SMART-TD Maryland members help rejuvenate Baltimore elementary school

SMART-TD members in Maryland mobilized on short notice to serve their community in April, joining a CSX and City Year Service Day spent rehabilitating and sprucing up Curtis Bay Elementary School near Baltimore. “CSX asked all their employees to be there, and this was really kind of last minute — they hadn’t done these in […]

House budget votes place Amtrak in the crosshairs

While Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) dollars are being allocated by the U.S. Department of Transportation to distribute to commuter and passenger rail projects as well as to transit agencies recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. House Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and related agencies (THUD) subcommittee decided to pull $6.6 billion […]

Debt default threatens American workers: Take action today

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is threatening to let the United States default on its debt. $10 trillion of that debt is the result of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that his party championed. A default would be catastrophic for the economy, wiping out nearly 6 million jobs and $12 trillion of household wealth. This […]

NEMIC adds new director of implementation

Ohio native Cassandra Kline has been hired as NEMIC’s director of building construction technology, serving as a field representative to SMART locals all over the United States and Canada.

REEF Act to prevent rail jobless benefit cuts reintroduced

Under the Budget Control Act of 2011, and a subsequent sequestration order to implement mandated cuts, Railroad Retirement Board-administered unemployment and sickness insurance benefits were reduced by a set percentage that is subject to revision at the beginning of each fiscal year. In December 2020, in an effort to minimize the effects the COVID-19 pandemic […]

Washington SMART apprentice works to ensure indoor air quality in schools

As temperatures drop during cold and flu season, and Covid infections continue to pose public health challenges, it’s more important than ever to have proper ventilation in schools, offices and other buildings – and SMART sheet metal members are the highly skilled workers with the qualifications and expertise to perform that work. In Washington state, […]

Local 28 member showcases SMART members’ role in fight against climate change

SMART members across the United States and Canada are the frontline workers helping to build a sustainable future – from roofers installing green roofs to meet net zero goal in Canada, to transit workers helping reduce automobile emissions, to sheet metal workers constructing LEED-certified buildings across our two nations. In a recent interview with Climate […]

President Ferguson, union leaders attend Houston Solidarity Rally

SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen President Dennis Pierce stood shoulder-to-shoulder as they answered direct questions from a standing-room-only crowd Oct. 18 at the annual Solidarity Rally for Rail Labor in Houston, Texas. Hundreds of members and officers from SMART-TD, BLET and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way […]

Elections matter: How your vote has helped workers since 2020 

The White House, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. The outlook for union labor and working families in America has improved drastically in the last 21 months.  From 2016–2020, workers fought against an onslaught of anti-labor policies, executive orders, personnel appointments and more: Anti-worker government actions, 2016–2020 1. The previous administration and Congress refused to include […]