Cement Masons & Plasterers Ohio Local 132

407 Amanda Northern Rd., Amanda, OH 43102
Phone: 740-675-4021
Fax: 740-675-4022
opcmia132.com
Business Agent & President: Joe Ciacchi
Business Agent: Rory Haines
Organizer: Jazz Lakich

Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association (OPCMIA)

OPCMIA members represent skilled plasterers, cement masons, shophands and associated members. Plasterers finish interior walls and ceilings of buildings, apply plaster on masonry, metal, wirelath or gypsum. Bridges, canals, dams, reservoirs, roads and many other engineering feats would be impossible without the skills of OPCMIA cement masons. Cement masons are responsible for all concrete construction, including pouring and finishing of slabs, steps, wall tops, curbs and gutters, sidewalks, paving and other concrete construction.

Headquarters:
9700 Patuxent Woods Drive, Suite 200
Columbia, MD 21046
Phone: 301-623-1000
opcmia.org

History from the Local 132 website

The Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Association also known as the OPCMIA, represents the member of one of the world’s oldest and most noble crafts.  The Union’s 56,000 members are the proud carriers of a tradition that predates the pyramids.  As early as man was building shelter for himself, there was plastering.   First with mud, clay and reeds or sticks and later with a lime mixture much like what is used today.

As early as 1501 several European nations allowed the plaster craftsmen to set up a standards and a “union type of guild” or charter with the general purpose to maintain quality standards of craftsmanship and materials.  The officials could impose fines and assessments for shoddy work or use of inferior materials.

Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ Local 132 is combined and made up of the 4 major areas of Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Portsmouth Ohio.  There are respected offices and training centers in all 4 areas.  The financial office is currently in Dayton, Ohio.

How we all became one.  In 1993, the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association merged Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton together to become Local 1.  In 1998 the International Association put Local 1 under the guidance of the International and looked at the need to add Portsmouth’s local into Local 1.  The number 132 came about as they took Local 1 and Portsmouth’s Local 232 and they came up with the number 132.  The newly formed Local came into existence and the Charter dated August 1, 1998 currently hangs on the wall in the Financial Office in Dayton, Ohio.

The standards of the European artisans were brought overseas by immigrant plasterers of the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th centuries.  These first tradesmen built their reputations in the design of their dwellings to this new land, later to be named the United States of America.

As changes took place, projects that improved man’s lifestyle and surroundings, the cement masons became a productive part of the community.  They built bridges, canals, dams, reservoirs and many other feats that would have been impossible without the skills of the cement masons.  Together with the plasterers and fellow building craftsmen they placed a key role in shaping the world as we know it today.

As numbers increased in the New World, the plasterers began to organize locals by area and nationally, because each craftsman brought their own way of doing things from the “Old Country” Evidence indicates that the main function of the early organized groups was to ensure quality of craftsmanship.