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.
Ballots have been sent to workers at the Coaster commuter rail service in southern California, and the SMART Transportation Division (SMART-TD) is excited for the future opportunity to serve.
A unique opportunity
SMART-TD has been speaking with local workers during the representation campaign that began in April. Since then, our representatives have been laying the groundwork for success.
“Coaster members are looking for a voice that truly understands their unique challenges and can advocate effectively on their behalf,” Vice President James Sandoval said. “At SMART Transportation Division, we will bring them that voice.”
Unionized workers for Coaster have not seen a new contract in over two years and the subsequent boost in benefits a well-negotiated agreement brings. The SMART-TD is looking to step in to do just that once representation is finalized by the National Mediation Board.
Misrepresentation seen through
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is seeking to add Coaster workers and has been doing its best to sway opinion against SMART-TD. President Eddie Hall made a highly publicized statement May 31 stating that workers at Coaster “contacted us due to their continued dissatisfaction with the representation that they have been receiving from SMART-TD.”
A worker at Coaster and former BLE member with nearly 30 years in the rail industry responded to him directly via email to correct that inaccuracy.
“I’m all about transparency and truth. You mentioned that we are dissatisfied with the representation from SMART-TD, that is incorrect… We were previously under SMART, the Sheet Metal, Mechanical side, not the Transportation side. The majority of our members signed a petition that we wanted to be moved to SMART-TD and on April 17 we received confirmation that we were…I am not sure where you received this information that we are not happy with SMART-TD…”
In addition to the response to the false statement concerning SMART-TD’s representation, the worker expressed concerns about that organization’s tactics, saying they haphazardly swooped in the week our union began formal discussions in getting a transition into SMART-TD finalized.
“To me and a lot of others (it) felt like we were ambushed and the way it happened was not transparent,” he wrote. “We are very happy with what SMART-TD had done in the month they have been on property, and we want negotiations to start ASAP.
“Enough is enough and we are tired of all this back and forth. We have a great union now with SMART TD and want to get past this so we can sign a good contract.”
Making necessary adjustments
Once the results of the balloting are known, our union representatives intend to be laser-focused on getting the new members strong local leadership so that discussions on a new contract can begin. General Chairperson Rick Pauli, whose GO 769 represents seven railroads, including five commuter carriers, has been assigned a lead role in negotiating a new agreement.
“We are excited to get the negotiation process started for our brothers and sisters on the Coaster service. This membership has been working without an agreement for over two (2) years now,” Pauli said. “SMART-TD will ensure that the members get what they want and deserve – a great agreement with better working conditions.”
A service-oriented focus moving ahead
In addition to Pauli’s role in negotiations, Sandoval said that the union is excited to step in and serve, with Vice President Gary Crest also assisting.
“Serving our membership is our highest priority. We are committed to ensuring that our Coaster members have the strong, effective representation they deserve, and that starts with establishing solid local leadership and getting the contract they deserve,” Sandoval said.
Represented by the SMART Mechanical Division (SMART-MD) in prior years, SMART-TD has cooperated with the MD to transition and familiarize the unionized workers in the move over this spring. While the MD chiefly represents maintenance workers who make repairs on rail cars, most employees on the Coaster property operate trains and the TD is the largest rail union in the United States, representing operating employees at multiple commuter agencies in major U.S. metropolitan areas.
“We are the best at what we do. Our track record speaks for itself, and we are ready to bring that expertise to our new Coaster family” Sandoval said.
The lines of communication have been open to Coaster workers from the beginning in April and included a June 23 town hall virtual meeting with SMART TD President Jeremy Ferguson.
SMART-TD Chief of Staff Jerry Gibson says that once Coaster workers finalize their relationship with the Transportation Division that they will not be disappointed.
“A situation like this is one that SMART TD excels in,” he said. “We have organized similar underserved properties, improving membership communication, training and representation to a level that membership wants and frankly deserves. It is indicative of the member first, service-oriented mission of this union. That’s what we are here for and that’s what we’ll do. Most importantly, we do it transparently and without false promises, smoke and mirrors.”
The voting period for Coaster to finalize their entrance into SMART-TD takes place 12:01 a.m. ET Thursday through July 31, 2024. The tally will take place at the NMB’s offices 2 p.m. ET July 31.
Coaster is operated by the North County Transit District (NCTD) in northern San Diego County and runs about 40 miles from Oceanside to San Diego, Calif.
SMART members across North America are living in extraordinary times. And nowhere are these extraordinary times, with all their challenges and opportunities, better exemplified than in Faribault, Minnesota, a town of approximately 25,000 people and the home of SMART Local 480.
An American flag flies over the shop floor as Local 480 members work at Daikin Applied.
In Faribault and nearby Owatonna, money from laws passed by the Biden administration has spurred a surge in demand at commercial HVAC manufacturer Daikin Applied, leading to an equivalent increase in workforce needs. Local 480, which represents production members, has responded by putting the pedal to the metal: organizing, recruiting and concocting innovative solutions to make sure they have the workers they need — both today, and for the long term.
“We’re growing way faster than anybody would’ve ever expected,” said Local 480 Business Manager Donavan Vierling.
Meeting the challenge
Approximately three years ago, Local 480 had 849 members across its signatory shops: Daikin Applied in Faribault and Owatonna, and Crown Cork and Seal in Faribault. Today, the local has around 1,250 members — and it’s expected to need 250 more at Daikin by the end of 2024.
“Our Daikin shops have really started to grow, especially with the money out there for COVID relief, from the CHIPS and Science Act, the infrastructure bill. The company has seen huge growth, and they’ve put a lot of money in their plants, technology, things like that,” said Local 480 Subsidized Organizer Billy Dyrdahl, a third-generation sheet metal worker.
With the need for workers showing no signs of stopping, Dyrdahl and Local 480 have pulled out all the organizing stops: hand billing during shift changes at nonunion production shops, visiting workers at manufacturing plants that are closing, flyering at gas stations and much more. They’ve also worked with the company on retention efforts, ensuring new hires know all the benefits provided by Daikin and by their union. Dyrdahl and the local even went so far as to contract with Strive Staffing, an agency that provides gateways to union jobs like those at the Minnesota Vikings and Twins stadiums, to reach potential new hires in the Twin Cities area.
The effort to meet Daikin’s demand has been a union-wide one. SMART Local 10, based out of the Twin Cities metro, has collaborated with Local 480 on various canvassing and flyering operations, including to fill workforce needs at Daikin. Plus, by working with SMART International Organizer Dan Kortte, Local 10 Business Manager Matt Fairbanks, Organizer Paul Martin and others, Local 480 recently helped Daikin complete a time-sensitive welding job by bringing on several Local 10 sheet metal workers from greater Minneapolis/St. Paul.
“The company originally figured it was going to be about a three-month project,” Vierling recalled. “These guys showed their skill and basically were done in half the time [Daikin] expected.”
The collaboration between Local 10 and Local 480 shows the industry-spanning solidarity of our union. It’s also helped provide new career pathways for SMART members across the state: Dyrdahl said Local 480 has worked with Local 10 to welcome building trades sheet metal workers who were seeking to work in a production environment.
Welcoming all members
Bringing new workers into Daikin is one thing; ensuring that the latest Local 480 members stay there is something else entirely.
“How do you onboard people and not turn everything into a complete revolving door? … Our challenge, as a union, is to make [new] people feel welcome,” Vierling explained.
For years, the demographics of Local 480 and the Daikin workforce were largely white and male. In recent decades, though, Faribault and Owatonna have welcomed a growing number of Latino/ Hispanic people and immigrants from Somalia, and the sheet metal industry at large has made strides to bring more women into the trade. Local 480 has acted accordingly – and in the true spirit of unionism — to make sure those workers have a better life.
“I’m seeing it right now: Daikin is growing, diversity-wise,” said Mustafa Jama, a Somali immigrant and 21-year SMART member. “They’re hiring all kinds of people, it doesn’t matter who you are. My department barely had female workers [when I started] … now, all through shifts, you will see at least 50% women, which is a good thing.”
This growth can take many forms, Jama, Vierling and Dyrdahl explained. One example: The Islam-practicing Somali American workers at Daikin originally ran into obstacles with management around break times and scheduling that accommodated their religious practice, which includes daily prayers and fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Local 480 stood up for their newest members the same way they would for workers of any faith — negotiating with the company to devise break time flexibility and shift-scheduling that gives Muslim members the ability to break their fast at sundown during Ramadan, and including contract provisions that allow those same members to use time off to observe their religion.
Vierling and Dyrdahl are also supporting Recording Secretary Stephanie Bottke’s nascent efforts to form a Local 480 Women’s Committee — a development that will help women across all signatory shops gain a stronger support network (and assist as the local recruits more women moving forward). Bottke, a member of the SMART Recruitment and Retention Council, was inspired to take action by conversations with fellow SMART sisters across the union and by her own experience in the trade. Her early years were somewhat isolated, she said, particularly when she was pregnant and a working mother.
“I personally started on the shop floor at 19 years old. I raised a family on the shop floor,” Bottke recalled. “There weren’t resources available, or at least none that I knew of … about what was available to me as I was raising a family. The basic needs of nursing, time off work, those types of things.”
She hopes the Local 480 Women’s Committee will help provide her union sisters with mentors to turn to — and strengthen overall solidarity at the local by helping with recruiting and retention.
“Women come into our buildings not knowing that there are other women that are going to be supportive, and through a women’s committee we can definitely establish that support system,” Bottke said. “And I think through the women’s committee and establishing those early connections, it will help our general membership see that we can be stronger when we’re connected as a whole.”
Such changes are not without challenges. Jama, now a team lead, faced unacceptable discrimination when he first started as a coil assembler back in 2000 — and similar incidents have been reported more recently. In the same vein, some of Bottke’s first attempts at spreading awareness about the newly formed women’s committee were met with confusion at best, derision at worst.
But support from local union representatives and leaders has helped both Jama and Bottke continue on their trailblazing paths — and Dyrdahl, Vierling, Jama and Bottke all say that overcoming those difficulties and pursuing inclusive growth can only help Local 480 win stronger protections for all members moving forward.
“There’s a change, but that change came with sacrifice. People spoke up, and there were policy changes,” Jama emphasized.
“Having our local grow helps in all types of ways — including financially,” Dyrdahl added. “We can spend on lawyers when we need them for certain things. We are able to spend money to support our negotiating committee to really build up our contracts.”
Moving forward, Daikin continues to grow and require more workers. Local 480 is organizing accordingly, spreading the word to anyone who will listen: The union life is a better one for you and your family.
“Sometimes, union’s a bad word until people come and see what our benefit packages are and our wages,” Dyrdahl said. “Once we get them in the local, they’re pretty happy with it.”
In Georgia, so-called “right-to-work” laws make it hard for unions to organize and retain members, particularly when language barriers in the workplace already present challenges. Despite such obstacles, though, SMART Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.) has made big inroads at Price Industries, where approximately 70% of the workforce speaks Vietnamese as a first language.
“A new approach to internal organizing has been key to this success,” said SMART Director of Production Workers Dave Goodspeed.
“We were able to hire — from our own ranks — a Vietnamese speaker, Donson Ha,” Goodspeed explained, “and he’s a firecracker.”
Anti-union right-to-work laws allow members to opt out of paying union dues, making the inability to communicate effectively to an entire workforce potentially devastating to both workers and local unions. That was especially true at Price in Georgia: Local 85 was unable to convey the union difference and best represent its members, and workers were cautious about seeking representation from those they literally couldn’t understand.
“For a long time, Price Industries has been a hard nut to crack in terms of signing new members, primarily because Price has made a practice of hiring so many different nationalities,” Goodspeed said.
“They have people who speak English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Burmese, Cambodian, and the largest population of workers down there — probably 50% — are Vietnamese,” added SMART International Production Organizer Sharon Walker.
Local 85 Shop Steward Rich Manh Bui (left)Local 85 Shop Steward Hai Ngo (sitting)
Until recently, only around 20–25% of Price workers had signed up with the union, Walker said, and the lack of representation had material consequences. One example: The company would post mandatory overtime notices to its bulletin boards in English exclusively, making it difficult for non-English-speaking workers who may have missed the announcement from their shop lead to know what was required of them. And in the event that a worker who didn’t speak English faced discipline, they often didn’t know how to go to their union for help.
“I didn’t know about unions until I met Sharon, and she explained to me … what a union is,” said Vietnamese-speaking Shop Steward Rich Manh Bui.
“Before, nobody represented them, and that’s why Vietnamese [workers] didn’t know anything about a union,” added fellow Shop Steward Hai Ngo. “Even when they joined a union, and they had a problem, they don’t know where they’re going — they don’t know who they’ve got to ask.”
Donson Ha
That’s where Ha and shop stewards like Bui and Ngo entered the equation. Local 85 and SMART International representatives realized they had to do more to gain the trust of the Price workforce, and in the spirit of true trade unionism, they looked to the rank-and-file for leadership. Ha, a 10-year Local 85 member, came from the building trades side of the industry — but after seeing the number of Vietnamese workers in production, especially older workers, he was motivated to change job titles.
Since Local 85 hired Ha as a subsidized production organizer, the percentage of organized workers has approximately doubled.
“I’m very happy to organize, to stand up for Vietnamese people, because they didn’t understand the union; they don’t speak English, and they didn’t know how strong it is to be a union member,” said Ha. “My job is to help them understand how it works, how the union helps people.”
With organizing efforts in Indiana still at an all-time high, Local 20 recently participated in our first-ever organizing blitz to staff the Stellantis battery plant megaproject in Kokomo, Indiana. Thanks to the participation of Local 20 staff and the help of our Youth-to-Youth program, we were able to reach more than 500 jobsites, vocational schools, non-signatory shops and recruitment centers, ranging from Greenwood all the way to South Bend. We also handed out thousands of QR-code cards that linked to wage and benefit information for both non-signatory workers and the general public.
The blitz enabled us to boost membership as well as build our person-of-interest list in anticipation of other megaprojects coming to the state. Not only does this organizing benefit us as a whole; it also offers a life-changing opportunity for many people who are working nonunion.
I reached out to a few members who were organized this year to see what difference they experienced and their overall thoughts on joining the trade. Here is testimony from Xia Walker, who we organized into the apprenticeship program from Peterman Brothers:
Xia Walker
“When it comes to my home life and work schedule compared to the big, nonunion HVAC company I was working for, I would have to say it is a night and day difference. The company I worked for did offer competitive pay, but that did not make up for the fact that I was paying almost $900 a month out of my wages just so my family could have insurance. I was also expected to work every day until the job was completed, which could range anywhere from six to 16 hours with no real time to rest in between or daily overtime to make it worth the headache.
“I hated it. I had no free time to spend with family and friends. I have five uncles in the trade who were consistently trying to recruit me so I could spend more time with family and friends and have better pay and benefits. I did enjoy some aspects of residential work, but commercial work is where it’s at. No more disgusting crawl spaces or small attics.
“Overall, I love my consistent work schedule. I can actually be home to spend time with my wife and kids throughout the work week. When I look back at it, I wish I would have stuck with the union back when I was 20; I would definitely be much further in my career than I am today.”
Next up: testimony from Clifton Beezley, who was recently organized from a nonunion fabrication shop and placed with one of Local 20’s contractors:
“The old job I came from did not have any professional mindset or desire to help me grow as an employee; they refused to share their knowledge with me so I could improve myself and expand my abilities in the trade. Since starting with Local 20, I have worked with a great group of knowledgeable workers who are more than willing to share their years of trade knowledge with me and want me to learn the trade and carry that same knowledge. The more I work with them, I see myself growing and gaining professional knowledge that I will eventually pass down to new members one day.
Clifton Beezley
“The shop I was previously working for made me feel very underappreciated and unimportant, and it feels good to work somewhere that makes me feel appreciated and important again. As far as the benefits go, between my old job and now, it doesn’t compare. My entire family has healthcare coverage as an employee paid benefit, and I love it! The last job offered benefits, but the price made them basically unattainable. This has been a huge stress reliever for me and my family, and we couldn’t be happier. This new job has truly offered me life-changing opportunities.”
It is always nice to see how much our organizing can affect someone’s life for the better. Hopefully, reading these testimonies will help us all remember how important it is for us to continue to bring new and experienced members into the trade and make sure they are treated with respect. Clifton shared his experience with Local 20 with others in the shop he came from, as well as family and friends, which has resulted in more than 10 people joining the trade.
This is a prime example of why we always treat every member with solidarity and respect: We are going to need every bit of help we can get in the future, and the need for people is increasing every day.
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.
The last Belonging and Excellence for All (BE4ALL) challenge of 2023 asks SMART members to share their stories in response to the question, “Why are you proud to be a SMART union member?” For Local 71 (Buffalo) sheet metal worker and organizer Andre Mayes, the answer to that question encompasses a lifelong journey – one that took him from working dead-end jobs and knowing nothing about unions, to helping fellow workers gain the life-changing benefits of SMART membership. Read more:
Buffalo sheet metal worker and organizer Andre Mayes (left) donates nose strips for face masks during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“If I had to sum up what being a SMART member means to me in one word, it would be ‘purpose.’
“I was a Black child of poverty who grew up in the post-Reagan 90s with few prospects for my future. A very small number of kids I went to school with planned on going to college after high school, despite the fact that we were in the beginning of the era where every child was told they’d be a failure without a four-year degree. I was fortunate to have my grandmother as a role model who introduced me to ways of living that others with my background didn’t get to see, as she was the public relations director for the CBS affiliate in Buffalo. It allowed me to aspire, but with no clear path on how to get there.
“Fast forward almost two decades and I was a waiter with no real plans other than to make cash tips and have fun with my friends. It wasn’t until I became a truck driver at a large mechanical contractor that I was introduced to what unions do for workers. I always believed unions were antiquated, a relic of a bygone era, and that they only got in the way of economic development. As a truck driver, I made $9.25 per hour with absolutely no benefits – no healthcare (this was pre-Obamacare), no paid time off, no retirement, and I was lucky when I got a lunch break – all while working 55-hour weeks. The UA (United Association) and SMART members I delivered to at the same contractor made as much as four times my wages, plus generous retirement and healthcare packages that dwarfed my hourly pay on their own. I began to question what I thought I knew about unions. I made the determination that I was going to belong to one of these trades no matter what.
“For two years, I kept working as a driver and biding my time until the day I was a member. After my interview to join SMART, I received my rank letter for the upcoming apprenticeship class. The amount of joy I felt to see I was #11 on the list, knowing the union would take up to 20 apprentices, was my first real sense of purpose as a member. I had spent two years working to achieve this goal – longer than I’d ever worked any other job by 15 months – and it was close to being achieved.
“I found purpose in learning the actual craft of sheet metal through an intensive combination of on-the-job and classroom training. I was finally being given a chance to hone a set of skills that I enjoyed. I felt like I wanted to share this pride and purpose with everyone. Any friend I had who would talk about their woes at work would get an earful from me about our trade: a real education where every single thing you learn is relevant for work; classmates who you’ll spend your career getting to know; the opportunity to build the physical infrastructure of our community; dignity in retirement at an age that allows you to still enjoy what life has to offer. This was more than a job — it was a calling.
“That purpose led me to learn everything I could in the field, from HVAC fabrication and installation, to TAB, surveying and CAD. This alone would’ve been a fine place to end as I talked about running work and counting the days to retirement, but SMART wasn’t done giving me purpose yet.
“After I turned over, I became the fourth-year HVAC instructor. I was excited just to get the opportunity to teach the next round of sheet metal workers, but at the end of the interview for that role, I was asked where I wanted to be in 10 years by our then-Business Agent Paul Crist. I told him that I’d always wanted to be an organizer and would hope to have a chance for that down the line. As it turned out, he was asking for precisely that reason. Our then-organizer, Joe DeCarlo, was retiring, and Paul encouraged me to apply. I followed suit, and as a result, I have been preaching the gospel of organized labor for four years.
“Even writing this, it’s hard to believe that in 36 years, my life has ended up at this point. I never could’ve dreamed I’d be here 20, even 10 years ago. Being a part of the social movement that is organized labor, being a SMART member and a local officer has given me a sense of purpose only surpassed by my wife and children, none of whom I’d have without this union. I will forever be grateful that I am a SMART member.”
Jason Benson began his position as SMART director of organizing on June 29, 2023, following Darrell Roberts’ move to assistant to the general president. Benson began his career in the sheet metal trade in November of 1999 as a pre-apprentice working for Bright Sheet Metal in Indianapolis, Ind. He was accepted into the Local 20 apprenticeship program in March of 2000, completing his five-year apprenticeship and turning out as a journeyperson in March 2005. Two years later, Benson was appointed organizer for Local 20, a position in which he worked until successfully running for election as Local 20 business representative for the Lafayette/Indianapolis area in 2010. Benson served as a business representative until December 2017, when he was hired as the apprenticeship coordinator for Local 20.
“This is a moment of incredible possibility for our union,” Benson said. “I’m excited to get to work supporting locals across North America as we look to grow and expand our collective bargaining power.”
SMART members positioned for unprecedented opportunity
The time is now for our union. Across all the industries and crafts represented in our union — HVAC installation, railroading, indoor air quality, transit operation, architectural sheet metal, production, sign work, bus operation and beyond — SMART members are positioned for generational growth. Now, we need to seize these opportunities.
Political advocacy pays off for sheet metal workers
Unprecedented investment in the sheet metal industry — much of it due to strong labor standards and incentives included in federal legislation in the U.S. — paired with ongoing core work is creating incredibly high demand. SMART local unions now have the chance to organize and recruit aggressively to meet workforce needs.
SMART Transportation Division on offense
SMART-TD members are on offense against the railroads and their Wall Street-driven Precision Scheduled Railroading scheme for the first time in recent memory. We have seen victories and progress on two-person crew and rail safety legislation in Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio and other states across the country, and we need to keep pushing. More on page 28.
The same goes for the safety and working conditions of our brothers and sisters operating on public transit systems. We have seen far too many shocking, brazen attacks on our members while they are simply doing their jobs, safely transporting passengers from point A to point B. Policymakers and community members alike need to hear our voices and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this cannot stand.
Organize today, win tomorrow
It is a new day for organized labor. Workers are organizing like they haven’t in generations, and 71% of Americans approve of unions: the highest percentage since the 1960s. And yet, the percentage of unionized workers remains too low, and we have seen the consequences in Maryland, Washington, Colorado and beyond. It’s time to strike while the iron is hot.
SMART Local 3 (Omaha, Nebraska) won a huge victory for area workers in May 2023, partnering with newly formed contractor Christopherson Plumbing, Heating & Air to bring the business into union signatory status. And unlike many organizing campaigns, this one was initiated by management.
“Approximately two and a half months ago, I was approached by Matt Christopherson, owner of Christopherson Plumbing, and Brian Wilhite, owner of Wilhite Services,” explained Local 3 Business Manager Jason Kirchhevel. “They came to me and explained how they were going to merge their respective companies.”
Christopherson had worked as a nonunion plumber for 15 years before starting his own business; when he became a contractor, he signed with Plumbers Local 16 in Omaha, where he experienced firsthand the value of organized labor and the union training model. When Christopherson and Wilhite decided to merge, Christopherson immediately began explaining the benefits of being a union contractor — the meeting with Local 3 soon followed.
“We set up a meeting and tour of our training center,” Kirchhevel added. “After several other meetings, giving tours, explanations of wages, benefits and training to the employees, everything fell in place. As of May 1, 2023, we signed the contract and created the partnership.”
Such signatory campaigns demonstrate the fact that union labor helps all parties — both employees and employer. Great work, Local 3!
Pictured above: Back row, left to right: Brian T. Wilhite (fifth-year apprentice), Steve Terwilleger (Local 3 business rep.), Jason Kirchhevel (Local 3 business manager/financial secretary-treasurer), Brian D. Wilhite (owner/member), Matt Christopherson (owner), Dustin Blessing (Local 3 journeyperson), Mitchel Anderson (first-year apprentice), Tyler Fox (journeyperson), Joshua Ross (Local 3 organizer). Front row, left to right: Treyton Foutch (pre-apprentice), Noah Nienaber (pre-apprentice), Michael Labenz (first-year apprentice), Anthony Davis (journeyperson).
