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SMART released the latest episode of SMART News on Wednesday, March 29. Episode seven features General President Joseph Sellers’ first interview since announcing his retirement, as well as an interview with incoming General President Michael Coleman.

“Everything that my family has is because of SMART,” Sellers said in his interview. “My father was a sheet metal worker, I was born into a union sheet metal worker family … my kids understand that, my wife understands that, the rest of my family understands that. Everything that we have is because of being union, and being a SMART member.”

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Both Sellers and Coleman reflected on the extraordinary opportunity that lies ahead for SMART members. For sheet metal members, the ongoing megaproject boom continues to create new jobs across the country — including in Arizona, where two new projects will require hundreds of sheet metal workers at their peak. SMART News spoke with SM Local 359 (Phoenix) Business Manager Jeff Holly about the impact such projects are having on members and the local union.

“We’ve been able to increase our membership,” Holly explained. “In 2017-18 we had 500 members, and currently we have about 850 … all of our funds are super healthy: [from] health and welfare [and] pension funds, down to general fund activity at the hall.”

For rail members, the fallout from the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio has opened a rare window for rail safety legislation on the state and federal level. SMART News hosted SMART TD Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity for an overview on state and national efforts — including the bipartisan Rail Safety Act of 2023 — and the need for members to get involved.

“We need everybody on board here,” Cassity explained. “It’s going to take peer pressure and constituent pressure on our elected representatives to get this stuff moving and get things done.”

In addition, SMART News episode seven highlighted the voices of SMART Women’s Committee Chair Vanessa Carman (Local 66, Seattle), SM Local 16 member Korri Bus and SM Local 206 member Tatjana Sebro, who looked back on Women In Construction Week 2023. And SMART MAP Program Coordinator Chris Carlough joined the program to speak about SMART’s efforts to improve mental health resources for all members.

Watch the entire episode here.

As megaprojects, indoor air quality work and infrastructure investment create jobs for sheet metal workers across the country, SMART continues to produce more resources to help members secure that work – in their local areas and across the country. That includes a new animated video that spells out exactly how SMART members can travel for work, which can be found on YouTube or the SMART Sheet Metal Job Bank.

“This is a moment of incredible opportunity for our union and our industry, and particularly for SMART members who are willing to travel for work” explained SMART Assistant to the General President Darrell Roberts. “New job postings are hitting our Job Bank almost every week, and we want to make absolutely sure our membership knows how to get to those jobs.”

The video, titled “SMART Sheet Metal Travelers,” explicitly addresses frequently asked questions regarding how to travel, what incentives exist for travelers, how travelers are paid, what happens when the travel job is finished, and much more. For more information – including current sheet metal job opportunities across the country – visit the Job Bank.

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

SMART released the latest episode of the Talking SMART podcast on February 23, featuring a discussion with SMART Director of Organizing Darrell Roberts, Local 265 President/Business Manager and SMART 11th General Vice President John Daniel and SASMI Executive Director Ken Colombo about new travel benefits and incentives available to sheet metal members.

A wave of new megaprojects – or projects valued at over $1 billion – is creating unprecedented job opportunities for SMART sheet metal workers across the United States and Canada, as well as driving new changes and growth in the benefits available to SMART members.

To meet the ongoing demand for sheet metal workers, SMART and SASMI are coordinating to expand travel incentives and benefits available to SMART sheet metal workers who are willing to travel for work, and the International is developing resources to help local unions organize to secure more work for SMART members.

Throughout the conversation, Roberts underscored how the large volume of pending work presents huge growth and organizing opportunities for SMART, as well as challenges for locals in terms of staffing these large projects.

“We’re going to have areas where we have megaprojects where the local will be impacted severely,” he explained. “We could see membership growing double to triple what their current membership needs are currently.”

Colombo, meanwhile, detailed the new and increased financial incentives for SMART sheet metal workers willing to travel for work. The SASMI travel benefit has been increased to a maximum of $1,800, up from the previous travel incentive of a maximum of $1,125. In addition, non-SASMI members will now be eligible for traveler incentives, providing they are dispatched to a job that has SASMI in the collective bargaining agreement.

Daniel emphasized how megaprojects and new work stemming from infrastructure legislation are driving SMART to innovate to meet workforce needs across our two nations – both by expanding travel benefits and by working to bring members of all backgrounds into our union.

“Our absolute need to grow, paired with the megaprojects, the infrastructure spending, that’s going to create the opportunity for us to meet the numbers that we need moving forward,” Daniel noted. “And it’s also going to drive us to evolve as an organization.”

At the end of this episode, SMART General President Joseph Sellers joined a SMART Local 24 (northern Ohio) member for a wide-ranging conversation about megaprojects, traveler opportunities and how members can get involved with the union.

Return to Talking SMART index page.

Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people’s voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day.

Megaprojects in the News

SMART members across the country enjoy higher wages, better healthcare and stellar pensions thanks to the strength of our collective bargaining. But we can only maintain our power when we control substantial portions of a given area’s market share — and local unions can only grow their market share if they have a significant (and expanding) membership. In other words, it is vital that we bring nonunion workers into SMART.

“Organizing members is extremely crucial for SMART,” Local 28 (New York City) Business Rep. Marvin Tavarez said during a recent appearance on SMART News. “The more members we organize, the more companies we organize, the more capacity we have to go after the market share that we’ve lost.”

Increasing our membership and signing more union contractors is the most effective way for unions like SMART to compete with the open shop — particularly when it comes to forcing bad-faith contractors to play by the rules. It’s also the lifeblood of the labor movement.

“The only way that unions thrive and move forward is when we organize members,” Tavarez added. “That’s the way we create more market share.”

Watch the full interview in episode two of SMART News

Along with overviewing the importance of organizing, Tavarez pushed back on some of the misconceptions union workers sometimes have about their unorganized peers. Some current SMART members think that newly organized workers will take their jobs away. In reality, adding more members to our union gives us a greater chance of securing more work, providing more job opportunities for everyone. When our membership stagnates, the open shop gains more sway — allowing them to flood local markets with cheap labor that exploits workers and lowers area standards. By organizing, we grow our power and win more jobs for SMART workers.

Additionally, Tavarez said, some SMART members who entered the union via apprenticeship programs think that members who organized in are “card-buyers” who don’t care about the union. In practice, though, the opposite is usually the case. SMART members who previously worked nonunion are grateful for the opportunities they’ve gained and ready to fight tooth and nail for their SMART brothers and sisters. One case study: Tavarez himself.

“We’re all workers at the end of the day, and the only way we’re going to build real worker power is by organizing the unorganized.”

“Before I got organized, I had eviction notices everywhere I looked,” Tavarez told SMART News. “I didn’t have any medical benefits, I had subpar wages … it seemed like every day was a cloudy day.” After joining SMART, everything changed: He gained stability, financial security, healthcare and a family-sustaining career. Now, he works on behalf of his union every day as a business rep.

Laws like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act have spurred a surge in new megaprojects across the country, from a Ford battery plant in Kentucky to a Micron factory in upstate New York. Locals in those areas need to grow in order to secure that work for current and future members — and all members have a role to play in making that happen.

“We’re all workers at the end of the day, and the only way we’re going to build real worker power is by organizing the unorganized,” Tavarez pointed out. “And that’s how members can help: By influencing [new members], embracing them, teaching them right from wrong and showing them that the union is the only way to go in order for them to feed their family, elevate themselves and really change their lives.”

SMART published the first episode of SMART News – a new video/web show focused on issues of importance to SMART members and working families across North America – on September 27, 2022, responding to feedback from SMART workers on the information from their union that they find relevant.

“SMART News will focus on issues that matter to you, your job and your family,” said Paul Pimentel of SMART Communications during the first episode. “This is your news, your union, delivering information that matters to you.”

SMART News is intended to fill an information void for SMART members and other workers in North America by specifically addressing events and developments that impact their lives and their communities – in other words, news that often goes uncovered. The first episode features an update from SMART Transportation Division President Jeremy Ferguson on freight rail contract negotiations; information on new megaprojects and indoor air quality work for sheet metal workers; a discussion on progress made for SMART members with General President Joseph Sellers; an overview on the FRA’s proposed two-person crew regulation from TD Alt. National Legislative Director Jared Cassity; and much more.

Watch the full episode above, or find specific links to segments of the show below. To watch an extended interview with TD President Ferguson, text RRContract to 667336.

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