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Members of SMART SM Local 206 joined fellow union workers from the San Diego Building Trades on September 26 to usher through a historic victory for workers in the area, with La Mesa, Calif., becoming the first city in San Diego County to pass a citywide project labor agreement (PLA).

The PLA, negotiated between the city of La Mesa and the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council, was approved unanimously, and will ensure union pay, benefits and protections for all construction workers on city of La Mesa public works projects.

“Personal politics aside, most of our members know and understand that our local will only endorse and support labor-friendly candidates and legislation,” said Local 206 Business Manager Dave Gauthier. “When we support those that support livable wages and a full family benefit package, our members and our communities do better as a whole.”

“When we support those that support livable wages and a full family benefit package, our members and our communities do better as a whole.”

– SMART Local 206 Business Manager Dave Gauthier

Project labor agreements benefit workers, contractors, project owners and citizens alike by organizing complex construction projects, creating jobs for local community members, providing the necessary skilled trades workforce for complicated jobs. They also help bring projects in on time and under budget – ultimately saving taxpayer money. By providing union-protected wages and benefits for all workers, project labor agreements help lift area residents – including historically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities – into the middle class. They also benefit local unions, with many PLAs including union hiring hall requirements.

Local 206 members and other building trades workers showed up to the September 26 La Mesa City Council meeting to speak in favor of the La Mesa PLA – illustrating the difference it makes when SMART members get involved in the political process. Such activism will continue to be crucial as local unions work to take advantage of a union-friendly political climate and funding from federal legislation signed into law by President Biden. Additionally, Gauthier added, pushing for pro-labor legislation like PLAs helps demonstrate the union advantage to working people everywhere.  

“Explaining the benefits of local hire and project labor agreements is actually pretty easy when speaking to working-class people,” he said. “When you tell folks that these agreements benefit their neighbors who wake up early every morning and lace up their work boots, and when they understand that their tax dollars are then being redistributed in the local economy, you can really see the light come on in their eyes. They get it, and then they get what we in labor are all about.”

In this Talking SMART special episode, SMART General President Michael Coleman, SMACNA President Anthony Kocurek and returning guest host Dushaw Hockett discuss the Belonging and Excellence for All initiative, also known as BE4ALL.  

Their conversation, which took place at the end of August 2023 during the SMART Leadership Conference, explores why BE4ALL is so vital for the unionized sheet metal industry as we enter a period of unprecedented opportunity.  

“We have to look at all kinds of different ways to bring in a workforce that’s not the traditional way we did that. And the issue with that is we need to be welcoming when we do this.”

– SMART General President Michael Coleman

“We have some projects where the workforce for that project alone exceeds the amount of members we have in that entire local,” said GP Coleman. “We cannot apprentice our way out of this problem. The numbers don’t line up. So, we have to get outside our comfort zone. And we have to look at all kinds of different ways to bring in a workforce that’s not the traditional way we did that. And the issue with that is we need to be welcoming when we do this.” 

The values of belonging and inclusion are not only a core part of the solidarity that defines our organization and the labor movement – they will be crucial to ensuring that local unions can meet the workforce demands created by megaprojects, federal legislation and a new emphasis on our industry. Only by bringing all workers into our union will we be able to secure the jobs, hours and collective bargaining strength that lie before us.  

Dushaw Hockett is the founder and executive director of Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity (SPACEs), a Washington, DC-based organization that is working with SMART and SMACNA to move forward with the BE4ALL initiative. 

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Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people’s voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day.

For this episode of the Talking SMART podcast, we sat down with SMART Local 28 Business Agent Marvin Tavarez to discuss his journey going from working non-union to being organized into SMART. He breaks down some of the myths about organizing into our union versus taking a more traditional full apprenticeship route.

“Some people are like ‘Oh, that’s the backdoor, that’s the backdoor,’ ” says Tavarez. “But at the end of the day, it all comes down to educating the membership. You know, if you’re not organizing members in, you’re gonna be working against them and not with them.”

“If you’re not organizing members in, you’re gonna be working against them and not with them.”

Tavarez also discussed his efforts to help build a rank-and-file building trades movement, including organizing rallies attended by thousands in New York City.

“As soon as I got into the union,” says Tavarez, “I felt like I needed to give back, someway, somehow. I was getting so much from the union… what can I do to contribute? So, I started a rank-and-file movement on Facebook. Started with like five members. Within a year, year and a half, it grew to over 10,000 members on social media.”

At the end of this episode, in his last open mic segment before he retired at the end of May 2023, former SMART General President Joseph Sellers discusses the road ahead for SMART, as we work to train a new generation of members and staff up scores of large “megaprojects” across the United States and Canada.

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Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people’s voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day.

Local #1594 in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, represents roughly 300 SMART-TD members working for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) in bus service, commuter rail, and trolley service. The size of this local and the diversity in its crafts makes it a unique local with opportunities and challenges that cannot be addressed with cookie-cutter solutions.

Recently, a handful of our brothers and sisters in Local 1594 have reached out to the International with questions that touched on a variety of complicated issues. Without delay, SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson decided to head to Pennsylvania to have an open dialogue with the members of 1594, with the intention of resolving the issues and making sure that our Philly members and the International office are on the same page.

President Ferguson assembled his team of Bus Department Vice President Alvey Hughes, Assistant General Counsel Shawn McKinley, and Senior Assistant to the President Ralph Leichliter. On Tuesday, April 25, this leadership group arrived in Upper Darby, attending two local meetings with Local #1594 in an effort to provide information and hear the facts on the ground.

Both meetings were extremely productive. In total, roughly 40 members attended to participate in the discussions, and both the membership and leadership team came away with a better sense of mutual understanding of how SMART-TD can best move forward in our dealings with SEPTA. Ferguson said for his part in these meetings, “I want to thank Local 1594’s leadership and their General Committee Chair Anthony Petty for hosting my team and facilitating these important discussions. We cannot expect to make progress as a labor organization without open lines of communication. I feel that as far as the International office is concerned, we are happy with the progress made in these two meetings in Upper Darby. We have a clearer understanding of what they need from us as officers, and I’d like to think they now have a better understanding of what needs to be done on their end as well.”

If any members of Local 1594 have follow-up questions about what was discussed at last week’s meetings, SMART-TD would like to encourage them to reach out to our office. Please contact our office at (216) 228-9408 and use extension #1 to reach the President’s Department.

This July, the Trustees of Discipline Income Protection Program (DIPP) are scheduled to meet to discuss plan design changes aimed at bringing about additional benefits for our members and making the program easier to participate in for members currently enrolled in the Brotherhood’s Relief and Compensation Fund (BRCF) or the Locomotive Engineers & Conductors Mutual Protective Association (LECMPA).

Among the action items the trustees are looking to improve is an assessment reduction for plan participants. As a result of the overwhelming support for this change, the trustees convened and approved yesterday a reduction of 25 cents per $1 of daily benefit coverage. 

SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson, who sits on the Board of Trustees for DIPP, made the announcement yesterday that the “wheels are in motion” to make this change effective as soon as possible.

Effective August 1, 2023, the assessment for DIPP coverage will be reduced by 25 cents per $1 of daily benefit coverage. DIPP is the gold standard of income protection for workers in the railroad industry. Our DIPP program is proud to have a 90% rate of claims approval and with PSR compounding the rate of incidents, this consideration is more important now than ever before. Please see the announcement below that came out on May 3rd for details on the assessment reduction as well as information on where to find information on participating in DIPP.

SMART Transportation Division and the Trustees of the Discipline Income Protection Program (DIPP) are pleased to announce a reduction in monthly assessments.

Effective Aug. 1, 2023, the monthly assessment for DIPP participants will be reduced from 75 cents to 50 cents per $1 of daily benefit coverage. DIPP coverage ranges from $6 to $250 per day, ensuring that a participant covered by DIPP who is suspended, dismissed, or removed from service by a carrier for an alleged violation of rules or operating procedures will continue to receive income.

Participants in DIPP also have the added flexibility of electing to increase their benefit level or to modify their coverage at any time by submitting the appropriate form to the Transportation Division office.

This announcement is informational, and no action is required on the part of plan participants at this time. The reduction in assessments will be communicated to Local Treasurers so that the necessary changes to current participants’ payroll deductions are made in a timely manner before Aug. 1.

DIPP trustees are SMART General President Joseph Sellers Jr., SMART General Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Powell, and SMART-TD President Jeremy R. Ferguson.

For more information on DIPP, visit the SMART website or email DIPP_TD@smart-union.org for further details.

Freight rail safety was the focus of the March 2023 episode of the Talking SMART podcast. SMART-TD Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity and SMART-TD Government Affairs Rep. Daniel Banks joined the podcast to discuss the fight to improve freight rail safety at both the state and federal levels in the weeks following the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio. 

The East Palestine derailment and other well-publicized accidents since have made clear what SMART-TD and rail labor have been saying for years: So-called “Precision Scheduled Railroading” is bad for workers, the public and the environment.

“It speaks to the seriousness of the devastation that has been done to the railroad industry since the implementation of Precision Scheduled Railroading, and it speaks to the fact that our predictions are now coming into fruition. And it’s both a shame and a frustration, and – to be quite frank – a very anger-filled reaction for us,” Cassity said. “It’s shocking to see all these derailments take place. … All of these things can be brought back to Precision Scheduled Railroading and what it’s done.”

“We need to act in solidarity” on freight rail safety

Both Cassity and Banks emphasized the importance of pushing for freight rail safety regulation across the country. Federal legislation like the bipartisan Railway Safety Act of 2023 has already been introduced, along with bills in states across the country. Now, both guests said, SMART members, families and allies need to get involved and make sure the railroads and elected officials feel the pressure.

“We need the action. Today’s the day, and we need to capture the momentum – we need to act in solidarity,” Banks said, adding that members can get involved by texting “Rail Safety” to 67336 (message and data rates may apply).

Take Action Today to Support Freight Rail Safety!

“When it comes to combatting the railroads, what we need is membership engagement, membership interest, membership participation,” Cassity explained. “We need the members to win this fight … we have got to have the membership speaking, because they’re the constituents, they’re the influencers. The union is the voice of many, but we need the many voices to be speaking as one.”

At the end of this episode, SMART General President Joseph Sellers discussed what SMART is doing to recruit nonunion sheet metal workers and meet the workforce needs presented by megaprojects, infrastructure investment and more. Listen to the full episode here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people’s voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day.

Freight rail safety in the news

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 19, and International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Mechanical and Engineering Department (SMART-MD) issued the following statement:

On February 24, the IBEW, IAM District 19, and SMART-MD filed a lawsuit against BNSF Railway in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri in response to BNSF’s outsourcing of routine locomotive inspection, maintenance, and repair work.

Over the past few years, BNSF has permanently closed mechanical shops across its network, furloughed hundreds of mechanical employees, and deferred basic maintenance and upkeep of its locomotive fleet, all while making record profits in 2021.

In early January, BNSF notified IBEW, IAM District 19, and SMART-MD that BNSF lacked the shop capacity and necessary manpower to address its high out-of-service locomotive count, and that it would be outsourcing the routine inspection, maintenance, and repair of hundreds of locomotives – work that the members of the three unions have performed for decades.

Under federal labor laws, BNSF has the duty to act in good faith with its employees and the unions that represent them, and to exert every reasonable effort to honor its agreements with those unions. The lawsuit asserts that BNSF has failed to uphold that duty.

“With railroad safety top of mind following the recent tragedy in East Palestine, Ohio, it is incumbent on North America’s rail carriers to take their responsibilities to their customers, workers and the communities they operate in seriously,” said IBEW International President Kenneth W. Cooper. “BNSF has been shuttering maintenance shops and delaying basic locomotive inspection and maintenance at the same time it has earned record profits. As we continue to learn of the prolonged and severe impacts coming out of Ohio, it’s important now, more than ever, that inspection and repair of locomotives is performed by the experienced and trained members of the IBEW and other unions.”

BNSF is one of the nation’s largest freight railroads. BNSF mechanical employees responsible for inspecting, maintaining, and repairing locomotives are represented by the IBEW, IAM District 19, and SMART-MD.

“After the tragic incident that occurred in Ohio, the last thing BNSF needs to be considering is the outsourcing of maintenance and inspections for its locomotives,” said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. “Our members dedicate their lives to ensure locomotives are properly maintained and safe to carry goods throughout our nation. We join with IBEW and SMART-MD in demanding BNSF adhere to the contracts that we have been operating under for decades, rather than putting profits ahead of the safety of the communities in which they move through on a daily basis.”

“By cutting their mechanical work force to boost profits, BNSF creates a situation where it becomes unable to perform the most basic federally mandated locomotive safety inspections on time,” said SMART General President Joseph Sellers, Jr. “BNSF allowed the problem to build so that the company can now claim an emergency need to contract-out core mechanical work to contractors whose qualifications and work standards are unknown. Cutting corners on safety leads to predictably unfortunate results.”

The case is International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers et al v. BNSF Railway Company, Case No. 3:23-cv-05012.

Rendering of the concept design of the all-new $5.6 billion Ford electric vehicle mega campus in Stanton, Tenn. Image courtesy of Ford Media Center.

In new podcast episode, SMART Local 4 business manager details enormous amount of sheet metal work coming to Tenn.

A new $5.6 billion Ford Motor Company electric vehicle plant in Stanton, Tenn. will be built entirely union, creating approximately 3,000 union positions during construction, including a possible peak of 800-900 sheet metal worker jobs.

“This thing is going to be huge,” said Local 4 Business Manager John Williams during a guest appearance on America’s Work Force Union Podcast in early July. “There’s going to be a job for just about anybody on this site.”

“This thing is going to be huge. There’s going to be a job for just about anybody on this site.”

– SMART Local 4 Business Manager John Williams

Williams’ conversation with host Ed Ferenc touched on a range of topics, from the history of SMART to applying for federal indoor air quality (IAQ) grants. The most notable topic by far, though, was the upcoming construction of the Ford EV plant.

“It’s going to be a game-changer for us,” he told Ferenc. “There’s no doubt it’s going to grow the union.”

Williams is a fourth-generation SMART member whose great grandfather joined the union in 1914, working as a sheet metal worker on the railroad in Norfolk, Va. Following in his footsteps – as well as those of his grandfather and father before him – Williams serves as both the business manager and financial secretary-treasurer of Local 4, which currently has approximately 350 members. That, Williams underscores, is why this plant – along with an upcoming battery plant in Kentucky – is such a big deal for area sheet metal workers.

Listen to the full July 5 podcast episode on the
America’s Work Force Union Podcast.

The project was by no means guaranteed to move forward. Tennessee’s anti-worker, so-called “right-to-work” laws make it difficult for unions to secure such mega projects, and the state governor owns one of the largest mechanical contractors in Tennessee (a nonunion company).

“There was some fight at the state capitol,” Williams said. “[Ford] had a little bit of pushback, because our state isn’t too union friendly.” But Ford refused to compromise – and, as a result, Local 4 has the chance to employ its membership and embark on an enormous recruiting campaign. To meet the numbers needed for the project, the local hopes to dramatically increase its membership. Helping with that goal, Williams said, is the fact that Ford aims to have approximately 30% of the job site’s workforce be in training.

“We’ve been going into the schools, we’ve been hitting some of the jobsites and telling people, ‘Hey, you can get some free training here,’ ” he said, referring to SMART’s earn-while-you-learn apprenticeship program and state-of-the-art training center. With the enormous amount of work coming in, he added, “It’s just a good time to get into the construction trade.”   

In addition to the Ford plant, which Williams expects to begin construction later in the year, Fenerc and Williams discussed Local 4’s efforts to take advantage of federal funds for state and local COVID-19 fiscal recovery – which would secure even more work for the membership. As part of the economic bounce-back from COVID-19, the Biden Administration has allocated funds for state and local governments, as well as other organizations, to apply for grants related to improving indoor air quality. That means local governments, schools, commercial buildings, residential complexes and more can apply for funding to upgrade ductwork and improve ventilation. This is especially important in places like nursing homes and schools, Williams said, estimating that approximately 75% of schools need retrofitting to ensure kids are breathing clean air.

“This is a big deal, because indoor air quality effects everybody. We want to make sure our children are safe. The same goes for wherever people congregate.”

– SMART Local 4 Business Manager John Williams

“This is a big deal, because indoor air quality effects everybody,” he added. “We want to make sure our children are safe. The same goes for wherever people congregate.”

Unfortunately, while the funding criteria makes clear that organizations should partner with highly skilled, expertly trained workers for IAQ improvements – i.e., SMART members – there are no prevailing wage requirements. Still, Williams said, Local 4 intends to partner with area organizations to help them apply for the grants and win the funding needed to make IAQ improvements. And while they can’t require those organizations to use union labor, they can make it abundantly clear that SMART members are the highest-qualified workers for the job.

“We definitely want our contractors in there doing the work, and we want [local organizations] to know we’re here to help them get that grant money,” he explained. “[Even without prevailing wages,] we’re still going to look out for the worker. We want to make sure that people are getting paid right, we want to make sure people get good benefits, that they get a living wage for their family.”

From left: Dushaw Hockett, SMACNA past President Angie Simon, SMART General President Joseph Sellers and SMACNA CEO Aaron Hilger.

The October 2022 episode of Talking SMART focused on the Belonging and Excellence for All project, also known as BE4ALL. As a joint effort of SMART, union signatory contractors in SMACNA, and the International Training Institute, the project is tasked with working to ensure that all members, particularly those from historically underrepresented groups, feel welcome and experience all the opportunities that come with being a union member.

In short, Be4All is a bold, long-term effort to transform the unionized sheet metal industry by creating workplace and business environments that are welcoming and foster belonging for ALL workers and contractors.

We have a special guest host this episode – Dushaw Hockett, founder and executive director of Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity (SPACEs), a Washington, DC-based organization that is working with SMART and SMACNA to move forward with the Be4All project.

At the SMART Leadership Conference in San Francisco in August 2022, Hockett sat down with SMART General President Joseph Sellers, SMACNA CEO Aaron Hilger and SMACNA past President Angie Simon to discuss how both organizations are working together to build a thriving industry where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, everyone feels welcome, and sheet metal workers and contractors work together to achieve the highest standards of excellence in their skills and crafts.

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Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people’s voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day.

This episode, we’re talking about how the SMART Army is growing in Canada. Started in 2017, the SMART Army is a key vehicle for getting involved in our communities, raising our visibility and highlighting the important work SMART members do, as well as the essential services we provide. It is also a great way to improve our image among the voters, community leaders, and politicians whose support we count on to back new union-built projects, Project Labor Agreements, and the high workplace and training standards that are the foundations of good jobs that support our families and entire communities.

Our featured guest is Jeff Lind, a business representative with SMART Local 280 out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Jeff spoke with us about the pride he and other members feel when they look at the skyline of Vancouver and see all the completed projects they have worked on, including many union-built residential high towers. 

As a SMART Army coordinator, Brother Lind is leading Local 280’s efforts to raise funds for cancer research by participating in the 2022 Terry Fox run on September 18. He also discussed the story of Terry Fox – the Canadian athlete and cancer research activist who, after having one leg amputated due to cancer, embarked on a cross-Canada run in 1980 to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Although the spread of his cancer eventually forced him to end his quest and ultimately cost him his life, his efforts resulted in a lasting legacy in Canada, and around the world.

At the end of this episode, listen for the open mic segment with General President Joseph Sellers. With students returning to school this fall, he responds to a question about new indoor air quality work opportunities in schools, supported by funding in the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other recent federal legislation backed by SMART, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden.

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Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people’s voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day.