From Dave Jackson’s desk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 11, 2012

IMI Teams Up with BAC 3 for West Coast Expansion

BAC Local 3 President Dave Jackson has announced an alliance between BAC Local 3 and the International Masonry Institute (IMI) to pursue an aggressive marketing program for Local 3 trades.  “The goal here,” said Jackson, “is to have an IMI architect or engineer based in the Bay Area to focus on expanding our job opportunities.”

BAC President and IMI Co-Chair James Boland praised the alliance, saying, “It is imperative that we use every resource at our disposal to help create jobs for our members and contractors in these tough times.  IMI is a tremendous asset to our industry and as former President of Local 3, I can definitely see how it will help improve our industry in the Bay Area.”

 Jackson made the announcement following a meeting with IMI National Director of Industry Development David Sovinski. Until a marketing director is hired, Sovinski will be stepping up his West Coast travel schedule to provide educational seminars for architects and engineers and upgrade training for craftworkers in high demand specialties such as rain screen upgrade training programs.  He has already completed two programs with AIA chapters in San Mateo (“Designing with CMU Walls) and in the San Fernanado Valley (“Sustainable Solutions with Green Tile, Marble and Terrazzo”).  Plans are also underway for a presentation to SOM’s office in San Francisco in August and a rain screen upgrade program and architectural seminar in the Bay area.

The International Masonry Institute (IMI) is a jointly-trusteed labor-management cooperation fund that was established by BAC and its contractors over 30 years ago to increase union masonry’s share of the building market and train for those increased job opportunities.  IMI marketing programs are predominantly education-based for architects and engineers and provide upgrade training programs for craftworkers and contractors.  It also sells union masonry through outreach to design decision makers via educational seminars, office consultations, jobsite troubleshooting and project-specific assistance.  Additional information regarding IMI technical resources and programs may be found at www.imiweb.org.