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“We’re seeing growth like we’ve never seen before,” said SMART Director of Organizing Jason Benson during a recent interview.  

In more than 25 years of union membership, Benson couldn’t have dreamed of experiencing anything quite like the last five years. Domestic infrastructure investments and an explosion of megaprojects — thanks in large part to the labor-friendly laws and policies proffered by the Biden administration, plus corresponding governance in Canada — brought tens of thousands of new members into our union, he explained. Strong labor standards tied to megaprojects, particularly those in areas without a readily available supply of sheet metal workers, spurred local unions to organize, recruit and blitz at a frenzied place; some unions, like Local 110 in Kentucky, nearly doubled in size.

Now, Benson said, we need to stick to our core principles to maintain our momentum.

“We’ve seen tremendous growth,” Benson said. “I mean, it’s been referred to as generational growth. Nobody knows when we’ll have this opportunity again. So we want to take advantage of every opportunity that’s out there right now.”

Our path through uncertainty

A great deal of SMART’s recent organizing growth in the United States can be traced to the pro-union — and pro-organizing — policymaking of the Biden administration. Three signature laws, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act, invested heavily in our industries, with strong labor standards putting SMART members on resulting projects. A pro-worker National Labor Relations Board took steps to help unions like SMART organize, including issuing a memo banning captive audience meetings. And a new emphasis on indoor air quality, both at the federal government and in the private sector, put SMART production and sheet metal workers in high demand.

But we are now entering a period of uncertainty, Benson noted. Already we’ve seen federal decisions that prevent the NLRB from functioning property; the Department of Defense has halted project labor agreements on its construction work; funding streams related to the Inflation Reduction Act have come under threat; and, outside of the governmental arena, the inevitable end of work on currently ongoing megaprojects means local unions will have dozens — if not hundreds — of members brought in for specific jobs who now need work.

All that means, Benson said, is that our focus on organizing members and contractors is more important than ever.

“That’s where the efforts of maintaining our core work and our local unions [come in], the work that we traditionally have done that has built our union throughout the years, and we want to make sure we’re still capturing every bit of that available,” he said.

“We just have to make sure that we maintain the membership, maintain the work, maintain our contractors to make sure we have all available work hours to put people to work.”

Everybody is an organizer

Crucially, both organizing and retention happens well beyond the local union officer level.

Oftentimes, Benson said, we think of organizing as a task reserved for those with a specific title: organizer, business representative, steward. That couldn’t be farther from the truth: The core of SMART’s identity throughout our history is the principle that every engaged member is an organizer.

“Organizing is the lifeblood of any local union,” he explained, “[and] everybody that’s involved in our organization is an organizer one way or the other. Everybody came to the union through some form of organizing, whether it was a member-to-member relationship, or they saw an advertisement, or they scanned a QR code — or anything like that.”

To that end, an enormous range of options exist for members looking to help organize at their local union. Members can volunteer with the SMART Army and local union committees to conduct outreach. We can volunteer to assist with job actions, whether leafletting, picketing or supporting workers on strike. We can consistently spread the word among family and friends, community groups and churches. Most of all, we can stay engaged at the local union level.

“There’s a lot of things that a rank-and-file member can do to support the organizing,” Benson concluded. “No one gets to the union hall on their own. There’s something that prompted them to do that. And all of that falls under organizing.”

Local 206 (San Diego, Calif.) members working for signatory contractor A.O. Reed made history on the IQHQ Research & Development District project — previously covered in the Members’ Journal — by fabricating and installing what SMACNA considers the largest ductwork ever fabricated, measuring 248” x 142”.

“Our BIM team worked hand-in-hand with SMACNA and the engineer to ensure these large systems operate at the highest quality,” A.O. Reed said in a press release. “After fabrication and installation, SMACNA reviewed its records and found the ductwork was the largest ever fabricated.”

A.O. Reed employs the largest number of union tradesworkers in San Diego County and is the only mechanical contractor in the city of San Diego that fabricates its own ductwork. The company, which started as a small plumbing business 110 years ago, directly attributes much of its success to its unionized workforce.

“This advantage gives us the unique ability to modify our fabrication process and adjust to the different idiosyncrasies of the job,” the press release continued. “Our team finds new and inventive ways to overcome obstacles in the field. At A.O. Reed, we have some of the best fabricators in our industry, and by utilizing our team’s skills and expertise, we made history! Our team produces high-quality products for our clients, and with the help of our journeymen, apprentices and technicians, we can provide the best mechanical systems in Southern California.”

Local 206 members working at the company’s in-house sheet metal shop put in long hours on the IQHQ duct system, fabricating approximately 24,000 pounds of galvanized steel roof duct. The duct riser was made of 15-gauge galvanized steel and weighed 1,600 pounds per joint.

“Our team of union journeymen, welders, technicians and apprentices meticulously fabricated these pieces of ductwork to ensure we provided the highest-quality product for the project,” the release concluded. “Without their skillset and craftsmanship this project would not have been possible.”

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!

For father-daughter sheet metal workers Anthony Smith and Amber Jones, joining SMART Local 4 (Memphis, Tennessee) and working for signatory contractor Ventcon has demonstrated the difference between a nonunion gig and a union career.

“Before I joined the union, I didn’t think I’d ever really be able to retire — I’ve always bartended, served, didn’t have anything going into retirement,” said Jones, a first-year apprentice. “Here with the local, I’m able to retire one day. I’m actually able to pay my bills, financially afford to feed my kids and, you know, moving up in life.”

“I’ve been in the trade off and on for about 30 years,” added Smith, a Marine Corps veteran and a member of Local 4 since August 2023. “I was always told that being unionized was something I would not want to consider, but everything that I’d heard about Local 4 — and of course, experiencing it now — I wish I would’ve [joined] a long time ago. … With the way the local treats you, the way everybody here treats you, it just gives you a better opportunity to move forward.”

Both Smith and Jones are currently at work fabricating metal for Ford’s massive Blue Oval City electric vehicle plant in Stanton, Tennessee. For the country at-large, their jobs are helping to build our sustainable economic and clean energy future. For the two Local 4 sheet metal workers, it’s an extraordinary amount of fabrication work.

“It’s great work. It’s not easy work, but it’s good, honest work — you make good pay,” Smith said.

“[Ford Blue Oval City] is needing a ton of metal, which we are constantly pushing out — truck loads a day,” Jones explained. “I love the people that I work with; I enjoy coming to work every day.”

The work is one thing, but the benefits of union membership go beyond just material gains. For Jones, the union apprenticeship program has helped nurture a love of learning in a trade that has endless possibilities.

“I like to stay busy; I like to learn new things, being able to understand how things work,” she said. “I go to school every Monday and Tuesday night. It’s very welcoming; they’ve been there for me, helped guide me, they’re teaching me everything that I need to know.”

Smith, meanwhile, said the sense of camaraderie parallels what he had in the Marines.

“Everybody helps each other, you know. We don’t just finish a job that we’re on and stand around, and watch everybody else maybe struggle,” he said. “Everybody pulls together to get the job done. It’s a great team that works out here, and it’s probably the best atmosphere I’ve been in in a very, very long time.”

Local 17 (Boston, Mass.) members are preparing to begin work on one of the largest real estate projects in Boston history, as well as the largest-ever project labor agreement (PLA)-covered job in Massachusetts: the redevelopment of Suffolk Downs, a former horse racing site on the border of east Boston and neighboring Revere. The 20-year buildout is set to create pipelines to family-sustaining union careers for thousands of local community members, as well as construct affordable housing in the area.

According to the development firm heading the project, HYM Investment Group, “the redevelopment will transform 161 acres into a new resilient mixed-use neighborhood served by two stops on the MBTA Blue Line. Suffolk Downs will create 10,000 new units of housing to meet critical demand in the market, and will provide a mix of senior, workforce, family and young professional housing, including over 900 affordable units.”

And thanks to the PLA negotiated between HYM, its general contractor, John Moriarty & Associates and both the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters and Boston’s Building and Construction Trades Council, the Suffolk Downs project will be completely union-built and create 14,000 jobs across every sector of the building trades.

The initial project phase will include approximately 1.39 million square feet of development consisting of the Phase 1 Project (520,000 square feet of corporate use and amenity space); three residential buildings; a portion of the townhomes proposed along Waldemar Avenue totaling over 800 housing units; and construction of the Horseshoe Pond landscaped wetland enhancements and Belle Isle Square public plaza, with over 100,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

“It will be a city within a city,” said SMART Northeast Regional Council Labor Management Representative John Cody. “The local community will benefit from new affordable housing and pathways to new careers, whether it be in retail, hospitality, bio life science or the Boston building trades unions. And for our current members of Local 17, we are starting from a blank canvas, so the many hours of work generated by this project will sustain the quality of life for the families of Local 17 and other trades.”

The power of a union-negotiated project labor agreement is on full display with the Suffolk Downs job: Labor, with the help of former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Mass. State Senator (former City Councilor) Lydia Edwards, worked hard to ensure strong equity and local hire requirements are included in the project’s short- and long-term future.

As part of the PLA, HYM committed to providing $2 million in investments to support employment pipelines that will help local residents enter family-sustaining, union careers, both during construction and as part of Suffolk Downs’ future workforce. That includes $1 million in new funding to support the Building Pathways pre-apprenticeship program, in which 90% of enrollees are people of color and 43% are women, and allows direct employment of graduates from Building Pathways.

“Having this PLA in place will help with the growth of the local,” Cody concluded. “Through community standards in place within the PLA, our involvement with various community groups in the area, our outreach to trade schools and career fairs in the city and even on the grounds of the project itself provided by the developer and our partnership with them throughout this whole process. We are hitting the streets and visiting workers, letting them know what a union is all about.”

Throughout the spring and summer of 2023, approximately 125 SMART Local 105 members were performing HVAC, kitchen, architectural and TAB work on the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers, known officially as the Intuit Dome. The $2 billion project is slated to open for the 2024–2025 NBA season.

SMART’s news team toured the project in May 2023 with Local 105 leaders and members working on the project.

“We’re doing all the HVAC,” said Local 105 journeyperson Mike Duran, who is also a Marine Corps veteran and general foreman with Southland Industries on the arena job. “We’ve got about 1.2 million pounds of ductwork to put in this building. There’s probably about 40 or 50 air handlers.”

The project also has two-and-a-half dozen grease scrubbers and more than 7,000 linear feet of grease duct. “You’ve got hot markets, kitchens, concession stands,” said Duran. “Anything they cook food at, it’ll have a grease hood and it’ll pull the air and filter it and then spit it out of the building.”

He added that the project was on a “fast track,” with all the different trades and thousands of moving parts.

“I think right now there’s 1,100 workers on site. It’s a lot of planning, a lot of logistics to try to make everything and get everything in here.”

Under a project labor agreement (PLA) negotiated for the job, local hiring has been prioritized.

“A goal of a project like this, when it was negotiated through the building trades,” said SMART Local 105 Business Manager/President Steve Hinson, “was to bring people from the community and give them the opportunity to work on a grand structure like this. And give them the opportunity to learn the craft, to learn a trade.”

Hinson underscored that “PLAs have been proven to bring jobs in, using good union labor, on-time and under budget.”

“We’ve got an awesome team out here,” said Duran, “and we all work together for the same goal — to get everything done safely and effectively.”

Duran has been in the sheet metal industry since 1999.

“I came from Local 16 up in Portland,” he said. “My brother worked there and he got me in the trade.”

After apprenticing, Duran joined the Marines, serving for four years — including two tours of duty in Iraq. After leaving the military, he worked for a company providing personal security services in Iraq. He then moved down to southern California, met his wife and got married, and got back into the sheet metal industry with SMART Local 105.

“For somebody that’s coming out of the military,” he added, “that wants to work with their hands and build something, the trades are a great place to go. You can get in, make a good wage, good benefits, provide for your family and be successful. Out of all the trades, I think sheet metal is one of the best ones. We build our own stuff, we install it, we fabricate it.”

SMART Local 206 (San Diego, Calif.) sheet metal workers are currently on the job at the IQHQ Research and Development District in downtown San Diego: a large, mixed-use, life science development that spans eight acres and six city blocks. Once completed, it will be California’s largest commercial waterfront site, featuring mid-rise buildings, a 17-story tower, shops, restaurants, a public paseo, roof decks and green spaces.

“Work like this is a testament to our members’ skill, expertise and commitment to safety,” said Local 206 Business Manager/Financial Secretary-Treasurer Dave Gauthier. “We are proud to play such a vital role shaping the future of San Diego.”

Four Local 206 signatory contractors are currently on the job. CMF, Inc. workers are performing portions of the architectural work. Local 206 members at California Sheet Metal, meanwhile, will staff the project for one year, with a scope that spans four of the eight areas of work and requires 12,170 shop hours and 14,326 field hours, with 2,700 linear feet of railing and 8,380 square feet of trellis.

Local 206 signatory contractor A.O. Reed was brought on early in the project phase to create unique detailing and constructability ideas to accommodate the project’s scope. The development — which A.O. Reed says is taking place on “arguably the last undeveloped land on the San Diego waterfront” — is estimated to be completed in early 2024.

Block 2B of the IQHQ project includes the 17-story lab/office building with retail spaces at the ground level and second floors. The laboratory spaces require the installation of lab exhaust risers: the largest duct that workers at A.O. Reed have fabricated in the company’s 109-year history. The duct measures 248 by 118 inches and runs from the rooftop on level 18 to level 1. The size and complexity of the duct setting — which necessitated the use of a crane — saw the A.O. Reed BIM team working hand-in-hand with the engineer to pre-plan each step of the process, showcasing the depth and detail of the sheet metal trade as Local 206 members work to ensure the large system operates as efficiently and flawlessly as possible.

Members working for ACCO Engineered systems will spend a total of 16 months on the job — 44,000 work hours in the field, 8,000 work hours in the shop. They have already installed two 264- by 78-inch lab exhaust duct risers with subduct connections, using a tower crane to drop the riser pieces down the shaft and into place. Local 206 workers pre-assembled the supply air duct over the air handling units — sized 204 by 66 inches — on the ground. ACCO employees also built 62- by 15- by 6-foot outside-air plenums, which connected to the curtain wall system out of a gas station panel.

Fifteen SMART signatory contractors employing over 250 sheet metal workers are currently working on Ford’s Blue Oval City project in Stanton, Tennessee. The massive automotive facility, sitting just a dozen miles outside Memphis, will be the foundation of a manufacturing ecosystem in Tennessee that will create more than 11,000 new American manufacturing jobs. There are 3,000 union construction workers currently on site, including members of SMART Local 4 in Memphis.

In May, former General President Joseph Sellers joined General President Michael Coleman for a tour of the massive project with workers at Ventcon, one of the array of unionized sheet metal contractors mobilized for this project. While there, they were able to meet with SMART sheet metal workers from a number of different firms who were employed at the project. In addition to the 250 SMART members employed at Blue Oval City, another 900 sheet metal workers are expected to be needed by September of this year.

The $5.6 billion battery and vehicle manufacturing campus will be the largest in the iconic auto manufacturer’s history, one which is built to last for the remainder of the century and will deliver millions of electric power cars to consumers across North America.

According to company press releases, Ford is investing more than $50 billion worldwide through 2026 to develop a new generation of electric vehicles. The company plans to manufacture them at scale at a run rate of 600,000 electric vehicles globally by late 2023 and 2 million by 2026. Ford, as of summer 2022, had already secured 100% of the annual battery cell capacity needed to support the 2023 target and 70% needed to support the 2026 target.

The completion of this facility is central to that goal, one that will not only affect the future of the company, but also the future of the North American auto market. SMART sheet metal workers are once again at the forefront of this industrial revolution.

Retired General President Sellers and General President Coleman visited SMART Local 4.

Blue Oval City consists of 13 buildings. The heart of the campus is the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center, which will produce the next-generation Ford truck. The battery plant itself will be over 4.1 million square feet, with ductwork being installed by Ventcon. Because of the nature of the manufacturing work that will be performed at the site, humidity and climate control — and, consequently, the quality of the sheet metal worker performed — will be central to ensuring the success of operations at the facility. Outside wall panels are being installed by API, another signatory with Local 4 in Memphis.

“The future is now, and it will take every union sheet metal worker, present and future, to make sure we are at the forefront of bringing back our industrial capacity,” said General President Coleman. “I could not be any prouder of the work we are going to do to make that happen.”

If you or another member you know are interested in traveling to this massive, long-term project — along with the dozens of others across North America — be sure to visit the SMART Job Bank.

Signatory contractors working on Blue Oval City: Ventcon, FM Sylvan, HM White, Midsouth Industrial, Durr, McShane Mechanical, API, Universal Wall Systems, Christen Detroit, Schreiber, CS3, Damon-Marcus, Systematic Testing and Balancing, Ralph Jones Sheet Metal.

WATCH: “I am very excited about the big jobs that are coming up. We have many opportunities that they offer for those who are willing to work, work hard and learn new skills.”

North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) hosted an event titled “Meeting the Moment” on Thursday, March 30 in Columbus, Ohio. The event, part of NABTU’s Opportunity Pipeline series, featured NABTU President Sean McGarvey, SMART Local 24 (southern Ohio) member McKenzie Quinn, representatives from the Ohio governor’s office, state politicians from both sides of the aisle, local union workers and more, all talking about one thing: $200 billion worth of megaprojects breaking ground in Ohio.

“Join us in rebuilding America and join us in establishing your place in the middle class,” McGarvey said at the event, addressing the union tradespeople of the future. “… We look forward to building this together as a team, as a community for the benefit of all in our country.”

As a result of massive investment and new megaprojects from companies like Intel, Honda and more – spurred in part by federal legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act – the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council estimates that more than 115,000 union workers will work full time from 2023 to 2025. That enormous number of jobs opens a huge window of opportunity for SMART sheet metal workers, both current and future members.

McKenzie Quinn (front row, second from right) with the leadership of Local 24.

“In Columbus right now, we have a lot of exciting upcoming projects,” Local 24 journeyperson Quinn said. “We have chip factories, data centers, electric vehicle battery plants, and this is going to bring hundreds of good-paying jobs in the next few years.”

That not only means family-sustaining jobs for Ohio SMART members – it creates a golden opportunity for local unions to recruit, organize and grow their market share.

“We need to do our best to continue recruiting people from every background,” Quinn noted. “This opportunity is available to everyone.”

Megaprojects, union apprenticeship programs create opportunity for all

Multiple speakers at Thursday’s event testified to the power of a union apprenticeship when it comes to lifting workers up, no matter their background or identity. Year after year, the statistics demonstrate that unions reduce economic disparity for women, people of color and other members of historically marginalized communities. By taking advantage of megaprojects and bringing more workers into the unionized trade, SMART locals can do more than fortify their strength – they can create real opportunity for all.

“Joining a union has given me safety and security in my job and safety from discrimination, not only with wages but also gender-based discrimination,” Quinn said. “This is a great chance for everybody, including women and minorities, to get into the trades and have a great career.”

Watch further coverage of the event here.

Megaprojects in the News