Author: paul

U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta last week toured the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union 100’s Apprenticeship Training Center in Suitland, Maryland.
Earlier in the week, SMART’s General President Joseph Sellers, Jr., participated in a meeting of the President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion at the Department of Labor. The Task Force – which includes business, labor, educational institutions, trade groups, workforce advocates, and public officials – discussed best practices regarding how to expand apprenticeships across industries.
“Apprenticeships are a pathway for many Americans to learn the skills they need to secure the freedom o provide for their family’s future, said SMART General President Joseph Sellers, Jr.
Secretary Acosta commented on his appreciation for the opportunity to tour the Local 100 Training Center. He added that “seeing apprentices in action and learning more about how the program works provide helpful insight as the Administration works to expand apprenticeships nationwide.”
 

Thomas Company got its start in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., in 1920 in the years following World War I and less than a decade before the Great Depression. Despite that beginning, the economic collapse in 2008 and subsequent fallout in Atlantic City left the then 94-year-old company, a member of the Sheet Metal Contractors Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity, on the verge of closing its doors.
Meanwhile, SMART Local 19, based in Philadelphia, was fighting its own battle—carpenters attempting to take over all of the architectural sheet metal work, which had been a staple for the local since 1887.
Working together, Local 19 they staved off the raiding attempt.
George Thomas, the third-generation owner of Thomas Company, decided to take the risk to expand beyond HVAC work, into the architectural metal market. He and Local 19 Assistant Business Manager Bryan Bush visited a dozen general contractors and developers in the area to talk about Thomas Company’s capability to perform architectural projects.
“We were sitting down with whoever we possibly could to get him the work,” Bush said. “Before you knew it, he started landing every other job. It wasn’t an overnight thing. We just kept working on it.”
“I give the guy a lot of credit,” added Gary Masino, Local 19 business manager. “He leaves no stone unturned. We learned a lot from each other. He taught us we can do the work again.”
Once the risk proved to be a success, other contractors followed suit.
In less than a year, Thomas Company was keeping 100 craftsmen busy. Today, Thomas Company and Local 19 continue to work together to increase market share. “It’s a true partnership. We depend on them as much as they depend on us,” Thomas said.
 
“When all parties agree and care, anything is possible,” Masino said.
 

Via Press Associates Union News
For decades, the South has been the Achilles heel of the labor movement. While unions took root and thrived in places like the industrial Midwest and Northeast, or in the ports and plants of West Coast states in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, Dixie remained a tough slog.
This is the place where right to work was born over 70 years ago. Where reactionary politics have often been the only kind of politics. And where the “color line” dividing Black workers from white ones long defined all aspects of life, including in the workplace. It too many ways, it still does.
There were major organizing campaigns and big strikes in the South over the years, of course, and they shouldn’t be forgotten. From the battles of Harlan County and the Great Textile Strike of 1934 to Dr. King and the Memphis sanitation workers and the lesser-known fights of more recent decades, Southern workers have never shied away from a fight when backed into a corner. They haven’t always come out on top, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
But eventually, many of the mines closed, the textile and furniture factories shut down, and lower-wage, non-union companies like Walmart came to dominate the regional economy. Even the South’s relative lack of strong unions and its abundance of right-wing politicians servile to business couldn’t save it from de-industrialization.
But it’s a new era for the Southern economy. Things are beginning to change, and the labor movement as a whole would do well to pay closer attention.
The South, already home to 35 percent of the country’s population, is growing rapidly. Of the ten U.S. metropolitan areas experiencing the fastest job creation rates in 2016, six of them were in the South. A third of Electoral College votes are here. In 2010, the region got eight new seats in Congress, with another six likely coming in 2020. More than half the U.S.’ African-American population resides here, and counties in the South account for the biggest share of the country’s Latino population growth.
Labor regularly takes note of the importance of organizing in the South, but has yet to develop a coordinated approach to tackling the special challenges and rapidly shifting economy there. At its last convention in 2013, the national AFL-CIO pledged itself to developing a Southern organizing strategy. As of 2017, it’s not clear that there’s much progress to point to.
That’s something the Arkansas AFL-CIO sought to remind delegates of at this year’s national labor confab in St. Louis. In a resolution that again appealed to the country’s biggest gathering of unions to devote itself to organizing the South, workers from the Natural State were blunt in their assessment:
“…[T]he American labor movement has never developed a long-term, successful, coordinated effort to organize working people in the states comprising the Southern region, which has allowed anti-worker political forces to operate in the South without being effectively challenged by an organized working people’s movement….”
There have been some successful organizing campaigns over the last four years, but workers from Arkansas and other Southern states are looking for more than just support in particular workplace sign-up drives. They envision concerted efforts to elect labor-friendly candidates and pass pro-worker legislation.
Organizing the South is important not just for unions and workers there, but nationwide. Consider the fact that 45 percent of congressional Republicans are sent by Southern states. As the resolution makes clear, the possibility of passing any pro-labor legislation at the national level depends on changing the political and legislative climate below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Though they tried to grab more attention during the debate in St. Louis, organized labor in the South isn’t waiting around for the national AFL-CIO. In Arkansas, they’re preparing for a possible avalanche of investment heading their way.
State labor federation president Alan Hughes, a Steelworker, says “There’s never enough organizing going on.” Labor, he argues, has got to go South because that’s where the people and the money are moving. In a discussion on the sidelines of the convention, he checked off a list of new industrial investments already in the works for his state.
In Pine Bluff, a mostly African-American town in south-central Arkansas, America’s first-ever natural gas liquefaction plant, a $3.5-billion-dollar alternative energy super project, will be built over the next several years. It is being billed as the biggest economic development endeavor in state history. Only six of the operations exist in the world, and Hughes estimates the Pine Bluff plant could create as many as 5,000 construction jobs up front, and around 500 permanent jobs after that.
Similar stories are playing out in other towns, too. A Chinese company, Sun Paper, chose Arkadelphia for its first U.S. investment, of more than $1 billion into a new pulp mill. In Forrest City, another Chinese giant, the Shandong Ruyi Technology Group, announced plans to spend $410 million to convert an old Sanyo TV factory into a new spinning yarn mill big enough to consume all the annual cotton harvest of the Arkansas Delta region. Another 800 permanent jobs. None of them union.
Those are the projects announced in just one state over the past year or so. But it’s happening all over the South. Jessica Akers, Secretary-Treasurer of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, says unions must get ready now.
“There should be community organizing efforts going on right now so that there is already buy-in to the union on day 1 when the plant opens its gates for the first time,” she argues. The state fed and the local Building Trades Council are exploring pre-apprenticeship models tried in other places to see what might be replicated in Arkansas.
The idea of having a union has to be a positive in people’s minds before the company comes to town, not just associated with negative things on the job later on. In a right to work state like Arkansas, Akers says the way you sell the union to workers is by focusing on the concept of a contract.
“Where we live, people are supposed to stand behind their words. If there is an agreement, and we’ve shaken hands on it, then it gives people confidence in each other. That’s how we have to pitch it.”
That also draws Republicans and the union members who vote for them, she added. “Economics is what we can move together with. Like charter schools, right to work isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So we can say it’s bad all we want, but it’s the world we live in. So we have to maneuver around this reality to benefit our people as much as possible.”
It’s a pragmatic, real-world approach to advancing labor’s issues. Surveying the South’s fast-changing political economy, the Arkansas delegation and other unions in the region spent considerable time at the convention making the case for a specially tailored organizing strategy.
And their resolution? Passed over, essentially. By the time it made it to the convention floor, it had been chopped down to a single “Whereas” in a longer, more generic promise to organize everywhere and realize the promise of collective bargaining.
It was a lost opportunity. Special challenges call for special strategies. If labor doesn’t give sustained attention to the particularities of organizing workers in the most anti-labor atmosphere in the United States, they warned, someday – and maybe not long from now – it will wake up to realize that the whole country has gone South.

By Mark Gruenberg and John Wojcik
Press Associates Union News Service
 
The U.S. needs to spend $4 trillion, four times as much as the Republican Trump administration requested, for needed infrastructure repairs, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions says.
And that’s what the unions will lobby for, adds NABTU President Sean McGarvey. And there must be “a dedicated funding source,” including an increased federal gasoline tax, to provide the money, he contends. Another large chunk of change, he said, will come from public-private partnerships.
McGarvey and construction union presidents James Callahan of the Operating Engineers, Robert Martinez of the Machinists and Lonnie Stephenson of the Electrical Workers made the case for more money at an October 23 press conference during the AFL-CIO Convention in St. Louis.
Despite the recovery from the Great Recession, which didn’t start in the construction industry until 2011, the U.S. still has great unmet infrastructure needs, the four said. They include old water pipes, underground utilities which break down, cracking and decaying roads and a creaky electrical grid.
“We’re also concerned about the funding, but also with the underground subsystems,” Callahan said. They’re “the sewers, the electrical lines and what’s below the roads. That’s why we’re trying to get a permanent (fiscal) ‘lockbox,’ both for funding structures and for hiring enough people.”
 
Repairing all that via a federal infrastructure law would put and keep even more construction workers on the job, especially in coming colder months when residential construction slows, the four said.
 
That’s a distinct change, McGarvey and the others admitted, from the depths of the Great Recession, which began when the bottom dropped out of the housing market. Construction joblessness hit a high of 2.44 million in February 2010, and the construction jobless rate that month was 27.1 percent. The September 2017 data, the latest available, show 433,000 jobless construction workers (4.7 percent).
 
The Trump administration has yet to produce a detailed infrastructure plan, though congressional committees have held hearings on the nation’s needs. And McGarvey said his department has been working with both the White House and three business groups – the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Chamber of Commerce – on crafting legislation.
 
The Chamber traditionally allied with the construction unions in pushing for infrastructure spending.
 
But the administration also floated the idea of funding all infrastructure improvements at the $1 trillion level and only through the partnerships, rather than direct federal spending. That’s produced criticism the money would flow into Wall Streeters’ pockets rather than rebuilding the country.
 
McGarvey floated a third idea for funding infrastructure repairs: Using negotiations on the pending tax bill, which analysts call a tax cut for the rich, to produce “a huge repatriation payment” of corporate profits now stashed overseas to escape U.S. taxes. “We also haven’t had a gas tax increase in 25 years.”
 
The type of funding and its sources will help the building trades unions evaluate it, he said. And he said that, despite appearances, both the administration and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are fully engaged on the infrastructure issue.
 
That assessment appears to differ somewhat from remarks by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka a day earlier. Trumka said infrastructure is one of the area where Trump has so far produced “nothing.”
 
There’s another reason the construction unions push infrastructure spending, the four presidents said: Apprenticeships. They pointed out training new apprentices is absolutely needed not just to build the projects but to replace the tens of thousands of Baby Boomer construction workers who retire every year.
 
At the same time, apprenticeships are also vital to increasing participation by women, minorities and veterans in construction, which is still a white male-dominated field. Federal data show 3 percent of construction workers are women, 6.8 percent are African-American, 1.7 percent are Asian-American and 34 percent are Latino.
 
That led McGarvey and several other construction union leaders to join a Trump administration advisory task force on increasing apprenticeships. “The administration views” union apprenticeship programs “as a model” for the industry, McGarvey claimed. Though he did not say so, the administration also proposed a budget cut in federal apprenticeship aid.
 
McGarvey said in an interview last spring that raising the issue of the need for apprentices, especially for women and minorities, was one reason he and other construction union leaders engaged with Trump so early on, despite criticism from others in the labor movement for doing so.
 
But even more apprentices won’t fill the workplace void, the union presidents said. That will occur only when construction firms, notably non-union firms, pay their workers what they’re worth. A pay rate of $15 an hour, for a worker with a family of four or “women of color with kids” is not enough, McGarvey and Stephenson said. “As long as these companies go higher” than that, “we can get them the workforce. What we don’t have a guarantee on is jobs. And we’ve got to make sure our contractors are competitive.”

SMART General President Joseph Sellers was named today to serve on the President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion.
In June, President Trump signed an executive order expanding apprenticeship programs and vocational training at a White House ceremony.  The executive order led to the creation of this task force to identify strategies and proposals to promote apprenticeships throughout the United States and especially within the private sector.
SMART General President Sellers, a native of Pennsylvania, served as the training coordinator for Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 19 from 1996 through 2000 when he began his term as Business Representative, then became the Local Union’s Business Manager. Throughout his career, General President Sellers held a number of critical union and industry posts and has bridged the gap between labor and management while always meeting the needs of the industry, including as a member of the Pennsylvania State Apprenticeship and Training Council.
Sellers thanked President Trump and Secretary Acosta for the nomination,  “I look forward to contributing to this important task force through my experience and ideas.”  Sellers continued, “this work will benefit workers and their families through an established career path and applied education curriculum in support of a new workforce for tomorrow.”
Today’s American workforce faces a skills gap with 6.1 million job openings in the United States, and 6.8 million people seeking employment.  “To close the skills gap,” Sellers stressed, “we must give working families the opportunity to learn while they earn as they pursue a demand driven education.   Apprenticeships are a proven form of this and the Task Force will serve as a way to plan and grow America’s capacity to expand avenues to opportunity through apprenticeships.
SMART, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, is one of North America’s most dynamic and diverse unions with 200,000 members. SMART’s members ensure the quality of the air we breathe, promote energy efficiency, produce and provide the vital services that move products to market and passengers to their destinations. We are sheet metal workers, service technicians, bus operators, engineers, conductors, sign workers, welders, production employees and more. With members in scores of different occupations, we advocate for a safe and fair workplace, excellence at work and opportunity for all working families.

Behind the work, training, bids and contracts is the business of sheet metal work, and for decades, training coordinators and instructors have taught Business 101 to their members at their home training centers. The class was geared to educate members on the financial, human resources and general operation of a business using in-person classes, books and expertise.
For all the class was, it wasn’t available to everyone who wanted to partake. The International Training Institute (ITI), the education arm of the sheet metal and air conditioning industry, and SMART, created the SMART Business Development course in its place. Part distance learning, part in-person training, the class is meant to do more — be more — than its predecessor.
“An online version of this class makes it more accessible to more members,” said James Page, administrator of the ITI. “With technology being at the forefront of education, we wanted to get it to those members who otherwise wouldn’t have access. Education keeps the union, and our industry, moving forward, and the mix of learning — self-paced, virtual live classroom and weekly deliverables — rejuvenated this program and made it stronger and a better fit for the members.”
“It really opens up the class for members geographically, for those who couldn’t travel,” added Aldo Zambetti, ITI field staff and facilitator of SMART Business Development. “There were people who took Business 101 who were successful, whether they were going into business or decided not to go into business.”
SMART Business Development, which is currently in the pilot stage, consists of three phases. Phase one is an eight-week, online course meant to give participants an introduction, which includes self-assessment, risks and rewards, planning and human resources, estimating and bidding and an overview of what to expect when going into business.
Participants interact online, complete homework and study questions, and attend a live virtual classroom discussion once a week. The second phase consists of a week in residence at a central location. For the pilot program, the class will visit SMART SM Local 33 near Cleveland. While there, participants will visit with experts in legal, insurance, finance, labor and sales to seek advice, gather information and ask questions.
During the third phase — also conducted online like phase one — participants will learn how to construct, investigate and formulate a business plan, which is the class’s final project. At any point during the class, a participant can acknowledge going into business is not for them. That, as well as completing the whole course, is considered a graduation, Zambetti said.
For participants’ employers, the benefits are two-fold. If a course graduate takes the leap into self-employment, they become an informed competitor. If a course participant decides not to go into business, he or she now understands much more about their employer.
“Whether they choose to stay or leave — they’re both celebrations,” he added. “Now, they have a better knowledge of what their employers take to bed with them every night. Employers aren’t always the fat cats making a lot of profit. Your employer would be happy with 2-and-a-half to 3 percent profit. These are the benefits.”
Because the course is online, participants can remain anonymous to the outside world.
“They can leave or keep on going and still accomplish something,” Zambetti said. “And they are spending 10 hours per week on their effort, which is a small price to pay to make one of the most important decisions of your life. That’s why it works. It’s an exciting program.”
The ITI plans to host additional SMART Business Development courses later this year. For information on this course, or to request a registration link, email Aldo Zambetti at azambetti@sheetmetal-iti.org.