. The NCMCA Masonry Contractor Certification Program will enter its Continuing Education Requirement phase in 2010 with the goal of insuring NCMCA Certified Professionals are among the most up-to-date and knowledgeable people in the business.

South Carolina
Training has slowed if not stopped. Most of the vocational schools have dropped their masonry programs. Most of the contractors that train their own masons have been forced to stop and release the trainees. The general feeling is if a company gets some work then there are enough masons to do the work. The Hispanic workforce is still waiting on job opportunities.

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 sir and vapor barrier systems.

Virginia
No report as of this writing.

Economic Conditions/Forecasts

Alabama
Unfortunately, our state is suffering during this recession worse than any recession since The Great Depression. Over 35% of the legitimate construction workforce is unemployed. Wages are down across the board which is very demoralizing to the work force. There is no option. Unless you lower wages and increase production by 20 to 40 % you will not be a successful bidder.

We see very little change in the next 18 months. No upturn of any means until 2011. Healthcare shows some signs of improving. Small private buildings and retail are dead. The institutional construction part of the business is still active but has now been infiltrated by the labor only segment being hired by a managing masonry contractor. This was the last bastion for legitimate legal bricklayers and laborers.

Florida
No report as of this writing.

Georgia
Residential construction is practically non-existent for new homes. Brick manufacturers are seeing more brick being sold commercially than residentially and commercial is down. Very little private sector work is available commercially. Many jobs are being budgeted but little construction. Government related projects are the vast majority of what is available to bid and actually become a viable project. Pricing levels border on unreasonable.

Bankers do not paint a bright future for 2010. Money is not being freed up as a reserve levels are still not overall at a point the government is comfortable with. Though Mr. Obama has said he wants the banks to start lending, his government is not allowing it.

Kentucky
There is nothing to report as times are hard.

Mississippi
No State Chair

North Carolina
No good news presently and the general consensus is that Carolina masonry will not see significant improvement in 2010. Residential market is devastated and, while commercial/institutional is fairing somewhat better, competitive pressure continues to drive bidding down to desperate levels.

South Carolina
Work in South Carolina has taken a severe hit throughout 2009. Most contractors have seen their business shrink by 30-60 percent. Some have even advised that they presently have no work. The only work segment that remains somewhat strong is the school program. This area however is extremely competitive. The healthcare segment is sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what is going to happen to the health care bill. This industry has pent up money available for construction. Retail and Industrial are nonexistent. Very little has been built in these two segments for over a year. Residential work has stopped. There are no track builders starting any projects in the near future. Residential masons are moving into commercial work.

One bright spot for the state is the announcement from Boeing that they are going to build an assembly line in Charleston. This project will not only create construction jobs at the Boeing site, but will probably spin off construction of support businesses. If Boeing follows in the footsteps of BMW, then many businesses will be built over the next couple of years.

Tennessee
The conditions are weak at this time. Competition is fierce with as many as 12 to 15 masons bidding even the small projects. We are seeing more and more out of town firms entering the market. Architect firms are reporting to us that they have several projects, mostly medical, on hold. There are several projects that have started, only to be placed on hold due to the lenders pulling financing. We have seen several auctions being held within the condo market and many more put on hold.

We have not seen the boom in the restoration market that we thought we would see although there is more renovation to price.

We do not see the forecast getting better soon. If it wasn’t for government work, we would be in a faster downward spiral. Even the government work is taking a hit. We just heard that Ft. Campbell Army Base has taken a $40 million dollar deduction in new construction. This will have a painful effect on the firms that perform a lot of this type of work.

Virginia
No report as of this writing.

Masonry Marketing Activities

Alabama
We are anxiously waiting the unveiling of 20/20. Hopefully this will begin to pull some of our market back.

Florida
No report as of this writing.

Georgia
The Georgia Concrete & Products Association and in particular, the Georgia Masonry Institute has been very active in marketing block and segmental retaining wall systems. Unfortunately, due to the economy, this entity may run out of funding in early 2010.

With the huge loss in residential brick, the brick marketing is also going away.

Very little effort is being made to try to regain market share lost to other materials. Unlike Florida, not much is being done to increase market share but rather just trying to maintain the segment we currently have.

Kentucky
There is nothing to report as times are hard.

Mississippi
No State Chair

North Carolina
NCMCA has budgeted to once again be a major supporter of MasonrySystems.org in 2010. Mackie Bounds is scheduled to address our 2010 April Convention and Business Meeting, which will serve to be NCMCA’s kick-off of participation in the 2020 initiative. Our masonry contractor certification program has been underway since 2006 and has now resulted in a large number of individuals and firms being certified. With certified companies and individuals readily available, NCMCA has begun a promotional campaign to encourage specification writers and owners to include a certification requirement in bid documents. This is an important component of masonry marketing because it addresses an old complaint from architects in the Carolinas that masonry is problematic because of scheduling and installing problems, causing architects to consider alternative materials. It has been NCMCA’s contention that the problem lies in the selection process for mason contractors and not the system itself. We see certification as a means to address this objection to using masonry. In November, for the ninth year, NCMCA partnered with the NC State University College of Design to provide judging and prizes for Professor Patrick Rand’s Masonry Design Competition, a graded project of his “Architectural Construction Systems” class. The program, chaired since inception by NCMCA Past State President Doug Burton, is an excellent means to introduce future designers to masonry.

South Carolina
The Upper South Carolina Mason Contractors (USCMC) held a hands on, meet and greet with local architects. Continuing education credits were provided and after a lunch the architects were give the opportunity of pairing with a mason to build a project. Each of the architects came away with a new and better understanding of what it really takes to install masonry on their projects. The USCMC also exhibited in the AIA forum that was held in Greenville, SC. This event brought in architects from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. This two day event allowed the architects an opportunity of speaking with mason contractors who manned the booth. This gave us the stage to talk about masonry certification as well as showing them the Masonry System.org website.

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 of the General Contractors still do not believe what we can bring to the table if we are included early enough.

Virginia
No report as of this writing.

Competitors/Trends

Alabama
As stated earlier 90 percent of the work is being performed by the labor sub working for a masonry contractor or they are issuing there bricklayers and laborers a 1099 working supposedly as independent contractors. . Men are being paid in cash with no benefits, 401K etc. Wages for these men are at best $14.00/hr for mason and $10.00/ hour helper. This compared to wages over the last 3 years of $20.00-$22.00/hr bricklayer and $10 -$16.00/hour for helpers and labor supervisors. Unit price installed for masonry on schools turnkey CMU- Average $4.50/unit installed, jointed both sides, cleaned and pointed. Face brick price /sf - $12.00/ brick allowance $400.00/m, Mortar $10.00/bag cleaned all inclusive. That type pricing hopefully scares everyone no matter where you are in the country.

Florida
No report as of this writing.

Georgia
Have addressed the material side of this in Marketing Activities. On the contractor side, the model of the masonry contractor employing his own people and therefore being concerned about the future of our industry in this state seems to be disappearing. Masonry contractors are becoming “labor brokers” and seem to have little concern for anything but current conditions. Less and less support is available for trying to market our industry. The “labor broker” is content with cutting wages and not being concerned about payroll taxes and insurance. I am afraid that down the road, our training efforts may go for naught when crews of illegals are doing all the work. It is hard for the old model masonry contractor to compete with brick being laid for $450.00/M and block for $1.70 each. We seem to be setting the industry back twenty years. How attractive are we when wages are $14.00 to $15.00 an hour?

Kentucky
There is nothing to report as times are hard.

Mississippi
No State Chair

North Carolina
Competing building systems continue to claim masonry market share in the Carolinas. BIA-SE, based in Charlotte, has enjoyed recent success with successful masonry ordinances.

South Carolina
The trend for the lump sum mason contractor is not very good for 2010. We are our own worst enemy. Contractors are cutting prices to amounts that are inconceivable. We have million dollar masonry projects that have fifteen bidders on it. Pricing that spans 25 percent from high to low. The owners are looking at numbers that will be hard to raise over the next year. Lump sum contractors are having to compete against the unit price mason. He is the one that may be legal, may pay taxes, may have insurance, may have some equipment and furnishes no materials.

Tennessee
This could be a book. We are seeing pricing fall like never before. New companies and out of town firms are bidding more and more of the local work. We are seeing General Contractors using contract labor and unit price companies throughout our region on a large scale. Suppliers are almost giving their products away. Our region has seen CMU material prices drop 20 to 25%. GC shopping is rampant. If you are not out there building the relationship, you will not be one of the first that get the chance to match one of these prices that you shouldn’t even be considering in a normal economy. Faux materials such as faux stone and EIFS brick seem to be growing. The ICF issue has slowed down somewhat because the local associations have done a good job on getting comparisons of a Masonry school versus an ICF school. The Masonry school had a higher star rating than the ICF school. This information has been sent to at least four (4) states.

Virginia
No report as of this writing.
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