We’re just getting started

This summer, as SMART members reflect on where we’re headed, one truth continues to ground our progress: Our strength comes from each other. From the shop floors to the rail yards, from Parliament to Capitol Hill, our success depends not on a single action or title, but on our unity.

In his Spring 2025 Members’ Journal message, General President Coleman outlined the rising threats we face — attacks on our jobs, our contracts and the industries we work in. Efforts to privatize passenger rail, defund construction projects and chip away at labor protections aren’t just political maneuvers — they’re direct chal­lenges to our ability to provide for our families. They are meant to divide us and weaken the solidarity that makes SMART so effective.

That’s why this year’s SMART Leadership Conference theme — “Fighting for What Matters… Our Members” — is more than a slogan. It’s a commitment. One that each of us makes when we join this union. It reminds us that the union isn’t somewhere else — it’s us. We, the members, are the union. Our collective action, our shared purpose and our daily work are what give SMART its power.

And as General President Coleman wrote on page two, that power has produced real, lasting wins. In recent months, Transportation Division members — rail, transit and bus — stood strong and won transformative contracts that reflect the dignity and demands of the work they perform. Sheet metal members secured maternity leave benefits, improved jobsite safety and gained access to TOOTRiS, a flexible childcare program tailored to our industry’s schedule. Across all sectors, SMART has worked to expand access to mental health support for members and their families via an employee assistance program, Union EAP. And we modernized how locals serve members through the Voyager system.

These gains didn’t come by accident — and they didn’t come easily. They came from our shared disci­pline, focus and resolve.

Our focus has been simple: strengthen our foundation so we can protect what we’ve built and push forward with confidence.

As your general secretary-treasurer, that’s my responsi­bility: to make sure every back-of-house decision — from vendors to banking, infrastructure to benefits — supports our front-line mission. We are not just responding to today’s needs. We are preparing for tomorrow’s chal­lenges. That means making smarter investments. Asking hard questions of our partners. Building a technology structure that allows SMART to leverage who we are — and the collective knowledge we hold — in new and more powerful ways.

This work is quiet, but it is transformational. It’s how we ensure stability in unpredictable times. It’s how we build opportunity for the next generation. And it’s how we prove, every day, that SMART is not just a strong union — it’s a growing one.

We aren’t finished. We’re just getting started. Together, let’s keep fighting for what matters: our fellow members.

In solidarity,

John Daniel
SMART General Secretary Treasurer