Sheet Metal Training Centers are opening to the public this coming Monday October 14th to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART).
The event will showcase the cutting edge training, skills, and knowledge that have kept the unionized sheet metal industry at the forefront of the building and construction trades for more than a century.
At local JATCs, the public will be able to tour the facility, speak one on one with instructors and learn about the unionized sheet metal industry, our accredited training programs and rewarding career opportunities for graduates. Union representatives will also be available to discuss new affiliations with local employers, colleges, and trade schools.
Featured events will be held at these locations.
Please contact Paul Pimentel at ppimentel@smart-union.org or 202 662-0812 for more information.
Author: paul
Bonnie Morr, Vice President for Bus Operations, SMART Transportation Division, has been appointed to the General Executive Council of SMART to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Malcolm “Mike” Futhey. She has the distinction of being the first woman to serve on the Council. Joe Nigro, SMART’s General President, said, “This appointment brings a needed voice to our deliberations and plans for attracting more women to this union in all of our operations.”
Born in the Bronx, NY, of immigrant parents, Morr comes from a family of union workers. “My father was a union painter and my mother and aunts worked in sweatshops as young children from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m. every day. My mother and my aunts helped start the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. In the 20s and 30s, unions were different and people had to lay their lives on the line just to get a basic worker right, like being able to use a restroom,” Morr said.
Morr completed three years at Hunter College, with a major in sociology. After leaving school, she began working for Air Canada Airlines in ticketing and ground support. After settling in Santa Cruz, CA, she returned to school at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Morr started driving buses in 1982 for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. In 1989, she moved on to the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District, where she is still employed. In 1990, she and 60 other operators were furloughed due to the economic downturn. Having the longest seniority, she returned to work 10 months later. It took four years to get the others back to work and it was this instance that began her interest in unions and how they worked.
Morr became interested in the affairs of UTU Local 23 in Santa Cruz. “I swore that no one would be treated the way I and my co-workers were being treated during that furlough time,” she said. Morr used her furlough time as a volunteer for Rainforest Futures, a nonprofit, grassroots organization started by Santa Cruz residents. She helped organize a group of indigenous people from Brazil to come to the United States to speak at the United Nations. She assisted with their struggle to halt the damage to the rainforests and its inhabitants.
Morr was elected legislative representative of Local 23 in 1995 and general chairperson in 2000. She was elected alternate vice president-bus by delegates at the UTU convention in 2007 and elected vice president by delegates at the UTU convention in 2011.
She has continued to pursue coursework from the National Transportation Institute and labor classes at the University of California Berkley. She has also completed training at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service as both a mediator and an arbitrator. She has been involved in transportation task forces to improve public transportation and has worked to pass federal legislation on transportation-safety issues. She continues to lobby for both state and federal funding and legislation for transit. She has served as vice president of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council.
Morr has been married to her husband Loren for 36 and they have a son, a daughter and three grandchildren. The family resides in Santa Cruz.
Lawrence J. Cassidy
February 10, 1931 – October 6, 2013
Lawrence “Larry” Cassidy, Retired General Secretary-Treasurer of the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association and a third generation Sheet Metal Worker, died at his home at The Villages in Florida on October 6, 2013. His career spanned some 37 years as an active member, retiring in October 1994. He was initiated into Local 12, Pittsburgh, PA in 1957 after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. He served on the local’s executive board; was Recording Secretary and President; and elected as Business Agent over the period, 1961-1973. He served as Executive Assistant to the International’s General President from 1974 until his appointment as General Secretary-Treasurer in 1989.
Brother Cassidy was well known throughout the labor movement, on Capitol Hill, and in the construction industry. He was one of the initial trustees on the sheet metal and air conditioning industry’s National Training Fund, now the International Training Institute). He was a leading supporter of DAD’s Day, raising funds for the Diabetes Research Institute in Miami, FL. He played a key role in overseeing the International’s year-long Centennial Celebration in 1988.
Larry Cassidy was pre-deceased by his wife, Millie, and their son, Kenneth, and is survived by daughters Lynn and Kathleen (Executive Secretary to the current General Secretary-Treasurer of the Union) and son, Kevin, a journeyman Sheet Metal Worker in Local 100, Suitland, MD.
His family has asked that memorial contributions be made to the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association Scholarship Foundation, 1750 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006.
Amtrak, the U.S. intercity passenger railroad, may have trouble staying on track, literally, if a U.S. government shutdown is prolonged for a month or more.
The Washington-based railroad, which has never made money, gets 12 percent of its operating budget and most capital and debt-service funding from U.S. appropriations funneled through the Transportation Department. Some are scheduled to be paid quarterly while others are reimbursements, all of which have been cut off for now.
Read the complete story at Bloomberg News.
WASHINGTON – Amtrak is moving forward with a plan to eliminate its food and beverage losses over five years. It builds on successful initiatives implemented since fiscal year 2006 that have increased the cost recovery rate from 49 percent to 65 percent.
“We have made steady and consistent progress, but it is time we commit ourselves to end food and beverage losses once and for all,” said President and CEO Joe Boardman. “Our plan will expand initiatives that have worked, add new elements and evolve as updated information and opportunities lead us to better solutions.”
Amtrak Inspector General Ted Alves agrees improvements have been achieved and testified before Congress that “over the last several years, Amtrak has taken action to reduce food and beverage losses and improve program management controls and these efforts have yielded benefits. We believe opportunities remain for further improvement.”
In inflation adjusted dollars, the Amtrak food and beverage loss is down $31 million, from $105 million in fiscal year 2006 to a projected $74 million in fiscal year 2013 – or about a 30 percent move in the right direction.
Boardman explained that approximately 99 percent of the food and beverage loss is reported from the long-distance trains that Congress requires Amtrak to operate, specifically costs associated with the dining car service. Cafe car services across the system, on the other hand, essentially break even or make a positive contribution to the bottom line.
The centerpiece of the plan is an improved management structure that consolidates operations and accountability for food and beverage into a single department. This new organization also establishes a long-distance services general manager and route directors responsible for profit and loss of specific trains who will identify opportunities for further cost savings and efficiencies.
Some of those opportunities include: aligning dining car staffing with seasonal changes in customer demand; establishing metrics to assess service attendants’ onboard sales performance; reducing spoilage; closely tracking onboard stock levels; regularly refreshing menus; and exploring new pricing and revenue management options to align with customer needs and enhance cost recovery.
Further, Amtrak is using technology onboard trains aimed at improving customer service, automating financial and other reporting, and eliminating the error prone and time consuming method of manual data entry. Just this week, for example, Amtrak began a pilot on the Silver Meteor (New York-Miami) long-distance train to test a new touch-screen tablet-based solution that dining car service attendants use to take passenger orders and print customer receipts.
In 2014 Amtrak will roll out its Point of Sale (POS) system across its national network. Currently in operation on Acela Express and California trains, POS technology improves the customer experience by streamlining the check-out and receipt printing process in café and lounge cars, and allows onboard employees more time to focus on sales and customer service. It also provides real-time inventory status, better decision support and more flexibility to introduce targeted pricing and discounts, including value and combo meals.
Also in 2014 Amtrak plans to test “cashless” sales for food and beverage on certain routes. The elimination of cash reduces transaction time and significantly reduces accounting expenses and the risk of fraud or abuse. In addition, many venues that have pursued similar initiatives have seen increased sales. This model is very popular in the airline industry and has been seen as a favorable change by travelers.
“I am confident Amtrak will succeed in this effort just as we have in other areas and across a wide range of financial and operating performance metrics,” he said, noting records for ridership, ticket revenues, and on-time performance as well as significantly reducing corporate debt and the amount of federal operating support.
If Amtrak were to eliminate food and beverage services as some observers recommend, the railroad would actually lose more money because of the loss in associated ridership and ticket revenue, and thereby increase its dependence on federal support, he stated.
Sharon Spitler had every intention of taking her life when she left her motel room in the early morning of Sept. 25.
At 6:40 a.m., the 56-year-old Westland, Mich., woman walked to the nearby South Shore railroad tracks and stood between the long twin rails that disappear in both directions in The Pines. With a fast-approaching westbound South Shore passenger train heading her way, Spitler turned her back to it.
Read the complete story at the Post-Tribune.
In 2011, U.S. railroad companies consumed a little over 3 billion gallons of diesel, nearly 5.5 percent of the total consumption for the entire country.
Oil is currently much more expensive than natural gas, which thanks to the shale boom, is at record low prices in the U.S. Switching engines to run on LNG instead of diesel is expected to help operators drastically cut their costs. Yet while most energy experts have predicted that LNG will not be ready for widespread consumption across the rail industry for a decade or more, Railway Age has stated that LNG powered locomotives will be common on U.S. railroads by 2016.
Read the complete story at Oil Price.com.
The following screenings are scheduled as of this date. All Sheet Metal Workers are eligible who were initiated to journey-level status prior to January 1, 1993 and are on minimum dues, if retired. The #Eligible column includes eligible members from the targeted local union plus other local union members living in the vicinity, which we have identified by zip codes.
Safety in the sheet metal and air conditioning industry is an important concern, and the Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT) recognizes contractors, training centers and individuals annually who initiate safety training programs and provide overall safety education to their workers and students. Recipients of SMOHIT’s 2013 safety awards include sheet metal training center instructors Kurt Christiansen of Southeastern Wisconsin, Ed Hoganson of St. Louis and Roger Fewkes of San Diego, Local No. 33’s training center in Cleveland and contractors RHP Mechanical Systems in Reno, Nev. and C&R Mechanical in St. Louis.
Nominees are selected on the basis of providing exemplary training methodology, outreach activities, wellness activities, research, outstanding program development and implementation, any innovative health and/or safety initiatives or by using SMOHIT training curricula to create a safety culture with the unionized sheet metal and air conditioning industry.
“The safety awards are meant to shine a light on exemplary safety procedures practiced by sheet metal training instructors, training centers and union contractors across the nation,” said Charles Austin, industrial hygienist for SMOHIT. “All of the award recipients have gone above and beyond to bring safety education to the workers and, in turn, ensure they have a safe work environment.”
This is the second safety award this year for the Local No. 33 in Cleveland, which received recognition in March from The International Awards for Powered Access (IAPA) for best new training center for its training offered on powered lift devices. The center is the first of its kind in the United States to earn the distinction. In addition, the 10- and 30-hour OSHA classes are mandatory for the first- and fourth-year apprentices and are offered to journeymen as well.
For the last year, the center has been offering American Work Platform Training (AWPT), which consists of eight to 10 hours of classroom and hands-on study regarding scissor and boom lifts. Local No. 33’s training center in Toledo and its counterpart at Local No. 73 in Chicago are the only sheet metal training centers in the country to offer the training.
The license earned during the training is becoming a sought-after tool, as many projects are beginning to require it for projects, said John Nesta, training coordinator at the Cleveland training center.
“In Europe, this is like a driver’s license,” Nesta added. “We walked out of the instructors’ course amazed at what we were supposed to be doing, and we are passing that knowledge on to our students.”
In St. Louis, the Washington University School of Medicine partnered with Sheet Metal Workers Local No. 36 to study work injuries over the last eight years. For the project, the university worked directly with Fritz Hoffmeister, safety director for C&R Mechanical, a design-build mechanical contractor and engineering firm, and a member of the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association (SMACNA). Together, Hoffmeister and the university developed weekly safety and ergonomics training based on the current job tasks, delivered the training to a sheet metal work crew and evaluated the training through surveys and observations.
The university’s nomination read, “Mr. Hoffmeister keeps the pulse of his work crews by getting to know them individually and his safety efforts are also informed by workers’ input. He keeps his own personal statistics to justify safety equipment purchases and show cost effectiveness for the company’s return on safety investments.”
Earlier this year, another SMACNA contractor in St. Louis called on Hoganson, safety instructor at Local No. 36, for advice. Workers were being written up for not using their fall arrest equipment correctly. Hoganson put together a class to emphasize the correct usage and was able to address the workers’ specific concerns and circumstances, explain to them how to fix the problem and teach them how to keep it from happening again. This is only one example of Hoganson’s attention to safety, said Billy Crow, also an instructor at the training center.
“Our contractors look to him for added safety knowledge. The contractors also have called on Ed to hold special refresher classes just for their workers to give them all the newest updates on the job,” Crow said. Hoganson also developed the 30-hour OSHA and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) programs at the training center. “He is one of the most knowledgeable people I know on safety, and he is very willing to share his knowledge with surrounding locals.”
Hoganson also teaches OSHA 500, 502 and 510 courses in Las Vegas with instructors from the International Training Institute for the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Industry.
Across the country, a few times a year, Eric Scolari, safety manager at RHP Mechanical Systems in Reno, Nev., has to make life and death decisions for his workers, but he doesn’t do it alone. He works with part-time risk management consultants from an insurance company and MSHA as well as a hazard communication consultant to make well-informed decisions.
Scolari has been the full-time safety manager at the single-source mechanical contractor since 1999 and is a qualified OSHA trainer. This means employees are consistently trained and up to date on all safety requirements and equipment.
“Sometimes we work in vaults underground, and we have some hazardous situations we can get into,” Scolari said. “The strength in our program is a direct result of knowing that each of us plays a vital role in its success. By making the work environment safe and healthy, we ensure success, quality, productivity and profitability on every jobsite.”
Fewkes, a full-time instructor at Local No. 206’s training center in San Diego, teaches CPR/first aid, fall protection safety and OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 classes along with training for the forklift license and scaffold use. For him, safety education is a passion.
“I like to get the message out to them. We don’t run across the freeway because we know what the outcome is going to be. It’s the same on the jobsite. We know what the outcome will be, but why do we keep doing it?” Fewkes said. “Today, you may get away with it, but you may not tomorrow.”
“Even in class, he is the first instructor to tell you not to lean back in your chair because you might fall back or always reiterate shop and equipment safety when students are about to get into another project. He is also the first instructor to tell you what not to do when working on a ladder, the instructor to tell you to drive home safely,” added Chris Caricato, apprentice coordinator in San Diego. “I think Roger takes other people’s safety personally, and that is why he is the way he is.”
In Kenosha, Wis., Christiansen is the co-owner of Christiansen Heating and Sheet Metal - the family business that spans four generations - and is an instructor at the Sheet Metal Workers Local No. 18 training center in Racine, Wis. In addition to the standard OSHA class and information, Christiansen invites a sports therapist give a presentation on proper body mechanics along with injuries in the sheet metal industry and how to avoid them. He also brings in an official OSHA representative to answer questions from the students.
“I have never met anyone so dedicated to trying to give the best class or most updated material for his students,” said Todd Erhardt, apprentice coordinator. “When there are so many instructors out there just doing the minimum for their classes, it is refreshing to meet someone who feels like he can’t ever give enough or do enough to give back to his students or our industry.”
ALBANY, N.Y. — Amtrak and the state Department of Transportation have reached an agreement on a method for sharing costs on most trains in the Empire State, avoiding a shutdown of service that could have taken place as early as Oct. 17.
The agreement, required by the federal Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, basically requires states to assume more of the cost of operating trains on routes of up to 750 miles. Long-distance trains such as the Lake Shore Limited, which connects the Capital Region to Chicago, Boston and New York City, aren’t covered by the requirement.
New York state will provide about $22 million in federal fiscal year 2014, which will help cover operating and capital costs for the Empire Corridor trains, as well as the Adirondack, Maple Leaf and Ethan Allen services. It also has a separate agreement with Vermont to cover 35 percent of the Ethan Allen’s costs, estimated to be about $800,000, in the 2014 fiscal year.
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