Author: paul

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.

 
On this Veterans Day and Remembrance Day 2019, on behalf of the SMART General Executive Council and the more than 200,000 members of SMART, we salute the men and women who have served in the armed forces of the United States and Canada.
We recognize the commitment and sacrifices of our veterans. We remember those who gave their lives to protect the freedoms we enjoy, and we honor those who were wounded or taken prisoner. The courage of these men and women will never be forgotten.
In November 1919, following the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words:
“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”
World War I officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is the date we now commemorate as Veteran’s Day.
We are immensely proud of our SMART members who are veterans. Since the founding of our predecessor unions, members have repeatedly answered the call to defend freedom and democracy. These member veterans have also inspired generations, building and serving their communities, and strengthening our union.
To this day, we emphasize the recruitment of veterans through our SMART Heroes program, Helmets to Hardhats, and other initiatives, and do all we can to help them build rewarding careers after they leave the military.
Please join us in thanking and honoring, both today and throughout the year, all of our SMART brothers and sisters who have served and sacrificed for our countries.
Fraternally,
Joseph Sellers Jr.
SMART General President

 

A new issue of the SMART Heroes newsletter is available here.In this issue:
Married Duo Team Up for A “Weld” of Success
• Sponsor a Hero (SAH) Scholarships
• Two-Year Anniversary Marks the Birth of SMART Heroes Foundation
• New! 2nd Training Site Opens in Fort Carson, CO

The weekend of October 4-6, saw the ninth international Tradeswomen Build Nations Conference, the largest gathering of its kind in the world. More than 2,800 tradeswomen representing 48 states and ten provinces gathered in Minneapolis, Minn. to share experiences and best practices with fellow tradeswomen, to learn about new programs and opportunities in the industry, and to engage with top leaders from government, industry and the biggest fifteen international building trades unions.
The three-day conference, held over the weekend, featured a day of service with the SMART Army, formal plenary sessions and over 25 workshops on a range of topics addressing unique and critical issues of tradeswomen.
The conference was kicked off with a surprise video of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, whose speech roused the standing-room-only crowd when she told them, “Women who build are here to stay.”
The plenaries included addresses from NABTU President Sean McGarvey, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, and a special appearance from SMART General President Joseph Sellers, Jr. who addressed the 2,800 tradeswomen in attendance.  Sellers also marched with his SMART sisters in through the streets of downtown Minneapolis for a parade and rally.  He also joined the 230 SMART attendees, a record group for this event, at a special SMART caucus and for a community service project with the SMART Army.

This article takes a look at a female sheet metal worker blazing a path forward for her fellow sisters in the trade.
“Her day starts early, getting up at 4:30 a.m. to get her food and coffee ready. She drives from Gladstone and parks in the public parking structure. There she eats her breakfast in her vehicle.
“If I’m not early, I’m late,” she says, meaning “on time” is often not enough. “I like to have a good buffer of time. Because of traffic and site conditions, I like my breakfast to before starting work, to get some sustenance.”
Read more about her here.
 

Sheet Metal Workers Local 49 in New Mexico was awarded the Industry Award by the National Energy Management Institute Committee (NEMIC) for exceptional commitment to the passage of ground-breaking state-wide Fire Life Safety legislation as well as the promotion of ICB/TABB (International Certification Board/Testing, Adjusting and Balancing Bureau) certifications. Business Manager Vince Alvarado was recognized during the SMART Convention this summer in Las Vegas for his Local’s strides to make buildings in New Mexico safer for patrons and first responders.