WICA-WSC Leaders Meet to Address Industry Challenges

The leaders of the Western Insulation Contractors Association and the Business Managers of the Western States Conference held their Annual Spring Labor-Management Meeting last week in Palm Springs, California. The agenda was packed with topics ranging from; Portability Procedures, Employer and Employee Requirements, Craftsman Minimum Level of Certification For Employment, Certifications and Upgrade Training Requirements within the CBA, Third Party Monitoring and Referrals for “Fit for Duty Failures”, Apprenticeship Recruitment and Consistent Labor Pool Availability, and Terminations for Cause and Union Internal Discipline Procedures. WICA Executive Director, Robert Bergman noted that “While progress is often slow and hard to measure, communication between labor & management is critical for long term success.”

Additionally, the WICA-WSC bargaining parties met once again to negotiate an extension on the “memorandum of understanding” for the Defined Benefit Pension Plan. The bargaining parties received an informative presentation from the Funds Actuary which illustrated that the WICA-WSC pension trustees have done an outstanding job managing the Defined Benefit Pension Plan (DBPP). At the end of 2015 the DBPP was 103% funded which is a rarity in comparison to the industry average. But after two separate bargaining sessions, the parties were unable to come to terms on an agreement to extend the MOU. What this means is that the DBPP will remain at its current contribution rate through 2016 and the parties will have to consider bargaining at the end of the year.