Author: paul

Fast Track undermines the authority that we have entrusted to Congress to make sure that trade agreements with other nations are fair and in the best interests of working families – not corporations. If Fast Track is passed, job-killing trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that have been negotiated largely in secret could become law by a simple “yes” or “no” vote, without the possibility of any amendments. Congress will not be able to change a single word of the agreement, no matter how bad the provisions may be.
The U.S. Senate just introduced Fast Track legislation to ram through the Trans Pacific Partnership.  Read the text of TPA-2014 for yourself here.
Please help us tell Congress that Fast Track is the wrong track by contacting your Senators today!
You can get more information and updates on this dangerous legislation via the Coalition to Stop Fast Track.

The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers announces support for California Governor Jerry Brown’s budget proposal to authorize funding for the state’s high-speed rail program, utilizing $300 million of cap and trade revenue.
This investment includes upgrades to commuter and intercity rail systems that improve connectivity and modernize transportation between regions throughout the state.  Without high-speed rail, California’s existing transportation network cannot meet the demands of the projected population growth of 20 million new residents in the coming decades. Studies find that adding more highways and airports to what already exists would cost up to three times as much as high-speed rail.
According to SMART General President Joseph Nigro, “California’s leadership in this effort will serve as a trailblazer for other states as the nation moves toward high-speed rail as a solution to solving present and future transportation challenges.”
SMART, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, is one of North America’s most dynamic and diverse unions with 216,000 members. SMART’s members produce and provide the vital services that move products to market, passengers to their destinations and ensure the quality of the air we breathe. 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 fairness in the workplace, excellence at work and opportunity for all working families.
 
 

We are pleased, as your General President and Transportation Division President, to present the first SMART Constitution and Ritual to our membership.
This is a milestone for both the former Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association and the United Transportation Union that have merged to become the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. While our merger has been complete for some time, this document solidifies this great union and its members under a single Constitution.
It is impossible to speak to the success in completing this Constitution without acknowledging both the hard work and the frustration of those who participated in the creation of the document and the membership who have waited patiently throughout this long and difficult process. The path has led both of us to take positions on interpretation of our separate constitutions and the merger agreement. In getting there, as would be expected of your leadership, we examined and debated every constitutional section thoroughly before agreement. At times, it required the help of an outside arbitrator to clarify a particular issue. While this slowed the process, it must be remembered the parties were tasked with blending 100 years of separate cultural and operational methods into a single Constitution that would govern our organization.
Throughout this process both of us have recognized that in the end what matters is the importance of having a document that serves the best interests of all the membership of SMART.
So, we are jointly resolved to move forward as an organization under one Constitution and Ritual and a single focus. We, as your leadership, are dedicated to working collectively to provide a transparent and accountable organization that will strive to provide fair and reasoned representation to our membership and the efficiency of operation necessary to expand work opportunities for our members.
Fraternally and in solidarity,
 
Joseph J. Nigro, General President
John Previsich, President Transportation Division
Cover Page and Index
Text of SMART Constitution
Information for Delegates Attending the 2014 SMART Convention (This corrects and replaces the original posting from 1/14/2014)
 
 
 

TotalTrack, the database system that puts all apprentice and training journeymen information in one place, has been installed in all U.S. training centers. Developed by the International Training Institute, TotalTrack simplifies the work of instructors and training coordinators, allowing them to spend more time with students and less time doing paperwork.
The training center in Cheyenne, Wyo. was the last center to be converted in December 2013. The first centers began using the system in 2011.
“[TotalTrack] is a going to dramatically change how the apprenticeship program runs,” said Larry Lawrence, ITI field representative and instructional developmental specialist. “Once everyone gets used to using this great tool, they will see the value and potential.”
Because TotalTrack is Internet-based, it doesn’t need to be installed on a computer network or require upgrades usually associated with an implementation of this size. Instructors, coordinators and students can access TotalTrack from anywhere they have Internet capabilities. Instructors can work on lesson plans, students can receive messages and homework assignments, and coordinators and administrators can check hours from anywhere, which frees instructors to do work at home.

It’s freezing cold outside.  Here are some tips from OSHA to keep you safe when you have to work outside in this extreme weather.  https://www.osha.gov/as/opa/cold_weather_prep.html

The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance kicks off the 6th season of its award-winning TV series, Brotherhood Outdoors, with an elk hunt that is as challenging as it is inspiring. The show, winner of “Best Combination Show” in the 2011 Sportsman Choice Awards and a contestant for “Best Educational/Instructional” show in 2013, launches its exciting new season on Jan. 5 at 11 a.m. ET on the Sportsman Channel.
Brotherhood Outdoors co-hosts Daniel Lee Martin and Julie McQueen, who double as the show’s skilled trip guides, invite viewers to come along and experience the behind-the-scenes excitement of outdoor gaming. Heart pounding scenes of hunters in anticipated pursuit of their quarry and the thrill of anglers fighting to pull in fish are woven into heartfelt stories of American’s hard-working sportsmen and women and their commitment to conservation and a hard day’s work.
The new season begins with a memory-filled elk hunt featuring union machinist Gene Barnes who sets his sights on helping his 74-year-old father, Harlyn Barnes, harvest a bull elk in memory of his late son and the cherished hunting trips the three of them shared together. Follow the group as they confront Idaho’s steep terrain and high altitude, hiking to 7,500 feet in elevation to a lookout point to glass for elk.
As the series continues, viewers will join an operating engineer on his quest for Boca Grande tarpon, chase coons through moonlit woods with a laborer, head to California with a machinist for some quick action wingshooting and his first hog, outwit or outwait a 150+ Kansas buck with a roofer and much more!
Brotherhood Outdoors awards union sportsmen and women who are committed to preserving North America’s outdoor heritage with a guided trip or the opportunity to show off their guiding skills and local hunting or fishing destinations on national TV.
Presented by Bank of Labor, Brotherhood Outdoors is also sponsored by the following unions, contractors and corporate partners: Buck Knives, Carhartt, Employee Benefit Systems, International
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, National Electrical Contractors Association, ULLICO and United Association/International Training Fund.
For more information about Brotherhood Outdoors, the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance or Sportsman Channel, visit www.BrotherhoodOutdoors.tv and www.facebook.com/brotherhoodoutdoorstv.

Minority and low-income residents of the Minneapolis and St. Paul metropolitan area now have a new opportunity to learn green construction skills thanks to a partnership between the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation and Summit Academy OIC. The program—Build MN Green—teaches participants the green construction, occupational safety and environmental awareness skills currently wanted by employers in Minnesota’s growing construction industry.
As part of Build MN Green, the 250 program participants will complete coursework that will help them understand safety rules, green building tactics, including LEED® Awareness, and CPR and first aid skills.  “This program is helping people get a leg up in their search for a job in the construction industry,” said David Foster, President of the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation. “As the industry becomes more and more green and efficient, the need for workers with these kinds of skills will only increase. We’re proud to help train these future workers.”
Construction jobs in the Twin Cities are expected to expand by 37.7 percent between 2010 and 2020, representing 17,932 jobs. These jobs are fueled by a resurgence of housing development and the building of major sporting facilities in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The use of LEED—an industry-recognized program for green building design, construction, operations and maintenance created by the U.S. Green Building Council—is growing rapidly in today’s environment, especially in the public sector. Minnesota is currently home to more than 260 LEED certified buildings, including 236 commercial buildings.  Summit Academy works in partnership with the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades and Build MN Green courses are already underway. Following graduation, Summit Academy and the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation will help graduates find full-time employment with construction companies and building trades unions’ apprentice programs.
Earlier this year, Summit Academy OIC was selected to serve as the Employment Assistance Firm for the construction of the Minnesota Vikings stadium.

On November 4, 2013, Arbitrator Michael Gottesman issued a second decision related to several questions concerning implementation of the merger and establishment of a single union, SMART.  The Transportation Division requested that General President Nigro hold off posting the Gottesman decision until after November 19^th, and that the parties would publicize the decision simultaneously.  He agreed.   This agreement was not meant to withhold the information, but to allow the parties to utilize the time to finalize language in the few unresolved sections of the SMART Constitution.
__________________________________________________________________
Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that selected pieces of this decision have been distributed to various parties and when viewed individually, or more importantly not within the full context of the decision, the reader may form a false or misleading impression of the Arbitrator’s intent.  Therefore, I believe it is important to release the full Arbitrator Decision at this time for all to read and so those who have received only specific sections of the document have the ability to view those items within the intended context. 
General President Joseph J. Nigro
 
Arbitrator Gottesman’s Decision of November 4, 2013

The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance kicks off the 6th season of its award-winning TV series, Brotherhood Outdoors, with an elk hunt that is as challenging as it is inspiring. The show, winner of “Best Combination Show” in the 2011 Sportsman Choice Awards and a contestant for “Best Educational/Instructional” show in 2013, launches its exciting new season on Jan. 5 at 11 a.m. ET on the Sportsman Channel.
The new season begins with an elk hunt featuring union machinist Gene Barnes who sets his sights on helping his 74-year-old father, Harlyn Barnes, harvest a bull elk in memory of his late son and the cherished hunting trips the three of them shared together. Follow the group as they confront Idaho’s steep terrain and high altitude, hiking to 7,500 feet in elevation to a lookout point to glass for elk.
As the series continues, viewers will join an operating engineer on his quest for Boca Grande tarpon, chase coons through moonlit woods with a laborer, head to California with a machinist for some quick action wingshooting and his first hog, outwit or outwait a 150+ Kansas buck with a roofer and much more!
Brotherhood Outdoors awards union sportsmen and women who are committed to preserving North America’s outdoor heritage with a guided trip or the opportunity to show off their guiding skills and local hunting or fishing destinations on national TV.
Presented by Bank of Labor, Brotherhood Outdoors is also sponsored by the following unions, contractors and corporate partners: Buck Knives, Carhartt, Employee Benefit Systems, International
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, National Electrical Contractors Association, ULLICO and United Association/International Training Fund.
For more information about Brotherhood Outdoors, the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance or Sportsman Channel, visit www.BrotherhoodOutdoors.tv and www.facebook.com/brotherhoodoutdoorstv.
About Sportsman Channel: Launched in 2003, Sportsman Channel, and Sportsman HD, is the only television and digital media company fully devoted to sportsmen in the United States, delivering entertaining and educational programming focused exclusively on hunting, shooting and fishing activities. Sportsman Channel reaches more than 32 million U.S. television households and is available in HD. Visit www.thesportsmanchannel.com, follow on Twitter, @SPORTSMANchnl (twitter.com/SPORTSMANchnl) and Like on Facebook, facebook.com/sportsmanchannel

This comprehensive class is designed for the beginning service technician. The concentrated training program consists of 96 hours of intense classroom and hands on training within a 12-day schedule. The objective is to enable participants to acquire a complete understanding of the HVAC systems and its components in order to perform HVAC service work with confidence.
Course work includes electric theory, refrigeration theory, and heating theory (gas). All three components cover extensive troubleshooting and hands-on experience with active equipment.
This course will be held at St. Louis Local 36, January 26 – February 9, 2014.
Application deadline is January 13, 2014.
To register, please contact your coordinator or go to www.sheetmetal-iti.org.