Education Department, Organizing Department hold course on organizing contractors

The Education Department, in collaboration with the Organizing Department, held its Organizing III class during the week of October 6–10, 2025, in St. Louis. This redesigned class focused on the “top-down” organizing strategy, with a specific emphasis on developing organizing campaigns targeting nonunion contractors.

Canceled federal funding threatens SMART members’ jobs at port projects

In late August, President Trump’s Department of Transportation canceled $679 million in federal funding for 12 offshore wind projects across the country. That included fully taking back hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money for infrastructure work at Humboldt Bay Harbor District in Northern California — immediately throwing Local 104 members’ work opportunities into question, in the short and long term.

From the archives: Sheet metal workers rally for fair trade policies and respect for workers at 1999 World Trade Organization meetings

SMART members and labor unions across the world have been fighting for workers’ rights throughout their history. Case in point: The Janu­ary–February 2000 issue of the Members’ Journal, which covered sheet metal workers’ participation in now-famous rallies at the World Trade Organization’s 1999 meetings in Seattle.