Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear met with attendees at the SMART Great Lakes and Southeastern Joint Council Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, in early May, outlining the wins union workers in Kentucky have achieved in recent years. SMART members in Kentucky mobilized in both 2019 and 2023 to elect Beshear, a pro-union elected official, in a so-called “right-to-work” state that has become anti-union in recent decades. Under Beshear, worker-friendly government action has paid off, with Local 110 nearly doubling in size to staff megaprojects in the state.
SMART members in New Jersey at a Passaic Central Labor Council labor walk.
This election cycle, SMART members across sheet metal and the Transportation Division flexed their muscles at the ballot box, helping elect union-friendly candidates across the United States. That includes SMART members who ran for office themselves, pledging to pursue policy that supports working families.
In New Jersey, the SMART New Jersey State Council endorsed a bipartisan group of pro-labor candidates that won big. Johnnie Whittington of Local 27 (southern New Jersey) won his election to the East Windsor Township Council, while Glen Kocsis — also from Local 27 — won re-election to the Neptune City Council: putting the voice of SMART workers in powerful positions to benefit their union brothers and sisters.
“So far this election cycle, 82% of our labor candidates have won their elections,” said Joseph Demark, Jr., president of the New Jersey State Council for Sheet Metal Workers, president and business manager of Local 25 (northern New Jersey) and executive board member of the New Jersey State AFL-CIO. “Together, we made the difference and won!”
In Kentucky, SMART members endorsed and helped re-elect Andy Beshear as governor. His victory is a big win for workers — during his first term, he made Kentucky the battery manufacturing capital of America, and he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with union members from the picket line to the governor’s office. Thanks in no small part to Beshear’s leadership, SMART members are seeing an extraordinary amount of work in the Bluegrass State — and our union is growing as a result.
Up and down the ballot, in races across the country, SMART members fueled a score of impressive victories. Warren Faust, SMART International representative and former business manager of Local 44 (northeastern Pennsylvania), won re-election to the Wilkes-Barre School Board. And in Virginia, workers marched to the ballot box to help pro-union candidates take the state House and Senate, putting advocates for working families in control of policymaking.
Ultimately, 2023 reiterated the importance of the union vote. Election Day reminds all legislators: When you stand with union members, union members stand with you.
“From door-knocking, to phone-banking, to peer-to-peer text messaging, we showed the power of our vote,” said SMART-TD Virginia State Legislative Director Ronnie Hobbs. “When we stand together as one, there is NOTHING that can stop us in our tracks.”
The massive Ford Blue Oval battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky, is a case study in how megaprojects are driving growth and sparking new organizing in the unionized sheet metal industry. Local 110 (Louisville, Kentucky) has nearly doubled in size since January 2023, bringing hundreds of previously unorganized workers into our union to meet unprecedented workforce demands.
“It’s been a very successful effort, from the organizing — planning and implementing our strategy — to the workers getting on site and doing the work,” said Local 110 Recording Secretary and Organizer Jeremy Waugh.
“You’re going to have generations of sheet metal workers that come out of [this project], and they’re spreading the word,” added Local 110 Organizer Anthony Adams. “This area will become very union strong.”
Once construction at Blue Oval is complete, the 1,500-acre battery park will be the largest in the world, consisting of two electric vehicle battery production plants and eventually employing thousands of workers. Local 110 members are currently installing roughly 37 miles of duct in the buildings — along with performing testing and balancing and architectural sheet metal work.
It’s a truly enormous job, explained site Superintendent and Local 110 member Ryan Mc Donaugh of Poynter Sheet Metal, who called it “the Super Bowl of sheet metal.” Poynter Sheet Metal Senior Project Manager and Local 110 member Andy Wright agreed.
Unions are working overtime to make sure this new industrial revolution is one that benefits workers, not just the CEOs of multinational corporations. That’s especially important in a right-to-work state like Kentucky, where organized labor has to beat back decades of misinformation about the union difference. From the moment Blue Oval was announced, Waugh said, the local treated staffing the project as an organizing drive, focused on strengthening the local and changing the lives of workers in the Bluegrass State.
So far, those efforts have been successful.
“I went nonunion right out of high school, so I was starting dirt cheap, no money at all,” recalled Local 110 journeyperson Chase Taylor. “The pay scale out here [in the union] is about double what I made at my old job.”
Taylor’s experience of joining the union and gaining a life-changing pay increase is one that the local hopes to extend to working people across Kentucky, Adams said, especially those from marginalized and underrepresented groups who may not have had access to good, union careers in the past.
“It’s prime time for us, in this state, to spread the word of what it means to be in a union, and what that gets you,” Waugh concluded.
Young people from around Kentucky braved rainstorms to spend several hours honing their fishing skills on Saturday, May 20, during three separate Take Kids Fishing Day events hosted by SMART Local 110 (Louisville, Ky.), the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) and the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Services.
While the weather may have dampened the venues — Jacobson Park in Lexington, Waverly Park in Louisville and Bob Noble Park in Paducah — it didn’t lessen the kids’ spirit or excitement, according to event organizer and Local 110 Business Manager Mark Adams.
“Every child received a free rod-and-reel from the USA and got the chance to catch a few fish,” he said. “Everyone had a fantastic time, despite the weather.”
In all, 75 children participated in the three events, learning how to bait hooks, cast a line and land catfish, bluegills and trout under the mentorship of Local 110 members who volunteered their time to coach the budding anglers. In Lexington, members of the Cadentown Mission Baptist Men’s Group joined union volunteers in helping kids catch fish.
From the planning stage through the close of each event, union members donated 110 hours of their time to this community outreach program.
“This is the third year we’ve held the Take Kids Fishing Day events,” Adams noted. “Our local members are sportsmen and women, and they know what they’re doing. Our focus is on helping each kid catch fish, especially if it is their first time holding a fishing rod.”
Recruiting new people into the sport of fishing, and hopefully igniting an interest in preserving and conserving the country’s valuable natural resources, is only part of the goal in hosting events like these for the community, Adams added.
“They also help strengthen the bond between union workers and the people in their neighborhoods,” he explained. “They help us show the community what the union is all about, supporting our neighbors while providing secure employment opportunities for our members. I guarantee SMART 110 will be holding this event for a long time to come.”
“Too many children seldom get the opportunity to go fishing, or participate in any type of outdoor recreation,” said Cody Campbell, USA conservation coordinator. “The Take Kids Fishing Days we and volunteers from union locals in various states host every year offer hundreds of kids that chance, at least for a day. The mentoring that union volunteers provide will hopefully give many of them the confidence to pursue fishing as a fun, life-long pastime.”
The SMART Local 110 events were part of a series of free, community-based Take Kids Fishing Day events, organized through the USA’s Work Boots on the Ground program with support from USA national partners Provost Umphrey Law Firm, Union Plus and Humana, as well as founding partners UIG, ULLICO, Bank of Labor, AFL-CIO Investment Trust Corporation and Buck Knives.
Young people from around Kentucky braved rainstorms to spend several hours honing their fishing skills on Saturday, May 20, during three separate Take Kids Fishing Day events hosted by the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), SMART Local 110 (Louisville, Ky.) and the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Services.
While the weather may have dampened the venues — Jacobson Park in Lexington, Waverly Park in Louisville and Bob Noble Park in Paducah — it didn’t lessen the kids’ spirit or excitement, according to event organizer and Local 110 Business Manager Mark Adams.
“Every child received a free rod-and-reel from the USA and got the chance to catch a few fish,” he said. “Everyone had a fantastic time, despite the weather.”
In all, 75 children participated in the three events, learning how to bait hooks, cast a line and land catfish, bluegills and trout under the mentorship of Local 110 members who volunteered their time to coach the budding anglers. In Lexington, members of the Cadentown Mission Baptist Men’s Group joined union volunteers in helping kids catch fish.
From the planning stage through the close of each event, union members donated 110 hours of their time to this community outreach program.
“This is the third year we’ve held the Take Kids Fishing Day events,” Adams noted. “Our local members are sportsmen and women, and they know what they’re doing. Our focus is on helping each kid catch fish, especially if it is their first time holding a fishing rod.”
Recruiting new people into the sport of fishing, and hopefully igniting an interest in preserving and conserving the country’s valuable natural resources, is only part of the goal in hosting events like these for the community, Adams added.
“They also help strengthen the bond between union workers and the people in their neighborhoods,” he explained. “They help us show the community what the union is all about, supporting our neighbors while providing secure employment opportunities for our members. I guarantee SMART 110 will be holding this event for a long time to come.”
“Too many children seldom get the opportunity to go fishing, or participate in any type of outdoor recreation,” said Cody Campbell, USA Conservation Coordinator. “The Take Kids Fishing Days we and volunteers from union locals in various states host every year offer hundreds of kids that chance, at least for a day. The mentoring that union volunteers provide will hopefully give many of them the confidence to pursue fishing as a fun, life-long pastime.”
The SMART Local 110 events were part of a series of free, community-based Take Kids Fishing Day events, organized through the USA’s Work Boots on the Ground program with support from USA national partners Provost Umphrey Law Firm, Union Plus, and Humana as well as founding partners UIG, ULLICO, Bank of Labor, AFL-CIO Investment Trust Corporation and Buck Knives.
Kentucky’s Blue Oval SK (BOSK) Battery Plant will be union-built and require the services of hundreds of SMART sheet metal workers.
In recent months, accompanying a rise in union organizing and the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, we have seen what could be the return of American manufacturing. In January 2022, Intel announced plans to build a $20 million chip hub in Ohio, while Ford recently insisted that its new electric vehicle factory in Stanton, Tenn., be entirely union-built. And that’s just the beginning of the good news for SMART sheet metal workers: To complement its EV factory, Ford will also build several new buildings in Glendale, Ky., entirely union, expanding its battery manufacturing capabilities and providing hundreds of jobs for SMART members during construction (as well as the possibility of future ongoing work).
“This is an opportunity to really build up our apprenticeship program and increase our membership.”
“This is by far the biggest project to come through Kentucky,” said SM Local 110 (Louisville, Ky.) Organizer Jeremy Waugh. “The new facilities will add over 7,000,000 total square feet of new battery manufacturing facilities and impact approximately 1,400 acres of the existing greenfield site. The scope is inclusive of, but not limited to, construction of the following project components: two new 43 gigawatt battery plants, along with their proposed ancillary facilities, as well as administration, canteens and testing facilities.”
He added that the two new mile-long battery plants will mirror one another. Ford will likely construct one of the buildings first, rather than both simultaneously, to start manufacturing more batteries right away — allowing workers to seamlessly transition from the first BOSK jobsite to the second one. That means more work hours for Local 110 members, new members and SMART journeypersons.
“This is an opportunity to really build up our apprenticeship program and increase our membership,” Waugh pointed out.
While the project has been delayed by three months, Ford will likely try to make up that time during site work — meaning SMART members could arrive at the jobsite as soon as January, with work expected to reach a consistent peak in spring or summer 2023. That means the time is now for Local 110 to ramp up recruiting and organizing efforts (and, given the amount of work on the horizon for sheet metal workers across the country due to federal infrastructure legislation, the same goes for SMART locals everywhere). Waugh explained that Local 110 plans to deploy a variety of marketing and recruiting tactics, both evergreen and specific to the BOSK project, to grow its membership, including a billboard near the jobsite, trade shows in the area and print brochures to pass out at jobsites or career fairs, and a new digital database that replicates job listings at the union hall.
“We’re open to ideas from anyone in SMART who might have some out-of-the-box recruiting ideas that they may not be able to try at their local,” he added. “We’re leaving no stone unturned, no idea will go unconsidered.”
Like Ford’s Tennessee project, BOSK is a union project in a so-called “right-to-work” state. That’s significant not only due to its potential impact on union organizing and density during construction, but also as an ongoing opportunity for local SMART members. For companies that engage in large, complex projects, Waugh said, it’s hard to return to the nonunion shop after experiencing the skill and expertise of organized labor.
“The initial need is huge, but we’re looking at the long game” he said. “We have to be successful in the beginning to reap the rewards after.”
Norfolk Southern has sued in federal court an engineer and conductor who were aboard a freight train than collided with another NS train last month in Scott County, Ky. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, the suit claims the crew ignored a signal and failed to reduce the speed of their moving train and prevent the March 18 collision with a stopped train. NS’s lawsuit seeks compensation from the crew for damages caused by the collision, which destroyed two locomotives and caused 13 cars to derail, the newspaper reported. Read the full story at the Lexington Herald-Leader’s website.
