Back in March of 2000, a group of then-UTU (United Transportation Union) female conductors was joined by women from other transportation crafts to recognize these groundbreaking sisters on the railroad. The photo was taken in front of a then brand-new Dual Mode Locomotive Engine 504.
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In July 2024, those same women reunited to recreate the photo and to reminisce about the good old days. The same Engine 504 was used for the photo. The reunion was put together by retired conductor Beverly Terrillion, who organized the group and even inserted photos on handheld poles to include the few unable to be there.
“What a joyful reunion of the trailblazing women in transportation on the Long Island Rail Road, 24 years later,” said Terrillion.
Union workers from SMART Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.), IBEW Local 613, IUPAT DC 77 and UA Local 72 joined the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers for a transformative community service project in June, replacing the aging Blockhouse Boat Ramp dock at Lake Allatoona. The successful “Unions Unite” event concluded months of organizing by Local 85 apprentice Dyana Lee, whose dedicated unionism helped make the project a historic one.
“We ended up having over 30 volunteers on site day of, and almost 20 people assisting me behind the scenes to create a $70,000 volunteer event,” Lee explained. “It was one of the largest union volunteer events in Atlanta history, with multiple trades coming together to build and better something for our community while creating a sense of solidarity among union brothers and sisters of Atlanta.”
“Thanks to Dyana’s hard work and determination, this project was a huge success,” added Local 85 Business Manager and SMART General Vice President Steve Langley.
Lee, who recently completed the first year of her apprenticeship, started getting active in her local in January 2023: attending Local 85 Women’s Committee meetings and taking on responsibilities within the committee at the request of chair and Local 85 President Jan Chappell. But the inspiration for a cross-trades, solidarity-driven community service event was sparked in earnest during the 2023 Tradeswomen Build Nations (TWBN) conference in Washington, DC. Lee attended the TWBN all-tradeswomen hike sponsored by the USA, learning about the organization’s conservation and restoration efforts through its Work Boots on the Ground program.
“While I was at the conference, I was inspired by the community, strength and solidarity shown between different trades,” she said. “I took the lessons I learned at TWBN and decided that I would like to spearhead a project in Atlanta to bring people from multiple trades together to give back to our community and start to foster that sense of unitedness between tradespeople.
“With the full support of my local and my mentor, Jan Chappell, I reached out to the USA to start the ball rolling on this idea.”
Lee met with USA Conservation Coordinator Cody Campbell, who walked her through the steps needed to create the type of project she envisioned. Lee then started organizing: attending meetings at other locals in Atlanta, talking to tradespeople at jobsites and eventually contacting Atlanta & North Georgia Building Trades Business Manager Randy Beall (a member of Local 85) to help connect her to other local unions. All told, she spent six months networking with potential volunteers, also delivering a speech at the USA’s Atlanta fundraising dinner to rally her union brothers and sisters to the cause.
In the meantime, Lee and Campbell worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to identify a project, eventually landing on the replacement of the courtesy dock at Blockhouse Boat Ramp. The old dock only had a few mooring points for community members, leading to traffic, congestion and safety concerns, and it was no longer ADA-compliant – restricting the number of people that could use the dock and limiting accessibility.
With the project decided, Lee doubled down on her organizing, successfully recruiting dozens of volunteers from other trades. On the day of the project, the skilled volunteer force gathered at 7 a.m., with work starting at 7:45.
“The temperature was 88 degrees at 6 a.m., and the humidity was off the charts,” said Lee. “However, that didn’t stop my determined team from getting the job done, not only well, but fast.”
The new, accessible boat dock will benefit Atlanta community members for years to come. But to Lee, the impact extended to the worksite, where she said the sense of cross-trade community she was working to foster started to have tangible outcomes. On her job, for example, she started to see workers from different trades gathering for lunch each day, and the environment began to feel more positive and supportive – everyone had each other’s back.
“My goal in organizing and creating the first annual Unions Unite event was to take that first step to building that for every jobsite, for every local,” Lee noted. “This sense of community won’t just create more amicable jobsites; it will help to break down the stigma of being a union member in the eyes of the city, showing that union culture includes a sense of belonging and acceptance for everyone.”
Moving forward, Lee is working with the Georgia Building Trades to collaborate with some of the tradeswomen she met through the Unions Unite event to create a Georgia Building Trades Women’s Committee. She sees that effort as part of a greater endeavor to strengthen and grow the labor movement in Atlanta — and beyond.
“I want the young adults to know that there’s a place for them with us, no matter the trade they go into,” Lee declared. “We are all brothers and sisters; united we stand, divided we fall.”
Florida is a so-called “right-to-work” state, where unions consistently weather anti-worker attacks from corporate-beholden lawmakers seeking to weaken our collective bargaining power. But that hasn’t stopped SMART Local 435 (Jacksonville, Fla.) from organizing. And in June, Local 435 successfully signed PreCast Florida, a concrete manufacturing company that works alongside sheet metal shops, to a fabrication contract.
“All workers should have representation and benefits,” said Local 435 Business Manager Lance Fout when announcing the new signatory.
Local 435 Business Manager Lance Fout, standing, third from left, with PreCast Florida workers.
The signatory campaign at PreCast emerged from Local 435’s relationship with another one of its union contractors, Southern State Duct Masters, which signed with the local in 2022.
“Southern State has been very satisfied, and the company has been growing,” Fout explained. “Since they signed, they’ve got a new laser machine, a spiral machine, a new building; they’ve been thriving.”
Southern State owner Ashley Moore’s brother and sister-in-law purchased a concrete precast company shortly after, renaming it PreCast Florida. Despite the ownership and name change, PreCast had major problems with employee recruitment and retention, Fout explained, primarily due to a lack of benefits.
That’s when Moore suggested that PreCast contact Local 435.
“They weren’t sure what that would look like, but they were open to the idea,” Fout recalled.
Local 435 took the initiative, meeting with management and workers and explaining the benefits of working union. (The employees were shocked by what they stood to gain, Fout said.) From there, the process was simple: Local 435 wrote up a production agreement that included healthcare, a 401(k) plan, vacation and holiday pay, and the company gave all its employees a pay raise to cover the cost of union dues.
PreCast Florida officially signed with the local on June 1, and the union advantage is already making itself felt for workers at the shop.
“They’re ready to start making doctor’s appointments, I know that,” Fout said.
Local 435’s newest production members manufacture concrete light poles, picnic tables, construction castings and ornamental structures, displaying the same craftsmanship and artistry as their brothers and sisters working directly with sheet metal. Moreover, Fout said, the Local 435 members at Southern State Duct Masters are fabricating some of the metal forms that PreCast workers will use for their concrete molds, creating more work hours for members at both shops.
“It’s slightly outside the normal scope of work, but we’ve got a good relationship with the employer, a strong contract, and the employees are happy,” he concluded.
Following multiple letters submitted and concerted outreach to the United States Department of Transportation by SMART Governmental Affairs staff, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority secured $5.1 billion from the federal government to help fund the construction of four new Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations. The extension, part of a broad effort to expand transportation rail connectivity in the Bay Area, represents the second-largest federal investment in any transportation project — and the largest outside of New York City.
“This will put Local 104 members to work for years to come, and it’s a direct example of the Biden-Harris administration’s willingness to fund major infrastructure projects — built union,” said Local 104 (Northern California) State Legislative Director Vince Sugrue. “This work will be performed under a PLA.”
Washington, DC, Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit against five companies in late June, alleging that they engaged in a “widespread misclassification scheme that deprived hundreds of District construction workers the wages and benefits they were entitled to under DC law.”
The companies — Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, W.G./Welch Mechanical Contractors, LLC and three labor brokers (Mechanical Plumbing Crew Co., Ramirez Plumbing Inc. and GINCO HVAC, LLC) — are accused of denying workers the proper minimum wage, overtime and paid sick leave they deserve.
Local 100 job action related to the DC OAG lawsuit.
“The construction industry is loaded with nonunion contractors who hire subcontractors called labor brokers to act as intermediaries between the workers and the construction companies,” said Chuck Sewell, marketing director for Local 100, in a press release from the DC Office of the Attorney General. “This leads to a diffusion of responsibility, where neither the broker nor the construction company takes full responsibility for the workers’ conditions, rights and welfare.”
Bad-faith, nonunion contractors and labor brokers often misclassify workers to avoid paying taxes, work compensation and other requirements, Sewell added, noting that labor brokers “often put their workers on projects without sufficient training, risking their safety and resulting in poor quality workmanship.”
At a mixed-use development in DC known as City Ridge, sheet metal worker Edwin Mayorga and approximately 370 of his fellow workers said that they weren’t paid in full.
“We worked 12 hours a day from Monday to Friday, and on Saturday we worked 10 hours, Sunday, 10 hours, practically,” he said in Spanish [to the Post], through an interpreter. “We weren’t resting.”
Local 100 Organizer Rolando Montoya connected with workers at the City Ridge jobsite after hearing complaints that they weren’t getting paid, helping them access resources to fight for the compensation they were owed.
“Our contractors that are being responsible, paying for training, paying good wages, benefits — when they bid on these projects, they can’t compete,” Montoya said in the Post article. “It’s affecting union workers, because it’s less work.”
Fighting wage theft and uncovering low-road contractors isn’t just the right thing to do for exploited workers and high-road contractors; it illuminates the difference provided by union representation, helping SMART locals recruit more workers. One example: the sheet metal worker from the City Ridge project, Edwin Mayorga, who has since joined Local 100.
“It’s a huge difference,” he told the Washington Post, “mainly because one is not fighting to get paid.”
On Monday, July 15th, during an instructors’ meeting at the SMART Local 177 (Middle Tennessee) JATC, Organizer David Larue presented a BE4ALL Toolbox Talk to instructors, describing the need to support apprentices’ mental health (Toolbox Talk #8) as they attend training. The group discussed the role of an instructor being much more than just a teacher, Larue said.
“We are on the front lines of the well-being of our apprentices and often serve as counselors, life coaches, social workers — and friends,” he explained. “It is our duty as union brothers and sisters to look out for each other and show a sense of understanding, compassion and guidance when we see a fellow member in need.”
In attendance: JATC Training Coordinator Joe Maloney, Instructors Aaron Brown, Tony Easley (retired Local 177 business manager), Russ Hawkins, John Lloyd, Dave Morgan, Aroldo Pedrero, Danielle Piper (Local 177 recording secretary), Michael Smith, Casey Stanley, Jason Street (Local 177 president) and Luther Tate (Local 177 business manager).
Fifth-year Local 27 (Southern New Jersey) apprentices forged their way into the local’s history with their group project this summer, creating a “27” sign that is now proudly displayed at the Local 27 union hall. The apprentices fabricated the sign out of 11 ga carbon steel, designing and forming the project using CAD, a plasma table and a press brake — all equipment that was provided through the International Training Institute (ITI) grant program.
Pictured, front row, left to right: Business Rep. Mike Kolbasowski, President/Business Manager Thomas De Bartolo, fifth-year apprentices Malcolm Hill, Clayton Jansa, Conner Kozar, Training Coordinator John Espinos Jr., Zach Szabo, Isaac Rolph. Back row: Peter Palumbo, Thomas Sommers III, Rob Rasmussen, Mike Melon, Dan Marino, Alex Sarti, Will Anderson.
On Saturday, August 10, the Local 38 (Westchester and Rockland Counties, N.Y.) SMART Army held its first Annual Benefit Car Show for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation — an organization that, since 9/11, has worked to provide “mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and … [build] specially-adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders,” among other efforts. The event brought in approximately 200 spectators to view the cars and take a tour of Local 38’s union hall and training center, and raised more than $5,000 for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Pictured, left to right: Local 33 Business Manager Corey Beaubien, Business Rep. Hank Strahan, Frank Jones (50 years), Marvin Polo (50 years), Gus Williams (50 years), Thomas Frizzell (50 years), SMART General President Michael Coleman, Guy Disiena (50 years), Business Rep. Todd Alishusky, Richard Cartwright (25 years), Business Rep. Shane Vermilye.
On June 17, Local 17 (Boston, Mass.) Business Development Representative and SMART International Women’s Committee Chair Shamaiah Turner won the June NABTU Tradeswomen Heroes Award — a feather in the cap of a committed trade unionist who has consistently advocated for her union, her trade and her brothers and sisters.
“Shamaiah’s achievements and dedication to SMART are remarkable,” Local 17 wrote in its nomination. “Sister Turner’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity in the sheet metal industry shines throughout her career.”
Turner started in the construction industry at 18, when she worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer building houses with Habitat for Humanity in Fort Myers, Florida. After entering the Building Pathways Pre-apprenticeship Program in Boston, Turner joined Local 17 in 2012, officially beginning her journey as a union sheet metal worker. She’s worked in a range of positions since, including as a sub-foreman leading crews to complete specific building objectives on various projects. Today, as a business development representative, she strives to help workers win the pay, benefits and peace of mind they deserve.
“Beyond her workday, Sister Turner actively engages with community events and organizations, including the Greater Boston Labor Council, Building Pathways, MASS Girls in Trades, Boston Union Trade Sisters, The Boston Ujima Project and Boston While Black, emphasizing her broader community empowerment commitment,” Local 17 added.
Turner has also dedicated herself to mentorship, particularly to her sisters at Local 17 and throughout the union sheet metal trade. From apprentices to journeypersons, Local 17 noted, she actively works to help her fellow workers reach their fullest potential.
“Sister Turner’s career achievements, commitment to inclusivity, and dedication to mentoring make her a true Tradeswomen Hero,” the local concluded. “She is a role model and advocate for women in the trades, leaving a mark on the industry and paving the way for future generations of tradeswomen.”
