Author: lpoling

L–R: GMMI Owner Greg Martin, SMART Local 9 members Brandon McPherson, Eric Biermann, Larry Hall, Derek Costa, Brandon Inskeep, Jason Ramon, Mitchell Pinnell and Jesse Redeye

In the fall of 2021, the craftsmanship and skill that defines union labor was on full display, as members of SM Local 9 (Denver, Colo.) completed the installation of an eight-foot spiral duct system at CoorsTek in Grand Junction, Colo. After six weeks of planning, Greg Martin, owner of Grand Mesa Mechanical Inc. (GMMI), and Local 9 members Brandon McPherson, Eric Biermann, Larry Hall, Derek Costa, Brandon Inskeep, Jason Ramon, Mitchell Pinnell and Jesse Redeye — with the assistance of Girardi Crane Service — first built a 150-foot-long trolley system 35 feet above the finished floor of the building, using three articulating boom lifts to put together the trolley system before installing the spiral duct.

“The run consisted of 40 feet of 60-inch round, 45 feet of 84-inch round and 50 feet of 96-inch round,” said Hall, Local 9 sheet metal worker at GMMI, who pointed out that installation took one week. “It took us longer to engineer and install the trolley system than it did to get the spiral installed.”

“We hoisted all the large spiral to the roof and then positioned it so it could be maneuvered through the side of the building. Once it was in position and connected to the trolley system, we began moving it down the trolly track,” Hall explained. “We then put it in its hangers, and then we made all the connections.”

To finish the job, the eight-foot round was secured to the edge of the building and later attached to an air handler on the roof, with all the taps installed after the spiral was fully secured. “All the work was done above live equipment and 35 feet in the air; this made it exceptionally challenging,” Hall added.

The mechanical unit that serves this area is a UMP model #CELODO- 197 and was purchased from Western Mechanical Solutions in Denver. The unit provides 98,000 cfm of air and is conditioned with a series of Celdek materials for summer use. The general contractor, FCI Constructors, fabricated a raised deck above the roof for this unit to sit on, and it was ducted from that point into the building and converted to spiral piping above the operations area.

By: Matt Haines, Organizer, Local 16

As of April 15, 2022, SMART SM Local 16 (Portland, Ore.) is in the middle of negotiations with Vancouver, Wash.-based 360 Sheet Metal after workers there successfully won their vote to unionize. Getting to the negotiating table is statistically very difficult — the result of hard work, collaboration and true worker solidarity. These workers ran just such a campaign.

360 Sheet Metal almost exclusively builds custom ductwork and pays workers just above the minimum wage. By flooding the local market with cheap duct made at poverty wages, they have emboldened small, nonunion plumbing shops to go “full mechanical,” driving down area standards.

After a top-down organizing effort was rebuffed by management, it became clear that a bottom-up campaign was needed. In 2019, a Local 16 covert salt reported that 360 Sheet Metal built duct for at least four prevailing wage projects — and the workers on those projects never received the wages due to them. When confronted about this, 360 General Manager Joe Martin exclaimed to Local 16 Business Representative Dustin Hysmith and Organizer Darrin Boyce: “We don’t agree with the law.” (He apparently didn’t in the early 2000s, either, when his previous business, Reliable HVAC, went bankrupt after Local 16 exposed to the state of Oregon the company’s nearly $1 million in prevailing wage theft.)

After leaving 360 Sheet Metal, our salt reached out to several 360 coworkers about his decision to join a union apprenticeship. This inspired a fired 360 worker to join Local 16. That newly organized member then reached out to his former coworkers at 360. Fed up with poor wages, poor working conditions and unaffordable health benefits, one such member called Boyce at Local 16 and asked to join the union. Minutes later, that worker called back and asked if he could bring some friends. An hour later, half the workers from the 360 Sheet Metal shop showed up at the union.

Boyce realized they had a campaign on their hands, explaining to 360 workers that it was their right to unionize their own shop. Workers signed authorization cards, eventually forming an organizing committee. While SMART Local 16 was there to help, Boyce emphasized that the campaign belonged to the workers. They bravely stepped up: reaching out to the others, getting cards signed, hand billing and inviting coworkers to their weekly meetings. Former 360 Sheet Metal and Reliable HVAC workers came to share information about the union and help with strategy. They were invited to dispel myths and answer any questions current workers had. Local 16 organizers and representatives, along with Regional Manager Brian Noble, continued to meet with the workers — sharing expertise, support and information. Organizers and leaders from Locals 55 (Pasco, Wash.), 66 (Seattle, Wash.) and the International offered support in various ways throughout the process. It was a true team effort.

Getting to the negotiating table is statistically very difficult — the result of hard work, collaboration and true worker solidarity. These workers ran just such a campaign.

By spring of 2021, about 70% of the bargaining unit of workers signed cards, and Local 16 filed for an NLRB election. The election was scheduled for mid-June 2021. Armed with facts, the workers proudly wore union swag onto the production floor. Fortunately, the advice and information organizers shared with the workers had inoculated them against 360’s anti-union rhetoric. A union buster was called in, and that guy didn’t even have a chance! Our workers challenged the propaganda they heard throughout many captive audience meetings. Every form of intimidation from the bosses was met with brave resolve. Rather than cowing, the workers grew stronger. When the votes were tallied, the union supporters prevailed 12–9!

As contract negotiations grind on, we should all be proud of the hard work, collaboration and solidarity shown by our organizing sisters and brothers.

NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo

Since her appointment as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by President Joe Biden, Jennifer Abruzzo and the NLRB have put together a track record of policy decisions that are conducive to union organizing and directly benefit the lives of workers and their families. On April 7, 2022, General Counsel Abruzzo issued one of her most-impactful memos yet when she encouraged the NLRB to outlaw employer captive audience meetings — the pernicious, bad-faith practice of forcing employees to attend mandatory meetings designed to promote antiunion misinformation. The next week, in a case called Cemex, Abruzzo formally filed a brief asking the NLRB to do so.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, appointed by President Joe Biden: The decision to unionize belongs to workers, and workers alone

“This license to coerce is an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the [National Labor Relations Act’s] protection of employees’ free choice. It is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of employers’ speech rights,” said General Counsel Abruzzo. “I believe that the NLRB case precedent, which has tolerated such meetings, is at odds with fundamental labor-law principles, our statutory language, and our Congressional mandate. Because of this, I plan to urge the Board to reconsider such precedent and find mandatory meetings of this sort unlawful.”

Simply put, the decision to unionize belongs to workers, and workers alone. Forcing employees to attend captive audience meetings is an antidemocratic practice that takes freedom away from workers and unintentionally illustrates what management often fears: That, if allowed to join together in a union, workers will be able to take power — plus higher wages, greater benefits and better working conditions — into their own hands.

If adopted, General Counsel Abruzzo’s memo and brief will allow workers across the country to organize unions without having their rights at work — as well as precious time needed to complete jobs — taken away from them. It will give workers the ability to spread factual information about the benefits of unionizing without employers countering those facts with mandatory-attendance falsehood sessions. And there is a very good chance it could lead to a growth in union membership across the United States. SMART applauds General Counsel Abruzzo and urges the NLRB to swiftly implement proposals that convey that all such meetings are strictly voluntary.

On April 9, 2022, the SM Local 20 (South Bend, Ind.) SMART Army was out in full force, helping Rebuilding Together St. Joseph County rehabilitate the homes of low-income homeowners in the local community. This year, 13 volunteers — from journey people to apprentices — took part in the effort, meeting at the Local 20 union hall for breakfast and coffee before loading up the materials and getting to work.

“All of the journey people that volunteered have been doing it for many years, since they were apprentices,” said Local 20 Business Rep. Kreg Homoky. “It is a tremendous help having their leadership there.”

Members of Local 20 have been volunteering for Rebuilding Together since 1989, the year the program (then called Christmas in April) first started. Rebuilding Together is a nonprofit, community- based coalition of volunteers from local government, businesses and other nonprofit groups that rehabilitate the homes of low-income homeowners and improve neighborhoods, with priority given to elderly (over 60 years of age), disabled and/or veteran homeowners.

On two April Saturdays each year, approximately 1,000 skilled and unskilled volunteers join together to make repairs to about 20 homes in a selected St. Joseph County neighborhood. All repairs are completed at no cost to the homeowner.

“Once the houses have been selected, we visit each house to decide which house could utilize new gutters,” Homoky said. “We concentrate on gutters because years ago, we were looking for a way to be involved in the program and most houses seem to need gutters. We measure each house and order the material from the local supply house and have it delivered to the union hall. We purchase the coil material for the seamless gutter and deliver it to our local contractor to run off the needed lengths, and they deliver those to the union hall.”

Local 20 volunteers: Bill Geers, Don Taber, Michael Edmonson, David Hinegardner, Dan Choi, Pedro Rameriz, Timothy VanHulle, Josh P. DeLaurelle, Sam Troeger, Joseph Staszewski, David Parker, Aron Rotering and Kevin Needham.

GP Sellers addresses Recruitment and Retention, Roofing and Building Enclosure and Production and Sign Councils

SMART local unions from across the United States and Canada met in Milwaukee, Wis. from June 6–9 under the banner of the Recruitment and Retention Council, Roofing and Building Enclosure Council and Production and Sign Council. SMART General President Joseph Sellers kicked off each day of meetings by addressing assembled delegates to each separate council. He discussed recruitment efforts and new strategies to bring in a diverse group of new members to staff an unprecedented number of new mega projects coming online in the months and years ahead. He noted the volume of members who have retired in the past few years, as well as those due to retire over the next decade, and the need to ensure they are replaced with qualified new members from across every demographic background. He added that the HVAC side of the sheet metal industry is predicted to grow by 47,000 new positions in the next decade. Those workers will either serve as union or nonunion workers, fundamentally altering the industry, potentially for the worse, if we do not act and recruit them into SMART.

Now is the time for sheet metal local unions and signatory employers to train and ensure the workforce for this scale of work will be available.

During his remarks, GP Sellers also discussed the new infrastruc­ture work and its focus on the sheet metal and transportation industries. Noting some complaints about its focus away from “traditional” infra­structure, he explained that much of that expanded focus is actually on the industries SMART represents and will put thousands of SMART sheet metal workers to work while ensuring America’s transportation network will be upgraded for a new generation of railroaders and bus operators.

He also updated attendees on the unprecedented work the Biden-Harris administration has launched focused on worker issues. This includes a new task force on orga­nizing and worker empowerment, as well as the Biden administra­tion’s efforts to ensure SMART sheet metal workers and signatory contractors have access to new work opportunities at military and government buildings.

Besides the new infrastructure work, GP Sellers pointed to new mega projects in the private sector coming online at chip plants and battery manufacturing facilities for new elec­tric vehicles. One project he described, in the Southeast, recently announced a sheet metal package requiring 1 million hours of new HVAC work, along with a second phase of 750,000 additional hours. This is in addition to building envelope work of approxi­mately 500,000 hours.

He also discussed new ventilation verification work that will need to be done in schools, hospitals and public buildings across the country, which will require union members at an unprecedented level. He noted the number of outside trades interested in performing some of this sheet metal work and made it clear: Now is the time for sheet metal local unions and signatory employers to train and ensure the workforce for this scale of work will be available.

On Wednesday, June 1, the Local 38 SMART Army helped assemble The Wall That Heals at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Norwalk, Connecticut.