This Week

Celebrated Visionary Business Leader Watts Wacker Focuses on Living with the "New Normal" at MCAA 2015

NFPA Arc Flash Safety Training Webinar is a Lifeline for Those Who Work with Electricity

Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone for New Opportunities with MSCA's Last Path to Higher Margins Webinar

MCA of Chicago Contributes to MCERF

Pension Reform Update

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MCAA National Update for November 3, 2014

Celebrated Visionary Business Leader Watts Wacker Focuses on Living with the "New Normal" at MCAA 2015

We're living and working in a new age of rapidly changing technology, dramatic shifts in our culture, innovative communication devices and methods along with other significant changes that are affecting all facets of our daily lives. Futurist Watts Wacker, one of the most celebrated and influential minds in modern business and a featured speaker at MCAA 2015 (March 8-12, Wailea, Maui, HI), will guide you through the twists and turns of this era of uncertainty. He will help you understand the changes that are affecting our society and how the "new normal" is impacting our professional, personal, civic and consumer lives so differently from even just a few short years ago. By helping you appreciate how your behavior and social interactions have changed and are affecting your personal and business lives, you will learn how to develop closer, healthier and more productive relationships at home, at the office and in social situations. Find out more about Watts Wacker and the other fascinating and informative speakers by scanning the Convention Planning Guide at http://www.mcaa.org/mcaa2015. Register at the same link while great rooms are still available and before the Early Bird registration deadline.

NFPA Arc Flash Safety Training Webinar is a Lifeline for Those Who Work with Electricity
Ever Tried a Webinar?

Knowing the potential hazards of working around electricity is critical for technicians and other 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 up to 480 volts. If you or they missed the last NFPA 70E Qualified-Level Arc Flash Safety Training Webinars, the next ones are scheduled for November 20, 2014, at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. The webinar provides essential training that could, in fact, save a life. Presented by the Hilgeman Group, the session covers all applicable OSHA and NFPA requirements, best practices, NFPA's most 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.

Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone for New Opportunities with MSCA's Last Path to Higher Margins Webinar

MSCA's final Path to Higher Margins is Not Business as Usual webinar (December 3, 2014, at 1:00 p.m. EST) will investigate new opportunities that can expand your business. You will learn how to stay relevant in a revolving industry as well as explore new technologies that can be integrated into your business. Developing new services to sell to current clients, such as energy and plumbing services and building a loyalty program will also be discussed. Jaimi Lomas of A.O. Reed & Co. (San Diego, CA) and Adam Wallenstein of Neptune Plumbing & Heating Co. (Cleveland, OH) will be the featured presenters. This webinar is free for MCAA/MSCA members as a benefit. Please register at https://msca.webex.com.

If you or your safety director is looking for a great resource that provides the latest information on Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules and regulations and other important workplace safety and health developments, MCAA's 12th Annual Safety Directors' Conference is IT! This valuable conference - co-sponsored by CNA - is designed for those responsible for protecting employee health and safety for the mechanical construction and service industry. The conference, which takes place January 27-29, 2015, in San Antonio, TX, will feature author Dr. Kevin Elko on How to Achieve Greatness at Work and in Life and sessions on the Physical Effects of Fall Arrest and Effective Rescue Planning, Changes to NFPA 70E, Health and Wellness for Mechanical Construction Workers, RF Radiation Exposures and Prevention, and much more. Conference details and online registration are available at http://www.mcaa.org/education/mcaa/safety. Please contact Pete Chaney at pchaney@mcaa.org with questions.

MCA of Chicago Contributes to MCERF

The Mechanical Contracting Education & Research Foundation recently received a contribution of $10,000 from the MCA of Chicago, which raised its total contributions to $375,000. The MCERF Board of Trustees is very grateful for the contribution which enables the Foundation to continue its education and research programs that help our industry advance and thrive. Find out more about MCERF's programs by visiting www.mcerf.org or contact Dennis Langley at dlangley@mcaa.org.

Pension Reform Update

Election Day voter verdicts will begin the process of deciding the shape of the remaining days of the 113th Congress. MCAA will continue lobbying until all chances of substantial multiemployer pension plan reform are exhausted in 2014. MCAA is pressing the view that Congress has a fiduciary duty to act this year because all actuarial advisors forecast that plan benefit cuts will increase substantially for every month Congress delays action after this December. MCAA and MCA-Maryland and Delaware members had a very constructive meeting with Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, along with UA national and local representatives. They made the case to Sen. Carper that the Solutions Not Bailouts proposal is good government policy as it substantially lessens the fiscal burdens threatening the insolvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). In addition, the proposal is sound pension policy that preserves benefits better than current law allows. MCAA members can help advance the cause by using the MCAA Voter Voice system (www.mcaa.org) to contact your Senators and Representatives. Reach out to lawmakers through your contacts back in the district or state by requesting a meeting before they return to session in Washington in mid-November. Ask your local UA labor counterparts to join you in this important effort. The outcome on this issue in the lame duck session is highly uncertain, but continued advocacy can only improve our prospects for Congressional action this year.

The MCAA National Update is is a weekly publication of the
Mechanical Contractors Association of America
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Questions? Contact Ann Mattheis, Editor, Phone: 301-869-5800; Fax: 301-990-9690