As of January 1, MCAA and MSCA dues will be 9 cents per hour. Minimum dues for 2021 will be $1,080 (9 cents x 12,000 hours) and maximum dues will be $27,000 (9 cents x 300,000 hours). Dues paid in 2021 on hours worked in 2020 will be at the 8 cents per hour rate. New 2021 dues reporting forms will be mailed in time for you to report January hours. In addition, new dues reporting forms will be on the MCAA website under the “My MCAA” menu option.
John W. Danforth—a founding member of MCAA—is using Raken’s digital time cards and daily reporting to keep a record of all the impacts the pandemic has had on their productivity—so they can demonstrate what they have done and get paid for it. Construction companies have been forced to change the way they operate to ensure safety and compliance, and jobsite data are critical for contractors to maintain a record of productivity and streamline their workflows.
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website! You’ll see how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with productivity-enhancing and cost-saving applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Plus, you’ll find tips and ideas on other ways you and your company can save money and enhance your productivity.
The recent influx of demolition and renovation on 40 plus year-old buildings around the country generates the need for our industry to revisit the construction health issues associated with asbestos exposure. In Part 1 of this multi-part webinar series, attorney Adele Abrams will address OSHA, EPA, and contractor liability as it relates to asbestos on jobsites. The webinar includes a one-hour presentation followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. Register now and join us on Friday, December 11, 2020 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. EST.
MCAA and the Allied Trades Assistance Program are partnering to present this webinar addressing mental health issues in the construction industry, such as opioid addiction, suicide, depression, and anxiety. The webinar will highlight how work-related stress and anxiety have overtaken musculoskeletal disorders as the most reported workplace health issue. Mental health issues in construction can be just as dangerous as the industry’s physical hazards. And, according to the CDC, the construction industry is one of the most at-risk industries for suicides. Come join us to learn how to improve outreach, provide support, and remove the stigma associated with mental health issues to help your workers navigate this new hazard. The free webinar will be presented on December 9, 2020 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. EST.
MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show connects our contractor members with the members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Participating companies highlight and link to new products, product lines, services, solutions or web pages of particular interest. Here are just a few of the recent additions:
E.H. Wachs
Experience E.H. Wachs weld prep machine tools for pipe cutting/beveling and Orbitalum’s high purity cutting, facing and orbital welding systems virtually via our fully interactive Wachs@Work program.
Cerro Flow Products LLC
Cerro Flow Products LLC is pleased to announce CerroPress® – the next generation in copper press fittings. Purposely engineered for ease of assembly and backed by a dedicated customer service team.
Find many more smart solutions in MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show!
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website to learn how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with cost-saving and productivity-enhancing applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
This section of our website also includes tips and ideas to help your company save money and enhance your productivity. Don’t miss it!
MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show connects our contractor members with the members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Participating companies highlight and link to new products, product lines, services, solutions or web pages of particular interest. Here are just a few of the recent additions:
MILWAUKEE TOOL
The M12 FUEL™ ProPEX® Expander unlocks a breakthrough in productivity for plumbing installers, delivering the fastest 3/8”-1” expansions. Featuring an auto-rotating head, the expander provides you with uniform expansions for the most consistent installations. In combination with the ProPEX® Expander Heads with RAPID SEAL™, installers will experience up to 65% faster sealing of connections as temperatures decrease, reducing the time before pressure testing.
Watts-Mueller
Innovative technologies, intelligent software, robust construction, and modern design are the four cornerstones of our profile cutting machines. Our thermal 3D pipe cutting machines are available in a wide range of sizes, from 1” to 12” two axis systems up to 160″ in diameter.
Find many more smart solutions in MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show!
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website to learn how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with cost-saving and productivity-enhancing applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
This section of our website also includes tips and ideas to help your company save money and enhance your productivity. Don’t miss it!
MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show connects our contractor members with the members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Participating companies highlight and link to new products, product lines, services, solutions or web pages of particular interest. Here are just a few of the recent additions:
Lochinvar, LLC
Lochinvar’s glass-lined, jacketed and insulated storage tanks are specifically engineered to provide a high volume supply of hot water at a constant outlet temperature.
Josam Company
Josam Company’s comprehensive line of drainage products offer labor saving features and benefits with the installer in mind. In addition to ease of installation, we also offer customized solutions for the most difficult applications.
Quality Engineered Drainage Products.
Find many more smart solutions in MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show!
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website to learn how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with cost-saving and productivity-enhancing applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
This section of our website also includes tips and ideas to help your company save money and enhance your productivity. Don’t miss it!
Braconier adopted eSUB’s comprehensive software platform to standardize project management and operations, cutting processes such as timecard inputting and payroll processing from a full day down to minutes. The platform also helps Braconier document every aspect of their projects, which helps keep things running smoothly.
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website! You’ll see how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with productivity-enhancing and cost-saving applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Plus, you’ll find tips and ideas on other ways you and your company can save money and enhance your productivity.
Kori Gormley-Huppert, president of MCAA member Gormley Plumbing + Mechanical and chair of MCAA’s Women in the Mechanical Industry Steering Committee, is among those profiled as part of Stanley Black & Decker’s Maker Month Campaign. The campaign is designed to empower makers and tradespeople around the world. Stanley Black & Decker is the parent company of DEWALT and LENOX, both MCAA members.
In the interview-style profile, Kori talks about her company, her career and the mechanical industry. She also offers advice to those who are just getting started thanks to perspective gained from her own experience and her work on MCAA’s Career Development Committee.
In addition to profiles spotlighting a diverse range of makers and creators from tradespeople and engineers to philanthropists and innovators throughout the industry, the campaign shines a light on the trade skills gap, which is one of the biggest issues facing the workforce today.
“To help solve for the vast skills gap today, an issue made worse by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, businesses need to showcase and celebrate the wide variety of opportunities people can pursue across the skilled trades,” said Jim Loree, President & CEO of Stanley Black & Decker. He added “Maker Month is our contribution to this effort, helping to highlight the vast potential these careers offer.”
MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show connects our contractor members with the members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Participating companies highlight and link to new products, product lines, services, solutions or web pages of particular interest. Here are just a few of the recent additions:
Jay R. Smith Mfg. Co.® a Member of Morris Group International
When you think of the Trap-Defender™, think of the number 3. This patented pressure-drop trap primer is activated by a pressure drop as low as 3 PSI and has a 3-year warranty. Learn more about the Trap-Defender and the entire line of Smith Fluid Controls™ Trap Primers and Distribution Units.
iBusiness Technologies
Reduce costs and get paid faster with MobiliForms. Your identical, familiar forms now on iPad with signature and image capture. MCAA & MSCA members love MobiliForms because it pays for itself!
Find many more smart solutions in MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show!
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website to learn how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with cost-saving and productivity-enhancing applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
This section of our website also includes tips and ideas to help your company save money and enhance your productivity. Don’t miss it!
Many types of welding have been proven performers for a long time. Welding is, at its core, simply a way of joining two materials. While there are other ways to join metal (e.g., riveting, brazing, or soldering), welding has become the method of choice for its availability, high performance, and high strength. NIBCO INC. highlights the benefits of laser welding, including strength and efficiency. NIBCO INC. is an MCAA major sponsor.
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website! You’ll see how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with productivity-enhancing and cost-saving applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Plus, you’ll find tips and ideas on other ways you and your company can save money and enhance your productivity.
What might have been seen as a niche market opportunity for JPG was actually a continuation of their service business operations.
Outlaying the money for an expenditure like a Vac-Con Titan vactor truck might have been seen as a risky purchase for a service contractor like JPG Plumbing and Mechanical. They had no existing business in that line of operations, but hated giving up work when the job called for bigger equipment. Many contractors use a variety of equipment to clean and pump areas.
In the upcoming seventh module of the PCA’s Virtual Education Series on Plumbing Service, attendees will get a first-hand look at how the host company, JPG Plumbing and Mechanical Services, use a variety of heavy trucks together to coordinate the inspection, cleaning, pumping and removal of waste in large projects. A video, taken from their headquarters will showcase their low profile pumper trucks, their liquid vacuum pump trucks, their motorized inspection crawler camera trucks and their Vac Con Titan vactor trucks.
Following the video, the PCA’s Sean McGuire will lead a virtual discussion with JPG’s John Geiling, Marc Gluck and John Davis on how JPG approaches pumping, cleaning, hydro excavation and inspection around commercial vac service.
With the webinar, attendees will receive a handout that contains information and links to all of the products that JPG uses in their operations for vac services. This will include pricing so that contractors can help determine through their own business analysis the potential for their company.
The PCA Virtual Education Series is a seven-module case study with weekly sessions focusing on JPG Plumbing & Mechanical Services. Each module includes a video, an online discussion and handouts. The series is limited to MCAA, PCA and MSCA members and costs $400. Prior sessions can still be accessed after their live broadcast.
For more information, contact Sean McGuire.
The MCA of Eastern Missouri (MCA-EMO) has partnered with UA Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 562 and the Plumbing Industry Council (PIC) for CHAMPIONS, an innovative program designed to expand membership diversity in the city of St. Louis while also strengthening the Local 562 workforce.
The first class of CHAMPIONS, an acronym for Creating Hometown Advantages through Minority Participation in Our Neighborhood, recently completed an initial six weeks of intensive classroom training and technical introduction to the trades. Classes were held at Local 562’s new state-of-the-art training facility in Earth City, MO.
As part of the program, the 14 students committed to a multi-faceted course curriculum and engaged in weekly mentorship and evaluation sessions. By completing the requirements, the graduates were guaranteed a full year of employment with a CHAMPIONS Initiative contractor.
MCAA members Corrigan Company; Haberberger, Inc.; icon Mechanical; Integrated Facility Services; Murphy Company; and Charles E. Jarrell Contracting Company are among those that have committed to hiring the graduates. During their year with the contractors, graduates will continue their training as pre-Apprentices in the field, while fulfilling program requirements related to mentorship and performance evaluation.
“The CHAMPIONS pilot program was carefully designed and implemented in the best interest of the participants and our hiring contractors’ long-term success. The ongoing collaboration with our labor partners, and everyone involved, is unprecedented.”
said Kristy Stephens, MCA-EMO executive director.
Steve Faust, business development and diversity coordinator for icon Mechanical, worked with Local 562, MCA-EMO and PIC to help develop the new program. “As we looked ahead at our industry’s work in the city of St. Louis over the next few years, we realized that we needed a continuing and larger diverse workforce,” said Faust. “We examined other apprenticeship training programs ‘out there’ and tried to adopt best practices that would ensure that enough craftspersons would be trained and available. In addition to the soft-skills and hard-skills training, we are excited that each person has two mentors — a seasoned journeyman as well as Fred Searcy, director of minority recruitment for Local 562.”
The participants went through a rigorous competitive interview and application process. “The initial cohort demonstrated an outstanding commitment to program terms and to Local 562; and formally agreed to be fully engaged in all facets of the program,” said Carly Carmosino, program manager for MCA-EMO, who helped to design and deliver the CHAMPIONS professional development classes as enrichment to the technical training.
She noted that, “We collaborated with several area not-for-profits, Mission STL and Prosperity Connection, as well as the St. Louis Community College Workforce Solutions Group and Dale Carnegie to provide essential tools and advice to our mentors and program participants.” She added that, “We focused on developing the whole person, so that throughout the program, participants strengthened both their technical and soft-skills aptitude.”
While sewer and drain cleaning are the main stays of plumbing service, making investments in hydro jetters opens up larger business opportunities.
Sewer and Drain cleaning are the fundamental operations for any plumbing service contractor. They are also seen as the dirtiest and least enjoyed processes to perform for service technicians. Although the work might be undesirable, its distasteful nature is the biggest factor in making it profitable. To perform it properly, it takes not only the right tools and training, it takes proper motivation and balance to your operations.
In the sixth module of the PCA’s Virtual Education Series on Plumbing Service, attendees will get a first-hand look at how the host company, JPG Plumbing and Mechanical Services, expanded their sewer and drain cleaning operations to include hydro jetting and hydro excavation. A video, taken from their headquarters will demonstrate all of the tools that they are using as well as some as they are beta testing.
Following the video, the PCA’s Sean McGuire will lead a virtual discussion with JPG’s John Geiling, and Marc Gluck on how JPG approaches drain cleaning, jetting, training and operations around commercial plumbing service.
With the webinar, attendees will receive a handout that contains information and links to all of the products that JPG uses in their operations for drain cleaning and jetting. This will include pricing so that contractors can help determine through their own business analysis the potential for their company.
The PCA Virtual Education Series is a seven-module case study with weekly sessions focusing on JPG Plumbing & Mechanical Services. Each module includes a video, an online discussion and handouts. The series is limited to MCAA, PCA and MSCA members and costs $400. Prior sessions can still be accessed after their live broadcast.
For more information, contact Sean McGuire.
MCAA and CNA are pleased to announce that Postler & Jaeckle Corporation earned the association’s top safety award for 2019 in Size Category 4, 450,001 – 1 Million Work Hours. Postler & Jaeckle’s successful Service Specific Safety Committee set the company apart.
Recognizing that its long-standing safety committee could not adequately address both construction and service safety issues, Postler & Jaeckle established a service specific committee to fully understand and address service-specific safety issues. The new committee expands employee ownership of the safety program, with representatives from each service group location attending quarterly committee meetings. These meetings allow the group to collaboratively determine the most urgent service safety issues, prioritize them, and establish effective plans to address them. The initiative has been very successful and continues to help protect mechanical service technicians from workplace hazards.
The MCAA/CNA Safety Excellence Awards Program began in the 1990s when MCAA partnered with CNA Insurance. It is a fiercely competitive program in which only the best of the best compete for the awards.
Participants are required to describe their safety programs in detail, including how they achieved safety excellence and why they believe they deserve the award. The Safety Awards Selection Taskforce, which is led by CNA, carefully evaluates each submission looking for safety leadership, an advanced safety culture, effective leading indicators of safety performance, and innovative safety initiatives that helped the company achieve an exceptionally high degree of safety excellence.
MCAA and CNA congratulate Postler & Jaeckle Corporation for earning such a high degree of safety excellence in 2019.
MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show connects our contractor members with the members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
Participating companies highlight and link to new products, product lines, services, solutions or web pages of particular interest. Here are just a few of the recent additions:
Uponor, Inc.
New Uponor ProPEX® Copper Press Adapters are the industry’s first PEX expansion to copper press transitions for ½” to 3″ sizes.
Appion Inc.
A longtime leader in refrigerant recovery, the Appion G5Twin is more reliable than ever, and has received several significant internal design changes, plus an all new fan, resulting in huge performance increases (verified by UL to AHRI 740). Once again the fastest, lightest, most reliable recovery machine on the market.
Find many more smart solutions in MCAA’s Virtual Trade Show!
Visit the Smart Solutions Case Studies area of our website to learn how other mechanical contractors found their win-win with cost-saving and productivity-enhancing applications from members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.
This section of our website also includes tips and ideas to help your company save money and enhance your productivity. Don’t miss it!
MCAA, in conjunction with the UA, recently led the development of a new American National Standards Institute (ANSI) industry consensus standard on pressure testing safety. The new standard, ANSI/ASSP A10.35 Safety Requirements for Pressure Testing Steel and Copper Piping Systems, was published on October 16, 2020. The voluntary industry consensus standard is based largely on the MCAA Guide to Steel and Copper Piping System Pressure Testing Safety. The standard’s safety requirements address planning, procedures, checklists, and other items for both hydrostatic and pneumatic pressure testing on steel and copper piping systems.
PCA’s fifth module in their Virtual Education Series on Plumbing Service focuses on how JPG Plumbing committed to a big investment on video inspection services, but only after thorough analysis and proper timing.
Growing a business takes an incredible amount of patience and grit. Trying to grow too fast is one of the most common ways that construction businesses fail. Taking on a project that is too big or investing in resources before there is the workload to justify it can cripple a company quickly. Conversely, in order to grow, thoughtful steps have to be made and calculated risks have to be taken.
In the fifth module of the PCA’s Virtual Education Series on Plumbing Service, attendees will get a first-hand look at how the host company, JPG Plumbing and Mechanical Services, expanded their operations with large investments in video inspection services. The module will feature a video taken with JPG President John Geiling discussing their business evolution into video inspection and vac services, which led them to the decision to invest heavily into a Rausch robotic crawler unit. The video continues with a demonstration of the vehicle’s capabilities and the operations by the certified staff that operate it. JPG Vice President Marc Gluck also provides an overview of their standard push cameras that are used by service technicians for small and medium sized pipe inspections.
Following the video, the PCA’s Sean McGuire will lead a virtual discussion with JPG’s John Geiling, John Davis and Kevin Droter on plumbing video inspection. They will walk attendees through how to make their own business analysis, the investments that are required and the potential markets that are open to them through this service.
With the webinar, attendees will receive a handout that contains information and links to all of the video inspection products that JPG uses in their operations. This will include pricing so that contractors can help determine through their own business analysis the potential for their company.
The PCA Virtual Education Series is a seven-module case study with weekly sessions focusing on JPG Plumbing & Mechanical Services. Each module includes a video, an online discussion and handouts. The series is limited to MCAA, PCA and MSCA members and costs $400. Prior sessions can still be accessed after their live broadcast.
For more information, contact Sean McGuire.
MCAA and CNA are pleased to announce that P1 Group, Inc. earned the association’s top safety award for 2019 in Size Category 5, More Than 1 Million Work Hours. P1’s successful “Why Not Zero” campaign set the company apart.
P1 presented employees with a single small goal: going accident free as a company one day at a time. Each morning started with the same small goal presented during a Daily Safety Checklist. The goal was further reinforced in safety training sessions and on employee T-shirts with the Why Not Zero logo.
The MCAA/CNA Safety Excellence Awards Program began in the 1990s when MCAA partnered with CNA Insurance. It is a fiercely competitive program in which only the best of the best compete for the awards.
Participants are required to describe their safety programs in detail, including how they achieved safety excellence and why they believe they deserve the award. The Safety Awards Selection Taskforce, which is led by CNA, carefully evaluates each submission looking for safety leadership, an advanced safety culture, effective leading indicators of safety performance, and innovative safety initiatives that helped the company achieve an exceptionally high degree of safety excellence.
MCAA and CNA congratulate P1 Group for earning such a high degree of safety excellence in 2019.
