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Improve Your Welding Business at the NCPWB 2022 Annual Technical Conference/Committee Meeting

This event is a combined NCPWB Technical Conference and Technical Committee meeting. If you are interested in learning and sharing knowledge on the impact of supply chain chaos on welding; improving your welding business through technology; safe pressure testing of piping systems; building a digital manufacturing fab shop — not to mention networking with friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances — then don’t miss the NCPWB Annual Technical Conference April 24 – 26, 2022.

In addition to the conference, the NCPWB Technical Committee meets annually to resolve technical welding issues, develop and approve welding procedures, review various code activities, and educate chapter administrators about the policies and procedures involved in the operation of their chapters.

To register or get more information, please click the buttons below.

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Covid Protocols

Resource Highlight: MCAA’s Business Transition Options for the Mechanical Contractor

Each week, MCAA will highlight one or more of the educational resources that are free to MCAA members as a benefit of membership. This week, we focus on MCAA’s Business Transition Options for the Mechanical Contractor bulletin and podcast, which reviews the various options for transferring ownership of a company and showcases the advance planning and analysis needed for a successful transfer.

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WEBBOOK

In the related podcast, host Bob Lindbloom and co-host Rob Armistead discuss Exit Strategy Planning with Mario Vicari, business advisor to privately-held companies at Kreisher Miller. Play the podcast directly from the WebBook, or listen and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Google Play.

Have Questions or Need Personal Assistance?

Contact MCAA’s Frank Wall.

THE CROSBY GROUP Issues Remove from Service Notice for Select Screw Pin Anchor Shackles

THE CROSBY GROUP has issued a remove from service and arrange for return and replacement notice for a selection of screw pin anchor shackles. These shackles may have a condition that can reduce the ultimate load capacity from the published catalog values. The shackle bow may have a previously undetected indication, and continued use may result in loss of load, property damage, severe injury, or death.

This notice only applies to the following screw pin anchor shackles with Production Identification Codes (PIC) TXJ located on the shackle bow:

  • 1018534 1” 8.50t G-209 Shackle
  • 1018543 1” 8.50t S-209 Shackle
RECALL NOTICE

Amanda Haneke Joins the MCAA Staff

MCAA is pleased to welcome Amanda Haneke to the MCAA staff. Amanda is the new voice answering the phones at MCAA. She took over the role from Melanie Thompson-Ott, who is now the Assistant Director, Registration and Conference Services. Amanda previously worked for Starbucks and Severn Bank (now Shore Bank). She lives on a farm in Davidsonville, MD (20 minutes from Annapolis) with her grandmother. When she isn’t busy taking care of her grandmother or five chickens, she is an avid gardener and canner. She grows vegetables and herbs and makes pickles, relish, jams, and other treats. Her passion is baking custom cakes. Join us in welcoming Amanda and her family to the MCAA staff family and congratulating Melanie on her new role.

Resource Highlight: MCAA’s Exposed: Keeping Your Data to Yourself After an IT Breach

Each week, MCAA will highlight one or more of the educational resources that are free to MCAA members as a benefit of membership. This week, we focus on MCAA’s Exposed: Keeping Your Data to Yourself After an IT Breach. This resource explains what company executives can do to protect their companies if their website is hacked and defaced, their files are held for ransom, or their Data Center goes offline with no estimate for restoration.

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You Might Also Like These Resources

Have Questions or Need Personal Assistance?

Contact MCAA’s Sean McGuire.

Connect With the Latest Training from Parker Hannifin and The Harris Products Group at MCAA.org

The Manufacturer/Supplier Training area of MCAA’s website connects our contractor members with training opportunities available from the members of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council.

Participating companies highlight and link to new webinars and training opportunities across their product lines, services, solutions or web pages. Here are just a few of the recent additions:

Parker Hannifin
Learn how ZoomLock MAX press technology for HVAC will improve your efficiency, adding to your bottom line. ZoomLock MAX fittings delivers secure, braze-free connections in a few simple steps while providing a safer environment for your team.

Learn More

The Harris Products Group
Harris Products Group, maker of brazing and soldering equipment and consumables, provides NATE training on the basics of brazing, base and filler metals and fluxes, and torch safety. Includes brazing demonstrations and hands-on practice.

Learn More

Interested in More Training from Our Supplier Partners?

Be sure to visit the Manufacturer/Supplier Training area for all the latest offerings.

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Collaboration and Shared Insights Featured at the MEP Innovation Conference

With modern building practices, mechanical, plumbing, electrical and sheet metal contractors must coordinate precisely in their design and building for jobs to be profitable.  In Tampa, Florida this week, members from MCAA, NECA and SMACNA extended that collaboration at the MEP Innovation Conference where they came together to learn from each other how new technologies are impacting their businesses.

From left, MCAA Innovative Technologies Committee Chair, Stacy Zerr, talks with MCAA President, Armand Kilijian, on stage at the MEP Innovation conference.

This was the first time all three associations have collaborated on the in-person event.  It brought together 450 attendees from the MEP trades to better understand different viewpoints, roles and responsibilities.  The benefits of having innovators from across the industry were immediate.  MCAA Innovative Technologies Committee Chair Stacy Zerr commented, “At Waldinger, we work all MEP trades and already knew how similar the challenges and solutions are between them.  At this conference, I learned just as much from the electrical and sheet metal presentations as I did from the mechanical presenters.”

Sharing insights and team building went further than the presentations.  As Travis Voss, Helm Group’s Leader of Innovative Technologies put it, “For years we have brought project managers and estimators from the mechanical and plumbing side to this meeting.  This year, we were able to bring in people from across all of our company to learn, cross train and team build.  When they attended sessions together, it gave them a better understanding of the process beyond their focus.” 

Plans are underway for the 2023 MEP Innovation Conference, and further education is in the works to bridge the gap between conferences.  Many of the sessions from the 2022 conference were recorded and will be repackaged into educational videos later this year.  These will be released online and available exclusively to MCAA members.

OSHA Officially Withdraws COVID-19 ETS

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has withdrawn the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard on vaccine mandates as an enforceable emergency temporary standard. OSHA remains committed to pursuing a proposed rule through the formal process. Both MCAA and the UA continue to strongly encourage the vaccination of workers against COVID-19.

MCAA’s In-Person Safety Directors’ Conference a Win for Safety & Health

Last week the MCAA presented one of the most exciting Safety Directors’ Conferences ever. The first in-person conference in two years brought together safety professionals from around the country for world-class education on best practices and safety and health issues specific to the mechanical industry. Participants also heard keynotes on safety leadership from Capt. Richard Phillips, Olympian Vince Poscente, and longtime safety advocate Regina McMichael during the January 18 – 20, 2022, event in sunny Florida.

The latest innovations from over 20 exhibitors were on display, including those from MCAA Manufacturer/Supplier Council members MILWAUKEE TOOL, Tyfoom, Emerson, DEWALT Industrial Tool Company, and Victaulic, which unveiled its new QuickVicTM System, a solution with exciting safety implications. Other exhibitors, like Little Giant Ladder, also showed off their latest solutions.

MCAA thanks CNA and MILWAUKEE TOOL for sponsoring the event, and all the safety professionals who attended.

Resource Highlight: NCPWB’s General Brazing Guidelines

Each week, MCAA will highlight one or more of the educational resources that are free to MCAA members as a benefit of membership. This week, we focus on NCPWB’s General Brazing Guidelines. These guidelines provide background information and supplementary instructions to contractors and their brazers who are using National Certified Pipe Welding Bureau Welding (NCPWB) Brazing Procedure Specifications (BPSs).

Your workers will learn about:

  • Mandatory practices that should be followed during the process of making brazed joints
  • Recommended practices that should be followed during brazing unless the brazer is otherwise directed by their supervisor
  • General information of interest to brazers, such as tables of copper tube and fitting sizes
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Have Questions or Need Personal Assistance?

Contact NCPWB’s Dariush (Nick) Nikpourfard.

MCAA Members Are Invited to Participate in TAUC’s Union Craft Labor Supply Survey

The Association of Union Constructors (TAUC) invites MCAA members to participate in its 2022 Union Craft Labor Supply Survey, the industry’s only union-specific survey focused on construction and maintenance. The survey is once again being conducted in conjunction with the Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC). Survey responses are due by February 11, 2022.

The survey responses provide for a detailed, data-driven picture of the current state of the labor supply throughout the United States. The resulting data set allows for educated decision making and action that can both strengthen our industry and increase market share.

Launched in 2015, the survey has been continually enhanced based on the feedback of a wide cross-section of previous respondents, including more than 3,250 contractors, labor representatives, owner-clients and construction association representatives. This survey will drill down into the specifics of both regional and national labor supply trends and further assessment of the union craft workforce. New this year, the survey addresses COVID-19, the infrastructure deal, and more.

Your responses are confidential, submitted anonymously and will be analyzed to create a final report that will be shared with MCAA members when it is available this spring.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Registration Is Now Open For the NCPWB 2022 Annual Technical Conference/Committee Meeting

This event is a combined NCPWB Technical Conference and Technical Committee meeting. If you are interested in learning and sharing knowledge on the impact of supply chain chaos on welding; improving your welding business through technology; safe pressure testing of piping systems; building a digital manufacturing fab shop — not to mention networking with friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances — then don’t miss the NCPWB Annual Technical Conference April 24 – April 26, 2022. In addition to the conference, the NCPWB Technical Committee meets annually to resolve technical welding issues, develop and approve welding procedures, review various code activities, and educate chapter administrators about the policies and procedures involved in the operation of their chapters.

To register or get more information, please click the buttons below.

More Info
Register Now
Covid Protocols

Resource Highlight: MCAA/CNA MICROLEARNING SAFETY VIDEO SERIES: Refraining from Distracted Driving

Each week, MCAA will highlight one or more of the educational resources that are free to MCAA members as a benefit of membership. This week, we focus on the MCAA/CNA MICROLEARNING SAFETY VIDEO SERIES: Refraining from Distracted Driving. This video will teach your workers how refraining from distracted driving can help prevent motor vehicle collisions.

Your workers will learn:

  • How talking on the phone – even using a hands-free device – takes the mind off the road and leads to inattention blindness, a phenomenon that has proven to be deadly
  • Why it is smart to pull off the road to a safe location before making calls, sending texts, programming a GPS, or similar tasks
  • The importance of taking 60 seconds to clear the dashboard and organize the vehicle before heading out

Together with our partners in safety, CNA, MCAA developed the video, which is part of the MCAA/CNA Microlearning Safety Video Series, a series of easy-to-watch safety videos that are under 3-minutes long.

Download or Play the Video

All the videos in this series are available in our Resource Center any time.

Have Questions or Need Personal Assistance?

Contact MCAA’s Raffi Elchemmas.

BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court Reinstates OSHA ETS Stay

Today the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued a decision regarding the highly controversial OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination.

SCOTUS granted the application for the stay blocking enforcement and progress of the ETS.

Regarding this nationwide stay of OSHA’s ETS for COVID-19 vaccination, SCOTUS holds that challengers to the rule are “likely to succeed on the merits” of their claims because the rule is broad enough to qualify as a “public health” mandate rather than an occupational standard.

They went on to say, “OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress.”

The full decision can be read here.

Watch for Updates As They Occur

MCAA will be closely monitoring SCOTUS and OSHA developments related to this issue and will communicate updates as they occur. In the meantime, questions may be addressed to MCAA’s Raffi Elchemmas.

Bassett Mechanical Named Contractor of the Year by PHC News

Congratulations to everyone at Bassett Mechanical for being named PHC News magazine’s Contractor of the Year. The company, which is a member of MCAA and the MCA of North Central Wisconsin, was selected for its effective Behavior Based Safety Program, 85-year history, comprehensive capabilities, and customer-centered approach. Included among these pillars is the company’s long-standing motto, “We Answer to You®”, and its vision of Creating Customers for Life®.

“We are honored to be highlighted as Contractor of the Year,” said Kim Bassett, President & CEO. “We are passionate about safely providing exceptional value and Creating Customers for Life®. This is a great way to recognize our associates for their focus on safe and responsible solutions and strong customer relationships.”

The extensive feature article details many of the company’s complete solutions, additional Virtual Design and Construction enhancements, and the growth the company has experienced under its second and third generations of family leadership.

Kim Bassett states, “We continuously strive to be seen as ‘Contractor of the Year’ in our customer’s eyes and are committed to bringing their ideas to life through our uniquely customized solutions. From idea to implementation, we are here to partner with them every step of the way.”

READ THE ARTICLE

Update on OSHA’s ETS on COVID-19

Today is the first day the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) can begin enforcement of the planning and record keeping mandates in its Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on vaccine mandates.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) heard oral arguments of the appeal on January 7, 2022, but has not reached a determination. Multiple Justices expressed doubt over OSHA’s claim on a “clear” basis for the vaccine ETS. While the Supreme Court could issue a decision at any time, we do anticipate it happening before February 10, 2022, the compliance deadline for testing.

In the meantime, MCAA has provided you with all the tools to help your company comply today.

Compliance Tools

  • MCAA’s Updated Bulletin on OSHA’s COVID-19 ETS – The only changes to the bulletin are the new enforcement dates. This bulletin is a simple reference document for you.
  • The original MCAA Model COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Policy – This policy is for companies that require vaccines, but do not allow weekly testing and face covering use as an alternative.
  • The MCAA Model COVID-19 Vaccination, Testing and Face Covering Policy – This policy is for companies that require vaccines, or weekly testing and face covering use as an alternative to vaccines. It can also be easily tailored for use as your Mandatory Vaccination Policy for the companies that require vaccines, but do not allow weekly testing and face covering use as an alternative.
SAFETY BULLETIN
MODEL VACCINATION POLICY
MODEL VACCINATION, TESTING AND FACE COVERING POLICY

A Simple Record Keeping Tool

Additionally, to support the planning and record keeping deadline, TYFOOM, a member of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council (M/SC), created an automated, simple, and easy process to reach all employees on a regular basis with an ETS survey.

LEARN MORE

OSHA Compliance Deadlines

January 10, 2022: all requirements except testing

February 9, 2022: Vaccines or Testing

Watch for Updates As They Occur

MCAA will be closely monitoring SCOTUS and OSHA developments related to this issue and will communicate updates as they occur. In the meantime, questions may be addressed to MCAA’s Raffi Elchemmas.

Resource Highlight: MCAA/CNA MICROLEARNING SAFETY VIDEO SERIES: Worker Personal Health

Each week, MCAA will highlight one or more of the educational resources that are free to MCAA members as a benefit of membership. This week, we focus on the MCAA/CNA MICROLEARNING SAFETY VIDEO SERIES: Worker Personal Health. This video will teach your workers simple personal health practices that can help reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injuries.

Your workers will learn:

  • How insufficient oxygen throughout the body leads to fatigue and increased risk of injury
  • Why it’s important to have a healthy diet and stay hydrated
  • How both cardio and strength-building exercise can help
  • Why it’s important to stretch and flex muscles several times a day

Together with our partners in safety, CNA, MCAA developed the video, which is part of the MCAA/CNA Microlearning Safety Video Series, a series of easy-to-watch safety videos that are under 3-minutes long.

Download or Play the Video

Watch for highlights of the other videos in this series in the coming weeks. They are also available in our Resource Center any time.

Have Questions or Need Personal Assistance?

Contact MCAA’s Raffi Elchemmas.

Coming Soon – NCPWB 2022 Annual Technical Conference/Committee Meeting

If you are interested in learning and/or sharing your knowledge on the impact of the welding supply chain chaos; improving your welding business through technology; safely conducting pressure testing; building a digital manufacturing fab shop — not to mention networking with friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances — then don’t miss the NCPWB Annual Technical Conference/Committee Meeting. This year it will be held at the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites on Sand Key, Clearwater Beach, Florida, April 24-26, 2022. 

Click the buttons below to learn more about the event. Registration will be opening soon!

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See the Brochure

New Tool to Track and Report Vaccine and Testing for OSHA’s ETS on COVID-19

There have been many requests from MCAA members for a simple and easy way to track & report the Emergency Testing Standard (ETS) from OSHA for both the vaccine requirements and weekly testing. 

TYFOOM, a member of MCAA’s Manufacturer/Supplier Council (M/SC), created an automated, simple, and easy process to reach all employees on a regular basis with an ETS survey (examples attached).

For more information, please contact Tyfoom at customercare@tyfoom.com or call 801.717.1231 and mention that you are an MCAA member to obtain a 10% member discount.

As a reminder, unless ruled on by the Supreme Court, the most current OSHA compliance deadlines are:

  • January 10, 2022: All requirements except testing
  • February 9, 2022: Testing

If you have any questions, please contact MCAA’s Executive Director of Safety, Health, and Risk Management, Raffi Elchemmas, at raffi@mcaa.org.