More than ever, Americans are demanding clean air in public buildings, especially schools. Mitigating and eliminating virus spread, wildfire smoke and other air pollutants while reducing greenhouse gas emissions is essential, as data overwhelmingly demonstrates retrofits are critical – not only for overall public health, but for improved student performance in schools as well.

In Oregon, SMART Local 16 and the SMART Northwest Regional Council (NWRC) are leading the way in retrofitting these public buildings, putting an emphasis on public schools in need. 

“Thanks to President Biden’s policies embedded in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the NWRC is able to offer assistance to K-12 school districts that have the greatest need,” said Lance Deyette, president of the SMART Northwest Regional Council. 

School buildings are plagued by poor ventilation. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act include funding to improve energy efficiency, indoor air quality and other necessary improvements in school buildings through the Department of Energy’s Renew America’s Schools grant program.

To help school districts in their region access these federal resources, the SMART Northwest Council developed a “SMART Facilities” pilot program to assist school districts in the application process. To receive funding, school districts must submit a Community Benefits Plan that engages labor unions – a Project Labor Agreement (PLA), for example. Through the program, the SMART Northwest Council will help school districts with the greatest need perform a school building assessment (a requirement of the grant application) and help write the grant application. 

Since the start of the program, more than 30 school districts in Washington and Oregon have signed Community Benefits Agreements with the SMART Northwest Council and are working to prepare applications for the grant program. Unfortunately, it is very competitive and there isn’t enough funding for all the Northwestern schools that need improvements.

To meet the needs of schools in their region, the Northwest Regional Council applied for Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Communities Investment Accelerator Program through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which proposed $1 billion to fund needed retrofit, energy efficiency and indoor air quality projects of school districts in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. It would create union jobs in underserved communities, improve the health and safety of schools and lower building energy costs.

The Northwest Regional Council is committed to helping schools that have signed a Community Benefits Agreement apply for federal funding to improve their school buildings, and the council is hopeful that EPA will fund its project proposal. Additionally, the Northwest Regional Council will continue to partner with stakeholders to bring federal resources to the region.

“Guaranteeing that public money is carefully invested in good jobs is the best example of good common-sense economics,” said SMART Local 16 Special Projects Counsel Scott Strickland.

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.

Vice President Kamala Harris visited the SMART Local 17 union hall in Boston on Wednesday, November 2, emphasizing the work SMART members will perform as part of the Biden administration’s push to lower energy costs. Harris announced a variety of steps the administration will take – part of the Inflation Reduction Act – to help working families stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer; many of which will create union jobs manufacturing, retrofitting and installing energy efficiency equipment.

The vice president was introduced by SM Local 17 member Shamaiah Turner, who proudly represented our union and the many boundary-breaking women and people of color in the union trades.

“The Inflation Reduction Act … pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in terms of providing good jobs and a sustainable way to address the climate crisis,” Turner explained.

“Shamaiah, you represent the heart and soul of Local 17,” Harris said upon taking the stage. “Thank you for that introduction and all that you have done – and all that you have left to do.”

Local 17 member Shamaiah Turner introduced the vice president.

After thanking Local 17 sheet metal workers for their work building our nation, Harris outlined the Biden administration’s aim to “create millions of good-paying union jobs, to protect workers’ rights, to expand American manufacturing and to lower costs for American families.”

“One of the best ways a family can reduce the energy bill is to make their home more energy efficient. But here’s the challenge,” Harris added. “For many homeowners, energy efficiency upgrades are expensive. … And that is why we are investing $300 million right here in Massachusetts, and $13 billion nationwide, to help families upgrade their homes and to lower their monthly energy bills.”

As part of the White House’s plan to lower energy prices, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is providing $4.5 billion in assistance to help cut heating costs for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), helping families make necessary repairs and upgrades to their homes to increase energy efficiency. Additionally, the Department of Energy will allocate $9 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to support up to 1.6 million households nationwide in upgrading their homes to decrease energy bills, including by installing heating pumps – efficient technology that can heat and cool homes and buildings using half or a third of the energy used by traditional heating systems. Importantly, Harris noted, the labor standards included in the funding incentivize the use of skilled, certified workers to perform such upgrades.

“These investments will also create jobs. Jobs for electricians, who do the residential wiring. Jobs for laborers, who install energy efficient windows and doors. Jobs for sheet metal workers, who build and install electric heat pumps. Jobs for union workers who will be trained right here in this building.”

In a fact sheet released ahead of the event, the White House specifically directed stakeholders to BetterAirInBuildings.org – a resource that enables interested parties to find skilled, certified SMART workers and SMACNA contractors for their building needs. The administration also announced its intention to designate funding for workforce development and training, helping local communities and unions like SMART expand access to good, union jobs.

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.”