Author: paul

On February 24, the Trump Administration requested $2.5 billion from Congress in emergency funding to address the COVID-19 pandemic.  At the end of the process, the bill came to $7.8 billion in emergency spending with the bulk of funding to Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control for state and local preparedness.
It also included Public funding to cover the cost of testing for the virus along with $300 million to make any future vaccine (when it is available) accessible to Americans regardless of an individual’s ability to pay.
A portion of the bill, added by Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY), includes $500 million is for “Medicare telehealth mandatory spending, which would allow Medicare providers to furnish telemedicine services to seniors.” Source.
The bill passed the Senate by a 96–1 vote on March 5th.  The focus of the bill was on funding some of the health and emergency preparedness to combat the virus with future bills fashioned or being constructed to address the human and financial toll on American families.
The bill can be read at this link in its entirety.
 
 
 
 
 

SMART Sheet Metal Local 276 in Victoria, BC has been working with a local organization called Hero Work.  Hero Work brings together companies and workers to perform “Radical Renovations” on buildings that house charities.
Most local charities devote all their finances and efforts to provide for those less fortunate and quite often are in less than desirable buildings that require upgrades. Hero work has completed more than two million dollars in renovations on charity buildings since 2011. This project for PEERS, who help marginalized workers in the sex industry, was Local 276’s second project with Hero Work.
Lewis Sheet Metal provided all the fans, duct and fittings and Associated Sheet Metal provided the stainless steel for back splash in the kitchen.
Local 276 Business Manager Jason Pedersen noted that “this type of work is something members enjoy doing as we show our value to our local communities and build alliances that keep us central to what happens locally.  I am proud of our Local’s work in the Victoria community and look forward to the partnerships we will continue to build into the future.”

After a lifetime of hard work, working people deserve to retire with dignity.  As a result of reckless Wall Street behavior, industry deregulation and courts that allow employers the liberal use of corporate bankruptcy, important parts of that multiemployer pension system are at risk.
Senate Republicans introduced a proposal to address the crisis faced by several multiemployer pension plans.  As it stands, their proposal will not only injure the retirees and active participants it purports to help, it also will precipitate the collapse of all multiemployer pension plans.  This document contains no federal financial assistance whatsoever. Contrast this to the over $700 billion that the government provided to the banks and Wall Street in 2008 and other corporate tax giveaways in recent years.  Retirees will pay a new tax that immediately takes up to 10 percent out of the retirement income derived from their pension. (The fee is 3%, 7&, or 10% depending on the zone your fund is in.)  This dangerous plan would impose significant new fees on healthy pension funds, their participants and the entire industry, penalizing plans that have already made sacrifices to ensure their long-term solvency.)
Any multiemployer pension legislation should, at a minimum, do no harm to healthy plans.  This proposal imposes heavy costs that even healthy plans will be unable to survive.  The Senate must move quickly on a solution that is viable and constructive—legislation that will provide retirees with their hard-earned benefits and stabilize the multiemployer pension system.
Text the word PENSION to 2133 (mesage and data rates may apply) to take action or visit SMART’s special Action Page on this pension issue.

After months of attacks on SMART members green jobs by lobbying group AAM, SMART will leave the Blue Green Alliance and pursue green jobs agenda through other partnerships.
Washington, D.C.—The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) announces its separation from the Blue Green Alliance (BGA) after over a decade of participation. Upon serious consideration, SMART sees no path forward within BGA due to the hypocrisy of its founding member organization.
This decision is not made due to any concern or differences with the stated mission and vision of the BGA, nor any actions of BGA staff who have been exemplary. To the contrary, our commitment to green jobs is now sharply at odds with the seemingly duplicitous actions by a founding member of BGA. We cannot support the BGA while the United Steelworkers (USW) lobbies for legislation that will destroy the livelihoods of 800 SMART members at BYD USA in Lancaster, CA. These members build electric buses for public transit agencies, manufacturing jobs that exceed Buy America thresholds and are covered by both a community benefits agreement and a collective bargaining agreement.
This is NOT a union jurisdictional dispute. SMART is not competing with the USW to represent workers. It is also not a dispute over Buy America thresholds, since BYD USA exceeds these. Instead this is a laser focused attack that corrodes any ability to work in a coalition to raise standards, create green jobs, and build solidarity. The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a lobbying group run by steel industry representatives, is attacking the work our members do in Lancaster in order to promote a defense bill that would prohibit public funding being used to purchase buses made by BYD USA. They have disseminated misleading and xenophobic security concerns about the buses made by our members in Lancaster, CA.
Several leading environmental groups—including BGA member organizations—have shown support for BYD’s efforts to develop clean air solutions for U.S. transit systems. This makes the actions of the AAM potentially even more short-sighted and destructive, and a betrayal of the BGA stated mission.
By continuing our participation in the Blue Green Alliance, we would be betraying our rank-and-file members and the many community partners that have supported these good green jobs. Therefore, we will continue to pursue the stated mission and vision of BGA—good jobs, clean infrastructure, and fair trade—but will do so with true partners.

For two months members of the SMART Local #24 Women’s  Committee and SMART Army collected personal care items to put care packages together for homeless Veterans.  We had collection boxes at all Union Halls and many of the contractor’s shops for members to donate items and or cash.  Several contractor’s pitched in and made cash contributions, which allowed us to purchase items still needed to fill the bags.
On Friday, November 1, 2019, members of the SMART Local #24 Women’s Committee and SMART Army got together to put the care packages together.  We ended up with 108 care packages total, 78 men’s and 30 women’s.
Friday, November 8, the care packages were delivered to the VA Community Outreach Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, to be delivered to homeless veterans.