Built with leaders from MCAA, NECA and SMACNA, this conference will share the most relevant information on new tools, software, technology, and processes in order to improve MEP contractors productivity and profitability. Register now and join us January 24-26 in Tampa, FL to network with peers from across multiple trades to learn their practices and advances in the industry.
Whether you have come up through the trades with little or no formal management training or you want to enhance your management skills to become a more effective leader, MSCA’s intensive four-day MSCA Service Managers Training, April 4-7, 2022, is for you!
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:
MIFAB, Inc.
MIFAB’s revolutionary Quick Hub No Hub Couplings are now NSF approved! Quick Hub Couplings are much faster than traditional couplings, yet they are still held to the same high standards.
Wieland Chase, LLC
Make sure you know what’s in your parts. Wieland Chase produces patented C69300 ECO BRASS® and C87850 ECO BRONZE® High Performance, Lead-Free Brass. Both alloys are also arsenic-free, bismuth-free and recyclable.
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 is ‘ALL IN’ for our 19th annual Safety Directors’ Conference at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, January 18-20, 2022. This conference brings together hundreds of occupational safety and health professionals, MCAA’s student chapters, MCAA local affiliate executives, United Association safety instructors, principals, owners, and others who have safety and health responsibility.
Registration is OPEN NOW! Click the button below to learn more and to register.
AIM Mobile Technology and Field Implementation Services from Marking Services Inc. (MSI) allow Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) to keep track of documents for thousands of facility assets—which not only helps them comply with rigorous requirements for health care institutions but also saved money by ensuring easy access to warranty information for a failing piece of equipment. The move from paper to digital helps the hospital provide care that aligns with best practices.
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.
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 Electrical Hazard Safety Training Video and its materials. This video will teach your fitters and plumbers to recognize electrical hazards and perform their jobs safely.
Your workers will learn about:
The video comes with a pocket guide that highlights key training points, a training documentation sheet, a 20-question multiple choice test, and a test answer key.
Video | Pocket Guide | Documentation Sheet | Test | Answer Key
Contact MCAA’s Raffi Elchemmas.
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:
MIFAB, Inc.
Have you seen MIFAB’s Video Library? We have over 25 videos – from our Quick Hub Couplings to our MR-500 Trap Seal Primer and more! We are continuously updating our video content. Check it out!
ATP Learning Solutions (ATP)
ATP Learning Solutions offers technical expertise, instructional design, and attention to detail. We deliver high-level customized educational solutions designed to meet your training needs, using your content or ours.
Be sure to visit the Manufacturer/Supplier Training area for all the latest offerings.
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:
Hilti, Inc.
Gone are the days of sitting under the anchor point and rotating the threaded rod into place. Kwik Cast Connect (KCC) anchors are ideal for contractors installing pre-assembled hanger assemblies, allowing users to push the threaded rod into the anchor for quick and easy installation.
LaborChart
LaborChart was built to simplify workforce management. We took the most common resource management solutions—spreadsheets, whiteboards and databases—and developed an all-in-one platform for contractors around the world.
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!
Deadline Extended: Students, we know you are busy. We have extended the deadline to submit your completed scholarship and award applications. All scholarship & award applications are now due, Monday, December 13th.
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19 on November 5, 2021. While the standard has been temporarily stayed by the Fifth Circuit, MCAA wants to help mechanical construction, service, and fabrication shop employers prepare in the unlikely event the stay is temporarily lifted and OSHA decides to initiative enforcement. To that end, we’ve prepared this Safety Bulletin offering a quick overview of potential impacts and a Model COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Policy. Both are now available free to members as a benefit of membership.
MCAA is closely monitoring the daily changes and legal challenges to the ETS and while we don’t believe the stay will be lifted anytime soon, we want you to be prepared just in case.
If you have questions, please contact Raffi Elchemmas, MCAA’s Executive Director of Safety, Health and Risk Management.
Some technical papers and websites on brass corrosion repeat the same caution that dezincification will occur in alloys containing more than 15-percent zinc. A few will go beyond that simple statement to talk about efforts to solve this issue. The 15-percent zinc limit is generally the only thing that stays in the readers’ mind if they are trying to design a part that is in an environment that could lead to dezincification. Wieland Chase explains the processes leading to improved dezincification-resistance.
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.
MCAA extends a warm welcome to Michele Hoffman, who will be joining the staff starting January 1, 2022. She will be MCAA’s new Director, Career Development as Megan Walsh moves back to full time responsibilities in the Events Department. Michele comes to us from MCA-Omaha, where she spent 13 years working with their local board and committees, and in event management and communications roles. During that time, she served as the Industry Advisor for the University of Nebraska Student Chapter, which was named MCAA Student Chapter of the Year in 2015, 2019, and 2020. She has been a member of MCAA’s Career Development Committee since 2018. Michele is originally from central Illinois, a graduate from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Advertising Major), and currently resides in Omaha. MCAA is pleased to welcome Michele to the staff, and her husband Eric and their two children to the MCAA staff family.
MCAA congratulates our very own Megan Walsh, CMP, DES, on her selection to the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) “20 in Their Twenties” class of 2022. This award identifies and brings together the brightest and most talented young event management professionals from around the world.
Since joining the MCAA team in 2017, Megan has proven she is knowledgeable and skilled in event management, capable of communicating in a calm demeanor no matter the situation, and a loyal team member who contributes for the betterment of the association, overall demonstrating incredible leadership qualities. Megan is currently MCAA’s Director, Conference Services & Career Development.
Megan and fellow members of the 2022 Class will be recognized as the next generation of industry leaders at PCMA’s Convening Leaders Conference in Las Vegas at the start of the new year.
MCAA offers a capsule digest of some key public policy, legislative, and regulatory developments in Washington, D.C., that will influence the MCAA policy agenda in the near and intermediate terms.
With the infusion of some $85 billion or more for the PBGC Special Financial Assistance Program, slated to provide 30 years of pension benefit payment to some 250 eligible multiemployer plans covering upwards of 3 million participants and their families, the PBGC’s 2021 Annual Performance and Financial Report issued on November 15th, PBGC Director Peter Hartogensis proudly declares:
“Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 marks a significant milestone for PBGC’s Multiemployer Program with the enactment of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP). Prior to enactment of ARP, PBGC’s Multiemployer Program was expected to run out of money by 2026. ARP’s’ Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program will significantly extend the solvency of the Multiemployer Program by at least thirty years. While future reforms would help improve the long-term health and resilience of the multiemployer system, ARP has provided a financial lifeline, and the effects of that are clear. [Emphasis added.]
“For the first time in almost twenty years, both PBGC’s Multiemployer Program and Single Employer Program have a positive net position at fiscal year-end The Multiemployer Program’s positive net position of $481 million at the end of FY 2021 is in sharp contrast to the negative net position of $63.7 billion at the end of FY 2020, a drastic improvement of $64.2 billion. PBGC’s Single-Employer Program remains financially healthy with a positive net position of $30.9 billion at the end of FY 2021, compared to $15.5 billion at the end of FY 2020, an improvement of $15.4 billion.”
The ARP cash infusion in to the PBGC SFA program has taken great pressure off PBGC and the multiemployer system as a whole, avoiding the broadly negative cascading effects of large plan defaults that were looming over the system for many years. Also, the sentence highlighted above with PBGC referring to even further future reforms – like Composite Plans long supported by MCAA, along with perhaps broadly expanded variable benefit plans – would bolster further the sustainability of the system overall for the mutual benefit of plan participants and beneficiaries and contributing employers. Those future reforms will now most likely be pushed into next year (maybe – as many view the PBGC SFA program as the last word on pension reform for some time) in Congress as the end of year legislating is compressed by a tight schedule and pressing funding and budget matters.
The UA National Pension Fund annual funding notice issued October 19, 2021, for the Plan Year (PY) ending June 30, 2021, announced that for PY July 1, 2021, the fund is certified in “safe” status with a funding percentage of 87.3% . That Fund is no longer in “endangered” status.
Coincident with the signing of the bipartisan infrastructure bill on November 15, the Biden Administration issued an Executive Order (EO) Establishing Priorities and Task Force for Implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law “to coordinate the law’s effective Implementation.” The EO Includes three priorities that are particularly relevant for MCAA member firm competitiveness in these new markets:
The EO creates an Infrastructure Implementation Task Force co-chaired by National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and White House Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator, Mitch Landrieu. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Climate Policy Office, and a variety of Cabinet officials fill out the ranks of the group.
The prevailing wage requirements in the measure are broad, going beyond the usual direct Federal and federally assisted grant program projects and grant program and state prevailing wage policies in place for those types of projects. The requirements also extend to the bond financing provisions of the broad measure, and prevailing wage and apprenticeship utilization to qualify for the bonus rate on the green energy projects funded under the measure. On the tax-exempt facility bonds, the measure “… applies Davis Bacon prevailing wage requirements to all proceeds of exempt facility bonds used for construction, alteration or repair of water furnishing facilities, sewage facilities, highway or surface freight transfer facilities, or zero-emissions vehicle infrastructure facilities.”
The IRAPs and SREs put in place in the late stages of the Trump Administration are proposed for formal rescission by the Biden Administration. In a Federal Register notice posted November 15, 2021, the long-predicted demise of IRAPs is formally set in motion by the Biden Labor Department, with a regulatory notice seeking comments on the effects of the rescission of the IRAP program, which never was finally implemented. Construction industry registered apprenticeship programs were granted an exemption from the operation of IRAPs and SREs in the final Trump Administration proposal, but the regulations permitted the expansion of IRAPs into construction in the future. That possibility is now or soon will be foreclosed.
The OSHA ETS that would compel employers with more than 100 employees to require COVID vaccinations or regular testing has been enjoined by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. It will undergo further hearing by the Sixth Circuit as a result of the multi-circuit lottery (unless moved) and is enjoined until further court action on the matter.
The EO 14042 Federal contractor COVID vaccination mandate for firms working on direct Federal contracts and subcontracts of $250,000 is subject to court challenge in Federal courts in Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Missouri. As of November 17, 2021, no temporary or more permanent injunction has been issued against the EO.
The court challenges to both actions are broad and, in some cases, different. The OSHA ETS challenges focus on OSHA emergency authority broadly. The challenge to EO 14042 focuses on the propriety of the Administration’s rulemaking implementing its proprietary action – whether the rules should have been issued by regular FAR public notice and comment rulemaking procedures, as opposed to the less formal Frequently Asked Question issuance of quasi regulations by the Safer Federal Workplace Task Force. Among the four court challenges to the EO, State of Texas v. Joseph R. Biden (Southern District of Texas, 21-cv-00309) is the furthest along, with a preliminary hearing held on November 16, 2021, and additional briefing in the matter called for on November 22, 2021. The initial preliminary hearing in State of Florida v. Bill Nelson (Middle District of Florida, 8:21-cv-02524-SDM-TGW) is slated for December 7, 2021. As of this writing, no dates have been set in the cases in Georgia or Missouri.
MCAA will continue to monitor the situation and provide reports as they are warranted.
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: Safe Lifting Technique to Help Prevent Musculoskeletal Injuries. This video will teach your pipefitters, plumbers, sprinklerfitters, welders, service technicians and fabrication shop workers how to protect themselves from the musculoskeletal injuries that occur when materials are improperly lifted and moved by hand.
Your workers will learn:
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.
Watch for highlights of the other videos in this series in the coming weeks. They are also available in our Resource Center any time.
Contact MCAA’s Raffi Elchemmas.
MSCA is holding an in person Sales Leadership Symposium on January 13-14, 2022! Taught by in-the-field industry experts, the Sales Leadership Symposium will teach sales leaders how to drive revenue growth and enhance profitability through a structured sales approach. Attendees will take home innovative ideas, crucial skills and the invaluable SALES LEADERSHIP TOOL KIT, which includes over 90 pages of resources to be an effective sales leader in the HVACR/Plumbing industry
The Toolkit Covers Topics Including:
Over the course of the MCAA22 Convention there will be opportunities to hear from inspiring speakers on the topics that matter.
Entrepreneurial Inspiration
Marcus Lemonis will help you change the way you think about your business, and how to find greater success in work and in life. Those who have had the chance to hear his story would say that he is humble, down to earth and 100 percent brutally honest. See him at the Monday, March 14th Opening General Session!
Action through Activism
Geena Davis is not only an Oscar and Golden Globe winner, but a world-class athlete, a member of the genius society Mensa, and is becoming recognized for her tireless advocacy of women and girls. She is also the founder of the non-profit Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, engaging film and television creators to reduce gender stereotyping. Hear her powerful message at the Tuesday, March 15th Brunch with Geena Davis, sponsored by Ferguson.
Overcome your Challenges
Cris Carter is a pro football hall of famer and longtime sports broadcaster, finishing his football career as the NFL’s second all-time leading receiver with the second-most touchdowns in league history. But Carter’s road to success didn’t come easily. As he made a name for himself in football, he was privately battling addiction off the field. Now, nearly three decades later, Carter shares his profound story with worldwide audiences. Hear his moving story at the Wednesday, March 16th Awards of Excellence Breakfast, sponsored by CNA and Milwaukee Tool.
Disrupt to Compete
Erik Wahl has a simple message: disruption is the new normal and businesses must embrace creativity in a wholesale fashion, or risk being left behind. As an internationally recognized artist, TED speaker, and No. 1 bestselling author, he will lead you through this discussion and help you to choose wisely. Experience his message at the Thursday, March 17th Closing General Session.
Read more about our incredible Keynote Speakers and register for the Convention now.
The future of MCAA is fundamentally linked to the quality of the individuals who serve on its Board of Directors. MCAA members who would like to be considered for one of five vacancies are encouraged to learn more and complete the application. Applications should be returned no later than January 14, 2022. Candidates and their spokespersons will be scheduled for interviews at the 2022 MCAA Annual Convention. Those who are selected will begin their terms in March 2022.
The Baker Group recently hosted 200 contractors to their Des Moines, Iowa operations as part of the 2021 MCAA Fabrication Conference, powered by MSUITE. As hosts, they shared with attendees how they perform every aspect of their operations, including BIM, engineering, multi-trade fabrication, safety and transportation.
“While every one of the 18 stations shared great ideas and opportunities for contractors, the aspect that shined through was how much attention Baker has spent focusing on their process and workflow,” said Sean McGuire, MCAA’s Director of Innovative Technologies. “It is a real accomplishment for an organization of their size to go through that process. By documenting each area of their operations’ workflow, they can assess if it can be improved and allow everyone to understand what to do and how to work together. Rob Cross and his team at the Baker Group have an extremely impressive fabrication operation.”
In addition to the shop tour, the conference included education on cutting-edge practices for fabrication. Amanda Comunale shared top management mistakes in fabrication and Jonathan Marsh discussed how contractors can map their workflows using tools like MCAA’s Successful VDC Management application.
Stacy Zerr and Curt Baker of Waldinger also presented at the conference and shared how they recently redesigned their fab shop to incorporate digital workstations. The software allowed for direct digital integration into their fabrication facility.
The program concluded with a panel discussion led by Britton Langdon on Industry 4.0. The panel talked about how fabrication has evolved to greater emulate manufacturing and how contractors are adapting by incorporating tools that allow them to implement new manufacturing processes. Some of these tools include connected equipment to drive productivity in cutting and welding.
MCAA will hold its next fabrication conference in November of 2022 and will be sponsored by McKinstry Company in Seattle. Leading up to the event, MCAA will host a series of fabrication webinars. Details will be posted on MCAA.org as they become available.
Don’t forget, Student Scholarship and Award Applications are due by Thanksgiving! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to nominate your student chapter for MCAA’s Student Chapter of the Year Award and your Faculty Advisor to be MCAA’s Educator of the Year!
