JOHN J. FLYNN President International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers .............................

IMI Works for Members & Masonry
January - February 2001

In preparation for the first meeting on the Millennium Morning Project, I went back and re-read the findings and recommendations of the Project 2000 Committee, and tallied up what we have accomplished. A number of recommendations dealt with expanding work opportunities for our members and ensuring that BAC members remain the most highly skilled masonry craftworkers in the construction industry. The Committee felt the International Masonry Institute (IMI) was the best vehicle for making this happen since it serves both labor and management, and they were right. Whether it’s training plasterers in Wisconsin, New York and New Jersey, cement training in Ohio, providing refractory training at the National Training Center, or developing strategies to recruit new members, IMI is there to help.

Training tops the list of areas that have benefited from a stronger IMI:

• Roughly two-thirds of IMI’s annual budget is devoted to training.

• There are 150 full and part-time instructors funded through IMI.

• IMI offers training through the National Training Center at Fort Ritchie, Maryland; 12 regional and satellite programs; and Mobile Training Units.

• The Instructor Certification Program (ICP) trained 185 instructors last year alone.

• IMI is taking the lead in implementing the recommendations of BAC’s Apprenticeship and Training Task Force. New National Standards were signed by the U.S. Department of Labor in February, and a Union-wide system to track members’ training is up and running.

IMI’s ability to promote the benefits of masonry installed by skilled BAC members is at an all time high:

• Eighteen IMI architects, engineers, and masonry experts work daily to promote the unionized masonry industry through educational seminars, professional exhibitions, lunch-box lectures, and programs for leading designers of major corporations. Student programs include hands-on interaction with masonry materials and skilled craftworkers, technical courses, and Masonry Camp.

• There are toll-free technical and training hotlines, a website, project tracking software, and numerous IMI publications that promote the unionized masonry industry.

• Contractor College, which teaches "best practices" in the masonry industry has just completed its second year.

• Spending on promotion and advertising reached a new high in 2000.

These are just a few of the ways that IMI is working to create opportunities for our contractors and work for our members.

When your negotiating committee raises IMI as a bargaining topic, remind your fellow members and your contractors that a contribution to IMI today is an investment in their future.

If you have ideas for stories or issues of concern, let us know by emailing us at askbac@bacweb.org or writing to:

International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
Attention: Communications Department
1776 Eye Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006