If you're facing a labor negotiation in the next year, you should plan to attend MCAA's Collective Bargaining Seminar (September 8-10, 2014 in Washington, D.C.). This biennial conference is designed to provide information that will help collective bargaining participants transform adversarial relations into win-win solutions. The program will cover: basic negotiation strategies; preparation tools, information and advice; current collective bargaining topics, including multiemployer pension issues; equal employment/affirmative action rules and collective bargaining issues for federal contractors; trade jurisdictional issues; and a roundtable discussion on National Labor Relations Board issues affecting contractors.  Plan now to attend this highly rated program. A preliminary program and registration details are at www.mcaa.org/education. If the need arises for industry to lobby hard for passage of multiemployer pension reform legislation, MCAA will schedule a legislative fly-in program concurrent with the conference.

NOMINATE A PEER FOR THE MSCA EVERYDAY HERO AWARD  

MSCA will recognize a special person from a member company at the 2014 MSCA Educational Conference in Huntington Beach, CA, as the MSCA Everyday Hero for his or her charitable or benevolent contributions, no matter how big or small. This is a great opportunity to highlight that unsung person in your company who devotes his/her time, resources, and expertise for the benefit of others. Please take the time to nominate someone from your company who you believe deserves this honor. The deadline for submissions is July 1, 2014. A panel of industry associates will select a winner who will be honored during the General Session by the featured speaker, Top CNN Hero Doc Hendley, on September 30, 2014. Download the nomination form today! Questions and completed forms should be sent to Dania Soto (dsoto@mcaa.org). You must be registered for the conference to attend this event, so sign-up today. 

SAVE LIVES, PREVENT ELECTRICAL INJURIES

Service technicians or other employees who work with or around electrical equipment need to know how to keep themselves and others safe. The NFPA 70E Qualified-Level Arc Flash Safety Training webinar is designed for employees who are potentially exposed to live conductors of 50 volts of electricity or more during their workday, and especially mechanical service technicians who work on units that generate 480 volts or less. The next webinars will take place on June 24, 2014 at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. Make sure your employees participate, if they haven't already. Presented by the Hilgeman Group, the session covers all applicable OSHA and NFPA requirements, best practices, NFPA's recent changes to the 70E requirements and provides participants with real-world accident information to reinforce the training. Contact the Hilgeman Group (ahilgeman@frontier.com) to register.

PCA's next webinar shines a spotlight on Lexington Plumbing & Heating Co. (Kansas City, MO), a case study and a learning opportunity about why and how the company switched its market focus.  In 1997, Lexington was facing heavy non-union competition, diminishing margins and fewer mid-sized jobs. To survive, Lexington used the National Service and Maintenance Agreement, recruited technicians, retooled the business and targeted a new niche - commercial plumbing service. It's a great story and one you should learn more about. Find out more about Lexington's transition from Dan Axtell on June 6, 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, during PCA's next webinar. This webinar is free to MCAA members as a benefit of membership.  Please register at https://mcaa.webex.com.