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Your vote, your union and the 2024 election

Every four years, election season changes the tone and tenor of life in the United States.

Attack ads flood our TV screens. Vitriolic arguments take place in the comment sections of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Family reunions are infiltrated by the latest manufactured culture wars. And politicians visit union halls across the country, seeking your endorsement — and your vote.

VP Harris at Local 19

As a collective labor organization, we know that we depend on each other, not politicians, for our prosperity. But we also know that anti-labor politicians can severely damage our rights, our pensions, our safety and our futures.

Mainstream media outlets like to depict elections as complex, filled with minute details that might sway a voter’s decision one way or the other. As union members, though, we know that the reality is much simpler. It comes down to two questions: What actions have politicians taken to empower our union? And how will they enable us to win moving forward?

Delegates to the Third SMART General Convention in August voted to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president and Minn. Governor Tim Walz for vice president based on those questions. Harris’s and Walz’s actions demonstrate their commitment to helping SMART and working people win strong contracts, better workplace protections and higher pay. And their vision for our country is one that puts union labor first.

We can’t afford to go back

In his four years in the White House, Donald Trump and his administration enacted and attempted to implement some of the most anti-union actions the American worker has experienced in generations.

The Trump administration tried to gut our union apprenticeship programs with its Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs proposal, a scheme that our union had to fight against tooth-and-nail to defeat.

The Trump administration withdrew the proposed two-person crew regulation SMART-TD had been working towards under the Obama administration — and then went a step further, actually attempting to preempt existing state two-person crew laws. This was an attack on our railroaders’ safety, jobs and pensions, as well as a direct threat to states’ rights.

The Biden-Harris administration secured a federal two-person crew regulation after the Trump administration withdrew it.

The Trump administration’s National Labor Relations Board was legendarily anti-worker, with a general counsel who formerly worked as a management-side lawyer. The Trump NLRB made it more difficult for workers to picket a subcontractor; held that employers can legally monitor or search employees’ personal vehicles on company premises; and issued a decision making it easier for employers to restrict employees’ rights to talk to their coworkers about their union during work time, including asking a coworker to join the union, asking a coworker to vote to strike or asking a coworker to vote to ratify a contract.

VP Harris at Local 17

President Trump’s signature law, the flagrantly anti-worker Tax Cut and Jobs Act, encouraged offshoring of both paper profits and real production of U.S. multinational companies. It also eliminated the tax deduction members previously enjoyed for union dues.

President Trump signed an executive order that threatened funding for Social Security. He recommended vetoing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act if it reached his desk. His administration encouraged firms to misclassify employees as independent contractors, lowering workplace standards and putting union jobs in jeopardy. President Trump rolled back protections against child labor and said he “loved right-to-work,” and his Justice Department successfully argued to make it the standard policy for government employees.

Those were only a few of his actions while in office — and the plan devised by his advisers for a potential return to power, Project 2025, spells out exactly what he intends to do next.

The document should alarm all of us for its attacks on public schools, Medicaid that our seniors rely on, and veterans’ ability to receive disability benefits. But the Trump Project 2025’s 37-page chapter on labor specifically targets our rights.

Project 2025 would prohibit project labor agreements, which consistently put our sheet metal members on jobsites across the nation. It would enable employers to get rid of workers’ unions in the middle of their contracts, and it would allow individual states to ban the existence of labor unions. Project 2025, if implemented, would gut local and state funding for public transit, hurting the sheet metal workers who build new transit infrastructure and public transit operators whose jobs depend on that funding. It would get rid of overtime guarantees and repeal labor and wage protections on federal projects.

Walz with SMART-TD Minn. SLD Katich

Under a second Trump administration, Project 2025 would make it harder for families to access unemployment insurance, eliminate child labor protections and enable businesses to violate the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) without consequence. It would prevent companies from voluntarily recognizing workers’ unions. It would allow companies to retaliate against organizers, and it would actually enable employers to form company unions: supposed employee organizations with fake employee committees hand-picked by management.

Walz with Local 10

In other words, a second Trump administration would build on the actions of the first: It would jeopardize our livelihoods, put our health and safety at risk and threaten the very existence of our union.

Actions speak louder than words

The endorsement resolution presented to SMART convention delegates in August detailed the Harris-Walz ticket’s stellar pro-worker record. These candidates have acted in the interests of SMART members.

The Biden-Harris administration passed landmark laws that are funneling money towards SMART members’ jobs and livelihoods. As vice president, Harris cast the tiebreaking vote to pass the American Rescue Plan, which jumpstarted the U.S. economy, invested billions into reopening schools and indoor air quality, and allocated $100 million to OSHA for worker safety. Crucially for retirees, the ARP provided billions of dollars in union pension relief: saving the pensions of more than one million workers, including 1,600 Local 33 retirees in Massillon, Ohio. In this case, it was Harris’s vote that rewarded our retirees’ years of hard work and sacrifice.

The CHIPS and Science Act, meanwhile, invests in the U.S. semiconductor industry and American-made manufacturing. This has already put SMART sheet metal workers on huge projects everywhere from Vermont, to Ohio, to Arizona and beyond.

SMART members are also benefiting from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Along with huge investments in traditional infrastructure like our nation’s railroad and public transportation systems, the law focuses on the industries in which sheet metal members work — like indoor air quality, energy efficiency and more — providing an enormous number of new jobs.

In 2022, Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. This law cuts healthcare prices for working families, fights climate change and holds the one percent accountable to pay their fair share in taxes. The IRA invests heavily in green energy infrastructure, with strong labor standards ensuring that SMART sheet metal workers will be in demand for this work.

Accompanying all these laws are strident, pro-worker regulations: the updating and strengthening of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rules, the first-ever inclusion of apprenticeship standards in IRA tax cuts and the requirement of project labor agreements on federal jobs that cost more than $35 million, for example.

And that’s just on the legislative side. Just this year, the Biden-Harris Federal Railroad Administration and Department of Transportation announced a long-awaited federal two-person crew regulation, taking action to protect the jobs, safety and pensions of union railroaders. Additionally, the administration has demonstrated a strong commitment to protecting public transit and bus workers, addressing worker assaults in these sectors. This White House’s proactive stance on worker safety issues, including the Federal Transit Administration’s establishment of Public Transit Safety Plans, reflects a clear understanding of the challenges faced by frontline transportation employees and a dedication to creating safer working environments.

Walz, meanwhile, has an outstanding pro-worker record in Minnesota that leaves no doubt as to where his priorities lie.

On the transportation side, Walz made a number of SMART-TD railroad priorities the law of the land: requiring two-person crews on Minnesota freight trains, funding the Northern Lights Express — Amtrak’s passenger service between Duluth and Minneapolis — and bringing on two more state rail safety inspectors, plus additional funding for passenger rail corridor studies and railroad-provided first responder training. He is also the first and only governor in the nation to have signed legislation covering yardmaster hours of service.

Walz took similar action to advance the interests of SMART sheet metal workers when he signed a law that stipulates that the Minnesota Department of Commerce must establish and administer an air ventilation program to award grants to public school boards in Minnesota, with the grants covering work such as testing and balancing, HVAC and energy efficiency upgrades and much more. Importantly for SMART members, the bill specifically includes strong prevailing wage language that requires work covered by grants to “be performed by a skilled and trained workforce that is paid the prevailing wage rate … and of which at least 80 percent of the construction workers are either registered in or graduates of a registered apprenticeship program for the applicable occupation.”

Those are only some of Minnesota’s pro-union accomplishments under Walz. The legislature passed what most in the Minnesota building trades consider the most expansive prevailing wage enhancements in state history: from increased enforcement, to attaching the law to state funds, programs, energy projects and more. Walz also signed laws enacting paid sick leave for all workers; the banning of anti-union captive audience meetings; new protections for meatpackers, construction workers and Amazon employees; a huge expansion of paid family and medical leave; the largest-ever increase to the Minnesota work compensation system’s permanent partial disability fund; a universal free school breakfast and lunch program for the kids of working families; and more.

Harris’s and Walz’s actions speak far louder than words. They stood, and they continue to stand, with SMART members and our families.

A union-made future for SMART members and families

It’s clear what SMART members’ votes for Harris and Walz enabled your union to do in the past. What will our votes empower us to do next?

SMART has a vision for the future: one where union sheet metal and transportation workers build and move the critical infrastructure of our nation. One where SMART members earn better contracts, better pay, dignity at work and time to spend with their loved ones. One where our union continues to grow, representing with grit and pride every worker in our industries and trades.

The Harris-Walz ticket aligns with our vision. With Harris and Walz in the White House, we can build upon the progress we have made, continuing to implement the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act in a way that benefits SMART members. We can keep working with the DOT, FRA and FTA to protect transportation workers in the face of employer greed. If a pro-worker Congress takes power, we can pass the Railway Safety Enhancement Act, the PRO Act, the National Apprenticeship Act and much more. And with Harris’s proposed plans to cut price gouging and increase new housing production, we can reap the fruits of our labor while building the affordable homes our neighbors deserve.

Election day is fast approaching, and with it the accompanying noise. But when we enter the ballot box, we all need to remember those two vital questions: What actions have politicians taken to strengthen our union? And how will they help us win moving forward?

The answer is clear. Let’s secure our future.

Sheet metal and transportation workers exercised collective power to win laws and federal appointees who act in our interests

After extraordinary mobilization in recent years, union votes are translating directly to union jobs.

In 2020, SMART members voted to elect politicians to the United States House, Senate and the White House who pledged to prioritize union members and working-class families. In the years since, those politicians passed three job-creating laws — the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — and President Joe Biden named a variety of pro-union appointees to federal positions in the Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Transportation and beyond — making sure money from federal laws creates jobs for SMART members, both now and into the future

This is not the result of politicians rewarding SMART members for getting them elected. It is the consequence of members applying their collective power: first by voting in their interests, then by pushing legislators to make sure they kept their promises.

“It can’t be emphasized enough what a difference it makes when the people implementing funding and writing policy know that SMART workers are engaged in the political process,” said SMART General President Michael Coleman. “We have pro-union allies in federal offices that are making sure that new laws create jobs for our members.”

Funding from recently passed laws, coupled with federal appointees, leads directly to union sheet metal jobs

Some projects funded by federal legislation have already started bringing SMART members onto the jobsite. In Arizona, for example, SM Local 359 members are on the job building semiconductor manufacturing facilities for Intel — a project made possible in part by funding from the CHIPS and Science Act.

Other projects will break ground in the near future. The CHIPS Act is set to put East Coast SMART members to work for years to come: Thanks to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. Department of Commerce and semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries that includes approximately $1.5 billion in direct funding, Local 83 sheet metal workers will soon arrive on a new, PLA-covered chip plant in Malta, New York. And in Burlington, Vermont, retrofit work on an existing GlobalFoundries chip plant is expected to exceed $35 million in federal funding, making the job a PLA-covered one and bringing Local 17 members on site.

Pro-union laws are one thing, but the people implementing those laws play a vital role after legislation is passed — and the federal appointees who make key funding and policy decisions are benefiting SMART members and their families across the country. The most high-profile figures work within the DOL. Since their appointments, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and DOL Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman have successfully enacted rulemaking that expands job opportunities and puts money in SMART members’ pockets.

The primary example: Su, Looman and fellow pro-worker officials finally updated the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, strengthening prevailing wage regulations and raising pay standards for SMART members and building trades workers across America. The updated regulations restore the DOL’s definition of prevailing wage — making it equivalent to the wage paid to at least 30% of workers in local communities (rather than the weakened 50%) — strengthen enforcement and modernize DOL’s definition of “site of the work” to account for current industry practices.

This rule update is particularly crucial at a time when publicly funded projects are breaking ground at an unprecedented rate, explained Coleman.

“By updating Davis-Bacon prevailing wage regulations for the first time in more than 40 years, the Department of Labor is working to ensure that construction workers employed on public works projects are paid what they deserve, helping lift more workers into the middle class and boosting the economies in cities, towns and neighborhoods from coast to coast,” he said. “This is especially vital as projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act continue breaking ground — putting thousands of SMART members to work.”

Pro-union FRA notches slew of victories for SMART-TD members

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) of 2016–2020 made its name through anti-worker actions, most notably its attempt to pre-empt existing state laws that mandated two-person crews on freight trains. The post-2020 FRA, led by Administrator Amit Bose, has consistently prioritized the wellbeing of SMART-TD members — the workers who actually keep the trains moving, not the corporate CEOs who cast safety to the side in pursuit of shareholder profit.

In striking contrast to the previous administration, the current FRA announced a federal two-person crew rule in 2024, finally acting in the name of common sense, worker safety and SMART-TD railroad jobs. Following a public comment period that was extended multiple times, ultimately concluding in late 2022, the final ruling arrived in April 2024.

In late 2023, in the wake of high-profile rail safety incidents and two tragic trainee deaths, the FRA awarded SMART-TD more than $600,000 to develop and implement its own training program — providing union railroaders with education and programming designed with their safety in mind, not just efficiency and exorbitant profit-making.

Weeks later, the FRA again sided with railroaders over the carriers in its ruling on Union Pacific’s request for a variance to allow non-FRA-certified crews to run trains coming from Mexico to Port Laredo, Texas. FRA ruled that trains running from the border to Port Laredo must be operated by qualified and certified Union Pacific engineers and conductors, providing SMART-TD railroaders with the work they rightfully deserve.

Bose’s administration made another common-sense decision in favor of SMART-TD railroaders with the issuing of a final rule on emergency breathing apparatuses on trains carrying hazardous material. The rule requires railroads to provide emergency escape breathing apparatuses (EEBAs) for train crew members and other employees who could be exposed to an inhalation hazard in the event of a hazardous material, or hazmat, release. Railroads must also ensure that the equipment is maintained and in proper working condition and train their employees in its use.

And in a groundbreaking move that will put SMART-TD railroaders to work for years to come, the FRA awarded billions of dollars in funding — made available by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — to two high-speed rail projects in California and Las Vegas, finally making high-speed rail a reality in the U.S. The crucial provision: The railroad, Brightline West, committed to using an organized workforce. The railroad will be built by union members, including SMART Railroad, Mechanical and Engineering workers, and the highspeed trains will be operated by SMART-TD crews.

“The skills our conductors, engineers and yardmasters possess were not an afterthought when the plans for this rail line came together,” SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said when the projects were announced. “They are invaluable to this project and woven into the fabric of what will make this high-speed rail project a success.”

Department of Energy’s clean energy industrial policy creates years of work for SMART members

The need for a clean energy transition has been made abundantly clear in recent years, as temperatures increase, seasons disappear, floods destroy city streets and wildfire smoke chokes our children when they try to play outside. Thanks to the industrial policy of the current Department of Energy (DOE), that clean energy transition is creating jobs for SMART sheet metal members — today, tomorrow and well into the future.

Examples are everywhere. SMART Local 177 members have begun working on a Microvast battery plant in Clarksville, Tennessee, while Local 36 members in St. Louis, Missouri, are on the job building an ICL-IP America, Inc., battery materials manufacturing facility. Both projects received DOE funding from $2.8 billion worth of awards from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Meanwhile, the sheet metal workers at Local 7 (Lansing, Michigan), Local 20 (New Carlisle, Indiana) and Local 177 (Spring Hill, Tennessee) are directly benefiting from the Department of Energy’s $2.5 billion loan to Ultium Cells. The loan, facilitated by the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, is helping finance the construction of new lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plants in Michigan, Indiana and Tennessee, as well as Ohio — facilities that have Local 7, 20 and 177 members already on site.

The DOE Loan Programs Office also played a crucial role in putting SMART Local 110 and Local 4 members to work in Glendale, Kentucky, and Stanton, Tennessee, respectively. Ford received a $9.2 billion loan that helped kickstart its BlueOval battery facilities in both locations, and the funding has already paid dividends for union sheet metal workers — generating work for current members, bringing new workers into the union, helping both locals grow and keeping retirees’ pensions healthy.

And on the West Coast, the recently announced California Hydrogen Hub — one of seven hydrogen hubs funded by DOE through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — will leverage the state’s existing clean energy technology to produce hydrogen exclusively from renewable energy and biomass. Importantly, the hub has committed to requiring project labor agreements for all related projects, which will create an expected 220,000 jobs — including 130,000 construction jobs.

On Thursday, April 25, the Biden-Harris administration announced that the United States Department of Commerce and Micron Technology signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms to provide up to $6.14 billion in CHIPS and Science Act funding to help build Micron’s semiconductor facilities in upstate New York and Idaho. The proposed funding is expected to create approximately 20,000 construction jobs, including union sheet metal positions for SMART members.

“Today’s announcement of proposed funding for Micron’s semiconductor fabrication facilities in New York and Idaho would essentially amount to a multi-billion-dollar investment in SMART members,” SMART General President Michael Coleman said in response. “Thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act — a groundbreaking, pro-worker bill that is already creating jobs for our members from coast to coast — these project labor agreement-covered megaprojects would bring even more union sheet metal workers onto the jobsite, as well as create more opportunities for local residents to enter a middle-class career in our trade. We applaud the Biden administration and the Department of Commerce for continuing to invest in America’s workers, and we look forward to getting to work.”

Tilden Dickson – a Navajo Nation member and a 12-year, second-generation SMART Local 359 sheet metal worker – introduced President Joe Biden at a March 20, 2024 event in Arizona, where the president announced an investment of up to $8.5 billion in America’s semiconductor manufacturing. The funding, made possible by the CHIPS and Science Act, will create jobs for SMART members, who are already at work building chip manufacturing plants in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and beyond.

“I grew up in a union household,” Dickson said during his remarks. “I saw first-hand the great value of a good job with livable wages, healthcare and pension benefits.”

Dickson now works as a BIM coordinator in Chandler and is planning to soon buy his first house.

“I’m not the only one whose life has been transformed for the better. Thanks to President Biden’s historic investments, there are now hundreds of new jobs for the people of Arizona,” he said.

“I am so grateful and proud we have a president who has an understanding of the importance of giving opportunities like this to communities like ours, and millions of Americans like me.”

Great job, brother!

President Biden speaks union members at the 2022 NABTU Legislative Conference,

On May 23, 2023, the SMART General Executive Council (GEC) voted to endorse United States President Joe Biden for a second term. The GEC is elected by members of SMART local unions.

SMART workers will join fellow union members in Philadelphia on June 17 for an endorsement event, where workers will highlight the impact of the Biden administration’s pro-labor economic policies.  

“President Biden’s first term has been a transformative one for SMART members and working people across our nation,” said SMART General President Mike Coleman. “His unapologetically pro-worker agenda led to the passage of laws that protect union members’ retirement security, invest unprecedented dollars in our industries and ensure that SMART members will be on the job for decades to come.” 

President Biden meets with SMART Local 49 Business Manager/Financial Secretary-Treasurer Isaiah Zemke.

During his first term, President Biden kept his campaign promises to SMART members and working families, putting workers first with the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as an executive order requiring project labor agreements on federal projects that cost more than $35 million and a partnership with SMART on improving air quality in buildings.   

Under the Biden-Harris administration, a wave of new megaprojects is employing SMART sheet metal and production members by the thousands, while a pro-labor National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has helped hold bad-faith employers accountable and benefited union organizing and recruiting efforts. The Biden-Harris Federal Railroad Administration has proposed a regulation requiring two-person crews on all freight trains, and federal funding has put SMART sheet metal members to work on critical infrastructure projects that will better the working conditions of SMART Transportation Division members.  

The Biden administration pushed for megaprojects to include strong labor standards that put SMART members to work.

“We know that the job isn’t finished,” Coleman said. “Even as the American economy continues to grow from the bottom up and the middle out, anti-labor politicians and their bad-faith benefactors are intent on stifling that growth and returning to an economy ruled from the top down. We have progress to make, from passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to securing real rail safety regulation.”  

“With Joe Biden as our president, we are confident that we will continue to make progress for working people,” he added. “SMART is proud to endorse President Biden for the 2024 United States Presidential Election, and we look forward to mobilizing in support of the president and pro-worker candidates down the ballot.” 

President Biden with SMART Local 359 member Raymond Calvin.

SMART’s relentless political advocacy over recent years has helped foster massive infrastructure investment on both public and private projects. From New York state, to Central Ohio, to Arizona and well beyond, megaprojects are creating tens of thousands of jobs for SMART sheet metal workers — all with a presidential administration that is pushing hard for these projects to include strong labor standards that create union jobs.

“Right now we’re tracking close to 300 megaprojects — we know that there will be about 60 that will break ground, are currently started or will be starting this year,” said SMART Chief International Representative Scott Parks. “It wasn’t that long ago that a $1 million sheet metal job was very exciting; now we have 60 megaprojects in the pipeline. It’s a good time to be a sheet metal worker.”

Much of the public funding for these projects comes from legislation passed by the Biden administration: the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. Due to the unprecedented role labor has played in the passage and assembly of those laws, companies hoping to take advantage of funding and tax incentives are being pushed to build with strong labor standards in place, bringing good, union jobs to projects breaking ground from coast to coast.

Importantly, Parks pointed out, these jobs require a consistent sheet metal presence, keeping our members at work as technology advances, during retooling and reorganization, and during outages and shutdowns. And the specific skills and crafts required on such projects cover nearly all the sheet metal positions that SMART represents: from frontline supervisors, to testers and balancers, to welders, to everyone else.

“If you can imagine balancing a project that could require 100 balancers — geographically, you may only have 100 balancers in two states,” he explained. “So we’re going to be challenged to make sure we tool up our members so that they’re prepared to take care of these projects.”

The bounty of work on the horizon has created an unprecedented moment of opportunity. According to Parks, the current number of megaprojects breaking ground means one can almost make a projection 10 years out — a far cry from the post-2008 years, when SMART leadership balked at speculating even two or three years into the future. But with that opportunity comes new responsibility.

“We are not going to be able to apprentice our way into the workforce we need to meet these demands — we are not going to be able to do things the way we have always done it in the past, period,” explained SMART General President Michael Coleman. “We have got to put an exceptional focus on organizing, recruiting and retaining in every community.”

SMART members and local unions know the differences between a union career and a nonunion gig: stability, family-sustaining pay and benefits, solidarity and safety on the job, to name only a few. Now, with hundreds of huge jobs breaking ground from Oregon to Atlanta — on top of SMART local unions’ core work — the time is now to bring members into our union.

“When it comes to organizing and recruiting, we’re organizing shops, we’re organizing projects — folks who want to be union sheet metal workers, we’ll bring them in,” Parks explained. “If they’re in an apprenticeship program that may not be a sheet metal apprenticeship program, we’re bringing them in so they have the best chance of success moving forward. If someone comes in as a nonunion journeyperson, that’s great too — we want everyone.”

Many of these projects may provide SMART members in other locations with the opportunity to travel for work. For more information on traveling to jobsites, contact your local business manager and visit the SMART sheet metal job bank.

United States Secretary of Education Miguel Car­dona laid out the Department of Education’s priorities for 2023 during a Raising the Bar event in January — including a new focus on helping students achieve careers in the jobs created by the CHIPS Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infra­structure Law. SMART attended the event and applauds the Department of Education’s commitment to helping students secure good, union jobs in our industries.

An image of the TSMC chip plant project in Phoenix, Arizona
Construction on the TSMC chip plant in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo courtesy of TSMC.

New chip plant megaprojects continue to create jobs for SMART sheet metal workers across North America – including in Arizona, where huge projects have led to unprecedented job growth and a boom in the membership of SM Local 259 (Phoenix, Ariz.)

“We’ve been able to increase our membership. In 2017-18, we had 500 members, and we currently have about 850, so it’s created a lot of organizing opportunities for us,” said Jeff Holly, Local 359 business manager and financial secretary-treasurer, during a recent interview with SMART News. “All of our funds are super healthy – health and welfare, pension funds, down to general fund activity at the hall. … It’s helped out the membership a lot.”

In Chandler, Ariz., an Intel chip plant is expected to employ more than 300 sheet metal workers at its peak and continue for two to three years. And in Phoenix, Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) – the world’s largest manufacturer of advanced microchips – is building its first major U.S. production site, more than tripling its initial planned investment. The project currently employs over 400 sheet metal workers and is expected to last for three to five years.

Watch Jeff Holly’s interview on the Arizona chip plant projects on SMART News.

These chip plant projects specifically benefit SMART sheet metal workers, Holly explained.

“Everything’s got to be super clean, there’s a lot of filtration that goes into [chip plant construction] – a lot of scrubber work, exhaust, so they’re fairly labor intensive for sheet metal workers,” he said. “Most of the duct they’re using is rather large, so it ends up [requiring] more people than we used to use.”

The chip plant projects in Arizona mirror similar developments across the continent, including in Ohio, upstate New York and more. Like in Arizona, such projects provide opportunities not only for SMART sheet metal workers, but for locals aiming to organize, grow their membership and expand their market share. And while the Arizona chip plants were underway before the passage of labor-friendly legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, Holly told SMART News that such laws will benefit SMART members moving forward.

“Since the CHIPS Act was enacted,” he said “we’re looking at the possibility of having our first large-scale project labor agreement being signed out at the TSMC project, which is something that the Arizona State Building Trades has never had really any success [with]. Even though these weren’t planned when these acts were enacted, I think they’re going to pay dividends in the very near future.”

Whether chip plants, data centers, electric vehicle battery plants or infrastructure jobs, megaprojects are expected to continue breaking ground across the United States and Canada in the near future. Members interested in traveling to work these jobs should visit the Sheet Metal Job Bank for more information.

Megaprojects in the News

President Biden delivered his second State of the Union address on February 7, 2023 – outlining the ways in which the Biden administration’s economic plan is delivering results for working families. SMART issued the following statement in response:

“On the campaign trail and during his first State of the Union speech last year, President Biden made big promises: substantial infrastructure investment for the first time in decades, the return of manufacturing to America, and an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down. Now, two years after the president’s inauguration, we can say that the Biden administration is delivering on those promises.

“President Biden signed legislation like the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act into law: saving hundreds of thousands of union pensions, providing the most significant investments into our country’s infrastructure and semiconductor production in generations, and making the largest American investment in clean energy ever. These investments have already put thousands of SMART sheet metal members to work, and they will drastically improve the health and working conditions of our Transportation Division members across sectors.

“Since President Biden took office, more than 200 companies have announced private investment in manufacturing, utilities and energy to the tune of $700 billion, across all 50 states. Our members are already working these jobs, from solar panel production facilities in New York to data centers in Arizona.

“And after two years of President Biden’s agenda, the American economy has created more than 12 million jobs, with an unemployment rate of 3.4% – a 54-year low.

“But, as the president made clear in this year’s State of the Union, there is more work to do. We look forward to working with Congress and this administration to end the anti-worker corporate scheme that is Precision Scheduled Railroading. And we call on Congress to pass a billionaire minimum tax, which will finally see the one percent pay their fair share and ease the damaging impact of inflation for working families; expand the Child Tax Credit, which will lift more children and families out of poverty; extend the Inflation Reduction Act’s price cap on insulin to all Americans; and pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which will make it easier for workers to form a union.”

Two years of pro-worker policy have led to a wealth of opportunity for SMART sheet metal workers, now and into the future. Across the country, companies are once again investing in American manufacturing: building and maintaining facilities for electric vehicle batteries, data centers, semiconductor production and more — all of which require the expertise of SMART members.

I just appreciate SMART leadership and the Biden administration doing what needed to be done to get the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed, because we really needed this in all of our communities to build back the working class.”

SMART Local 83 members have worked for years on a GlobalFoundries chip plant in Malta, N.Y. Now, thanks to the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, GlobalFoundries is building an entire new building to expand its existing plant — a development Local 83 Business Manager Frank Maguire said will keep members “very busy for the next five to 10 years.” In addition, Local 83 members will help build the first wind turbine facility in the U.S., located in the Port of Albany.

“We have a very bright outlook for sheet metal workers in the Albany, New York area,” Maguire added.

SMART members in the Southwest Gulf Coast region can also look forward to a bounty of new work in the coming years, including a Meta data center ($30 billion of work); a Samsung project ($207 billion of work); a Texas Instruments semiconductor project in Sherman, Texas ($30 billion of work); and the next phase of a Tesla plant.

“This is the most work for our members in 20–25 years, and it’s creating good-paying, union construction jobs,” said SMART Southwest Gulf Coast Regional President Bill Kenyon. “I just appreciate SMART leadership and the Biden administration doing what needed to be done to get the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed, because we really needed this in all of our communities to build back the working class.”

The surge in megaprojects extends beyond the United States’ borders. In Canada, a $4.9 billion battery plant in Windsor, Ontario, will require 10 million pounds of galvanized duct to be manufactured in Toronto. That duct will then be installed by SM Local 235 members in Windsor.

“We’re hoping to get all the sheet metal work on the whole project, plus all the roofing,” said Michael Mahon, business manager/financial secretary-treasurer of the Ontario Sheet Metal Workers and Roofers in Windsor. “It’ll employ anywhere from 300–500 sheet metal workers and roofers.”

And in the Kansas City, Mo. area, SMART Local 2 workers will be called to work on two large data centers in the near future: a two-million-square-foot Meta data center and a $4.9 billion Panasonic battery factory in Kansas. That’s in addition to a biomedical facility in Manhattan, Kansas, to be constructed in conjunction with the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) that Local 2 members have worked on for the last five years. All told, these projects will bring an unprecedented number of jobs to area SMART members.

“We think [the Panasonic project] is going to be one of the largest projects that’s ever been done in Local 2’s jurisdiction,” explained Local 2 Business Manager Greg Chastain.

These megaprojects exemplify the historic progress that SMART has made in the last two years — and we will continue to organize to build our strength as we move into the future.