Category: Summer 2021
I Got Your Back: We Support and Look Out for Each Other
At our last convention in 2019, SMART took a hard look at how our fellow brothers and sisters are treated at the worksite and the impact that treatment has on all of us and the industries we work in. We changed the language of our Constitution to make it more inclusive of all [...]
Growing Support for Unions Offers New Opportunities to Grow Our Movement
Now is the time to capitalize on growth in the union sector. For the first time in my lifetime, we have a true champion in the White House who is pushing for the labor movement. In only his first 100 days in office, President Biden mentioned unions in his speeches 62 times. T [...]
National Contract Negotiations Ongoing
2017 Agreement Remains in Effect IIn recent months, some have asked, “Why am I working without a contract?” The simple answer is: “You are not working without a contract.” Under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), a contract never expires, it is only amended or changed. This means a [...]
SMART Army Builds Vietnam Wall in Indiana
With 1,534 of the 58,320 names inscribed on its black anodized aluminum surface representing fallen heroes from Indiana, the new Vietnam Veterans’ Healing Wall at the Veterans National Memorial Shrine and Museum in Fort Wayne, Ind., has a special meaning for veterans in that [...]
SMART-TD Local Leader and Air National Guard Lt. Col. Does His Part to Get Shots in Arms
SMART TD Local 1470 (Edmonston, Md.) Secretary-Treasurer and Maryland Air National Guard Lt. Col. Charles “Chuck” Wetzelberger is doing his part to get the public vaccinated against COVID-19. A 35-year member of the National Guard, Wetzelberger was on the reserves list when h [...]
SM Local 88 helps pass indoor air quality bill for Nevada schools
On June 3, 2021, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak signed into law new comprehensive legislation aimed at assessing and improving air ventilation and filtration systems in schools across the state. The legislation, Assembly Bill 257, requires all public and charter schools in Nevada [...]
Raising standards for indoor air quality — the SMART way
If there is one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has done, it has sharply highlighted decades of neglect of indoor air quality (IAQ) in schools. Despite its importance, poor ventilation in schools is a widespread, persistent problem. Students, parents, and teachers should enter a [...]
Union Halls Help Vaccine Effort
SMART SM Locals in New York City, St. Louis, Chicago and Minneapolis mobilized over the winter and spring to provide added capacity for COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts, with union facilities functioning as injection sites for members, veterans and, in some cases, the ge [...]