Local 20 organizes enormous growth to take on record-breaking megaproject in Indiana

“The project peaked at over 500 [Local 20] sheet metal workers. It’s still hard to wrap my hands around that.”

That’s Local 20 (Indiana) Business Manager Trent Todd, discussing a Stellantis engine plant megaproject in Kokomo, Ind. — the largest project in the local’s history — in a recent episode of SMART News.

The key to taking on the work? Organizing.

“It was a total team effort, state-wide,” Todd said. “Hats off to the local business rep. in that area; I can’t say enough.”

The Kokomo megaproject began in spring of 2023. Even before the peak of 500 sheet metal workers, Todd and Local 20 knew that immense workforce demands would be placed on their signatory contractors.

So, using a broad range of organizing tactics, the local got to work early.

“We started months ahead of time with our Youth-to-Youth organizers, mapping out nonunion jobsites before we conducted the blitzes that we had,” Todd explained, referring to several union organizing blitzes in the area that the local conducted, in conjunction with the SMART International Organizing Department, to recruit unorganized workers. “We basically blitzed several areas. We were efficient when the International organizers came in, because we had the projects already documented that had nonunion workers on them.”

Organizers used methods both innovative and tried-and-true to get their message to nonunion workers. They handed out cards with QR codes linking to information on the union difference at jobsites and local businesses. The local ran social media advertisements. Officers visited community colleges and adult education centers, handing out cards and spreading the word about fulfilling careers in the sheet metal industry, and continued their practice of visiting job fairs and community outreach.

“[We did] some new stuff as well as some of the traditional, boots-on-the-ground … fighting and combating the nonunion, and monitoring jobsites in the area,” Todd explained.

Local 20’s intentional focus on organizing will serve union sheet metal workers in Indiana for years to come. Even now, in the wake of the Stellantis megaproject, members are at work on a $4 billion hospital project in Indianapolis and will soon take on an upcoming 26-story high rise. Not only that, Todd added: The rigorous organizing conducted by the local is helping union contractors retain their “core work” market share, maintaining the unionized sector’s hold on elements of our industry that stay constant through the fluctuations that define construction.

In other words, whether staffing record-breaking megaprojects or ensuring union members continue taking on the everyday projects that keep communities running, organizing is key.

“All in all — with new SMART members, seasoned SMART members, the help from our International Association — SMART Local 20 delivered [its] largest project to date,” Todd concluded.