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SMART members’ ability to win steady job opportunities depends largely on how much of a local area’s sheet metal work is performed by union contractors — AKA, a local union’s market share. In Georgia, SMART Local 85 recently visited jobsites across the Atlanta area to help recruit workers and build our union’s power ahead of expected workforce demands.

In March 2026, SMART Local 85 heard from the local contractors’ association that in order to take on the work that members depend on, contractors expected to need hundreds of additional sheet metal workers by the end of the year.

In response, Local 85 and SMART International staff planned a large-scale recruiting effort. The result was a three-day jobsite recruiting blitz across 18 counties around Atlanta, with SMART organizers visiting workers to tell them about the union difference and career opportunities with Local 85.

Before hitting the streets, organizers spent a day training: reviewing the geographic target area, major non-union contractors, target project route assignments and the message from Local 85 to non-union sheet metal workers. Then, they got to work.

Over the next three days, teams of organizers visited more than 300 construction projects. They also stopped at HVAC supply houses, talked with technicians spotted in service vans and checked other projects they encountered along their routes. If an unlisted project appeared to be in duct installation phase, the team stopped and talked to workers there.

The amount of territory covered over the three days would have taken the local organizer several months to cover. But the real value of the blitz went beyond the number of jobsites visited. The campaign added to Local 85’s person of interest list, creating a larger pool of workers to fill immediate job opportunities.

Some of the strongest contacts came from workers at a large non-union sheet metal duct fabrication facility, and continued outreach has already produced results. Multiple duct fabricators were recruited to fill positions for union contractor shops, helping those shops expand their fabrication capacity as their field operations grow and showing those fabricators the union difference.

Still, a three-day blitz will not grow a local union’s market share by itself. A blitz can generate leads, recruit workers, uncover organizing opportunities, gather market intelligence and help a local organizer cover months of ground in a few days. Growing market share takes steady presence throughout the year.

That means knowing where non-union contractors are working, visiting those sites regularly, meeting workers face to face and giving skilled sheet metal workers a clear path into union careers. When done consistently, that work can increase the workforce available to union contractors — and change people’s lives in the local community.

The Atlanta blitz showed what focused field organizing can accomplish: more than 300 projects visited in three days, new prospects in the recruiting pipeline, experienced fabricators moving into union jobs, new organizing opportunities uncovered and stronger field skills among new organizers. That is how recruiting becomes more than filling today’s workforce demand. It becomes a market share growth strategy that benefits workers for the long term.

If we want to rebuild worker power, we also must grow our presence in the market. That means going where the non-union workforce is, week after week and jobsite after jobsite, and making sure every worker knows about the opportunity our union can provide.

In 2025, SMART launched its partnership with TOOTRiS, offering United States sheet metal members at participating local unions access to affordable, on-demand child care options that match their schedules, locations and other needs.

SMART has continued working with TOOTRiS and other organizations in the months since, aiming to bolster the support that members can receive. And now, Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.) has an expanded partnership with TOOTRiS, offering members the existing benefit and providing apprentices monthly child care subsidies — delivering added support during the years when new members of our union are just starting their careers.

Local 85 apprentice Kristopher Baxter is currently in the second year of his apprenticeship. He and his wife, Brittany, are parents of three young children — raising a family as costs rise across the country. Local 85’s new child care benefit is helping them manage the long commutes, demanding schedules and increasing costs of providing for a young family in 2026.

Brittany and Kristopher Baxter with one of their three children

Because the stipend is applied per child, the impact for their family is multiplied.

“It’s truly been an amazing experience,” said Brittany Baxter. “Child care is extremely expensive, tutoring is expensive, and to have a benefit that not only helps us pay for it, but also helps us search and choose providers on an easy-to-use platform takes away so much stress.”

“It helps us catch up on bills, save money, and not feel like you’re suffocating because bills don’t stop,” Kristopher added.

Under the program, Local 85 is providing graduated monthly child care stipends based on year of apprenticeship, applied per child:

  • Year one: $400 per month
  • Year two: $300 per month
  • Year three: $200 per month
  • Year four: $100 per month

“We see how hard our apprentices are working to build a life and a career at the same time,” said Steve Langley, Local 85 business manager and SMART general vice president. “If we can ease even one of the pressures they’re carrying, especially for working parents, that’s worth doing. This is about standing behind our members when it matters most.”

Expanding on a groundbreaking benefit

Local 85’s benefit is an expansion of SMART and TOOTRiS’s groundbreaking partnership, which is available to SMART sheet metal members at participating U.S. locals.

Ordinarily, access to TOOTRiS’s program costs $24.99 per month. For SMART sheet metal members at participating local unions, the program cost is covered by funding from the SMART International, giving them real-time access to licensed child care providers in urban and rural areas; search features tailored for special needs care and flexible scheduling; and multilingual support through TOOTRiS’s app and website.

In addition to the platform, TOOTRiS’s concierge service offers members personalized assistance in helping to locate providers that meet their needs and work schedules, including very early hours, swing shifts and more. Providers are licensed and regularly reevaluated utilizing state licensing data to ensure they meet stringent quality standards, giving members peace of mind when searching for care.

In the months since, SMART and TOOTRiS have worked together to identify opportunities to improve that benefit offering, from potential grant opportunities to local market potential.

Local 85’s partnership with TOOTRiS is just one example.

“We’re in it to help people,” Langley concluded. “We’re in it to make our communities better, and to help the people that need help.”

SMART members across the United States and Canada regularly enjoy all that the great outdoors has to offer: hunting, fishing, hiking and beyond. In a demonstration of our union’s values, SMART Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.) member Dee Lee recently extended that same passion to area families.

On April 11, 2026, Lee worked with the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) and fellow union volunteers to put together the inaugural Greater Atlanta Kids Nature Day. Alongside the United States Army Corps of Engineers, union volunteers introduced 100 attendees to the joys of fishing and getting outside.

“I relived the excitement, accomplishment and achievement of catching my first fish,” Lee said. “It’s special knowing that these kids are going to have something they can look forward to for the rest of their lives.”

Kids Nature Day was the third community service effort Lee has helped organize in the last several years. Previously, Lee and fellow union workers installed an AccuDock boat dock at Lake Allatoona near Atlanta, and Lee and Local 85’s Nathan Allred put together a 5k for suicide prevention and mental health aware­ness just last year.

The 2026 Kids Nature Day event was part of a series of free, community-based youth outreach events organized under USA’s flagship conservation program, Work Boots on the Ground. Each kid took home a free rod and reel, plus a drawstring bag full of goodies.

Community member Renee White saw Kids Nature Day as the perfect opportunity to connect her nephew, Josiah, with the outdoors. As Josiah danced in his black cowboy hat and brown boots after catching a fish, she took in the moment and the time they spent together as a family.

“It means everything,” she said. “We’ll cherish the memories forever.”

That’s what SMART members do for our communities!

Photos courtesy of the USA.

In 2025, SMART launched its partnership with TOOTRiS, offering United States sheet metal members at participating local unions access to affordable, on-demand child care options that match their schedules, locations and other needs.

SMART has continued working with TOOTRiS and other organizations in the months since, aiming to bolster the support that members can receive. And now, Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.) has an expanded partnership with TOOTRiS, offering members the existing benefit and providing apprentices monthly child care subsidies — delivering added support during the years when new members of our union are just starting their careers.

Local 85 apprentice Kristopher Baxter is currently in the second year of his apprenticeship. He and his wife, Brittany, are parents of three young children — raising a family as costs rise across the country. Local 85’s new child care benefit is helping them manage the long commutes, demanding schedules and increasing costs of providing for a young family in 2026.

Because the stipend is applied per child, the impact for their family is multiplied.

“It’s truly been an amazing experience,” said Brittany Baxter. “Child care is extremely expensive, tutoring is expensive, and to have a benefit that not only helps us pay for it, but also helps us search and choose providers on an easy-to-use platform takes away so much stress.”

“It helps us catch up on bills, save money, and not feel like you’re suffocating because bills don’t stop,” Kristopher added.

Under the program, Local 85 is providing graduated monthly child care stipends based on year of apprenticeship, applied per child:

  • Year one: $400 per month
  • Year two: $300 per month
  • Year three: $200 per month
  • Year four: $100 per month

“We see how hard our apprentices are working to build a life and a career at the same time,” said Steve Langley, Local 85 business manager and SMART general vice president. “If we can ease even one of the pressures they’re carrying, especially for working parents, that’s worth doing. This is about standing behind our members when it matters most.”

Expanding on a groundbreaking benefit

Local 85’s benefit is an expansion of SMART and TOOTRiS’s groundbreaking partnership, which is available to SMART sheet metal members at participating U.S. locals.

Ordinarily, access to TOOTRiS’s program costs $24.99 per month. For SMART sheet metal members at participating local unions, the program cost is covered by funding from the SMART International, giving them real-time access to licensed child care providers in urban and rural areas; search features tailored for special needs care and flexible scheduling; and multilingual support through TOOTRiS’s app and website.

In addition to the platform, TOOTRiS’s concierge service offers members personalized assistance in helping to locate providers that meet their needs and work schedules, including very early hours, swing shifts and more. Providers are licensed and regularly reevaluated utilizing state licensing data to ensure they meet stringent quality standards, giving members peace of mind when searching for care.

In the months since, SMART and TOOTRiS have worked together to identify opportunities to improve that benefit offering, from potential grant opportunities to local market potential.

Local 85’s partnership with TOOTRiS is just one example.

“We’re in it to help people,” Langley concluded. “We’re in it to make our communities better, and to help the people that need help.”

In the construction industry, suicide is an urgent crisis — one that isn’t talked about nearly enough.  

“Suicide in construction makes up 40% of the suicide rates in the country, even though construction workers are only 7% of the workforce,” explained Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.) third-year apprentice Dee Lee in a recent SMART News video.   

That’s why Lee and Nathan Allred, assistant shop foreman at RF Knox, decided to take action: organizing the first-ever Healing for Hardhats 5K event to raise money for suicide prevention.  

The 5K took place in early September to coincide with national Suicide Awareness Month. Money raised during the event went towards the United Suicide Survivors International and the 2026 Construction Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference. Specifically, funds went to scholarships for apprentices, students and individuals with lived experience who may not otherwise have the resources to attend the summit.   

For Allred, a seven-year member of Local 85, the mission is personal.  

“I’ve had family members and friends die by suicide, so it’s something that hits really close to my heart,” he said, noting that he “had brushes with suicide attempts” and is a “two-time survivor.” 

“The whole event is just tied around solidarity,” Allred added. “As construction workers, we try to take on a lot by ourselves … this shows that you don’t have to do it alone.” 

Lee
Allred

For Local 85 Business Manager and Financial Secretary-Treasurer Steve Langley, the event showed exactly what it means to be union.  

“Mental health was something [that] when I was a kid … nobody talked about,” he explained. “It was something you didn’t talk about, it was something you hid.” 

Today, he continued, attitudes have changed for the better. 

“It’s become, ‘don’t be scared of your mental health. Get help. We’re here to help you.’ And that’s what a union is.” 

Lee, who previously organized a Unions Unite community service project in the Atlanta area, emphasized how important it is for unions to collaborate on events like Healing for Hardhats — events designed to benefit all members and working families.  

“The community that we’re building between local unions here is about building solidarity amongst the trades in Atlanta,” she said. “Because overall, we’re stronger when we fight together.”  

Each year during National Apprenticeship Week, SMART celebrates the life-changing power of a union apprenticeship — from stellar pay and benefits to lifelong solidarity and fulfilling career paths.

Dee Lee, a second-year Local 85 apprentice out of Atlanta, Ga., has already plunged head-first into life as a union sheet metal worker — from working in the field at Warner Bros. Studios to organizing multi-trade charity projects. Learn more in her SMART Women’s Committee National Apprenticeship Week spotlight:

Are you active in trade-related activities?

I am very active in trade-related activities. I have gone to career fairs and organizing events with my local organizer, I have volunteered, and I even hosted my own SMART Army event, the Unions Unite project. Unions Unite is the new, annual, all-local volunteer event I organized in Atlanta involving multiple union trades, the Georgia Building Trades Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance. We all came together to install a new courtesy dock at the Blockhouse Boat Ramp in Cartersville, Ga.

What’s one tool you can’t live without?

The one tool I can’t live without is my notebook and pen! It helps me stay organized and keep track of the things I need to keep track of.

What do you find frustrating about your job/trade?

I’d say the most frustrating part is coworkers that are stuck in their ways, or stuck in “the old ways.” It makes it hard to be a woman sometimes. It feels a lot like I have to work twice as hard to earn half as much respect.

What’s the coolest job you’ve worked on?

The coolest job I was on was my first jobsite in the field, Warner Bros Studios. It was really cool to see the studios and the campus, and find out how much I already knew before I got out there.

Each year during National Apprenticeship Week, SMART celebrates the life-changing power of a union apprenticeship — from stellar pay and benefits to lifelong solidarity and fulfilling career paths.

The SMART Women’s Committee is highlighting female apprentices as part of National Apprenticeship Week 2024. That includes third-year Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.) apprentice Zenobia Clark, who says she loves her current job “because I can show my daughter my daily grit and endurance.”

What do you love to do when you are not at work?

Nature trips, writing, spiritual pursuits and family.

Best advice you got as an apprentice?

Learn all that you can.

Best advice you have for an apprentice?

Be aware and steady.

What’s the coolest job you’ve worked on?

The one I work on now is the coolest, because I can show my daughter my daily grit and endurance.

What surprised you about your trade?

The endurance and adaptability necessary.

What do you think about Tradeswomen Build Nations?

I love to see women there that go through the exact same situations as me. I feel stronger for the year after experiencing this support.

Union workers from SMART Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.), IBEW Local 613, IUPAT DC 77 and UA Local 72 joined the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers for a transformative community service project in June, replacing the aging Blockhouse Boat Ramp dock at Lake Allatoona. The successful “Unions Unite” event concluded months of organizing by Local 85 apprentice Dyana Lee, whose dedicated unionism helped make the project a historic one.

“We ended up having over 30 volunteers on site day of, and almost 20 people assisting me behind the scenes to create a $70,000 volunteer event,” Lee explained. “It was one of the largest union volunteer events in Atlanta history, with multiple trades coming together to build and better something for our community while creating a sense of solidarity among union brothers and sisters of Atlanta.”

“Thanks to Dyana’s hard work and determination, this project was a huge success,” added Local 85 Business Manager and SMART General Vice President Steve Langley.

Lee, who recently completed the first year of her apprenticeship, started getting active in her local in January 2023: attending Local 85 Women’s Committee meetings and taking on responsibilities within the committee at the request of chair and Local 85 President Jan Chappell. But the inspiration for a cross-trades, solidarity-driven community service event was sparked in earnest during the 2023 Tradeswomen Build Nations (TWBN) conference in Washington, DC. Lee attended the TWBN all-tradeswomen hike sponsored by the USA, learning about the organization’s conservation and restoration efforts through its Work Boots on the Ground program.

“While I was at the conference, I was inspired by the community, strength and solidarity shown between different trades,” she said. “I took the lessons I learned at TWBN and decided that I would like to spearhead a project in Atlanta to bring people from multiple trades together to give back to our community and start to foster that sense of unitedness between tradespeople.

“With the full support of my local and my mentor, Jan Chappell, I reached out to the USA to start the ball rolling on this idea.”

Lee met with USA Conservation Coordinator Cody Campbell, who walked her through the steps needed to create the type of project she envisioned. Lee then started organizing: attending meetings at other locals in Atlanta, talking to tradespeople at jobsites and eventually contacting Atlanta & North Georgia Building Trades Business Manager Randy Beall (a member of Local 85) to help connect her to other local unions. All told, she spent six months networking with potential volunteers, also delivering a speech at the USA’s Atlanta fundraising dinner to rally her union brothers and sisters to the cause.

In the meantime, Lee and Campbell worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to identify a project, eventually landing on the replacement of the courtesy dock at Blockhouse Boat Ramp. The old dock only had a few mooring points for community members, leading to traffic, congestion and safety concerns, and it was no longer ADA-compliant – restricting the number of people that could use the dock and limiting accessibility.

With the project decided, Lee doubled down on her organizing, successfully recruiting dozens of volunteers from other trades. On the day of the project, the skilled volunteer force gathered at 7 a.m., with work starting at 7:45.  

“The temperature was 88 degrees at 6 a.m., and the humidity was off the charts,” said Lee. “However, that didn’t stop my determined team from getting the job done, not only well, but fast.”

The new, accessible boat dock will benefit Atlanta community members for years to come. But to Lee, the impact extended to the worksite, where she said the sense of cross-trade community she was working to foster started to have tangible outcomes. On her job, for example, she started to see workers from different trades gathering for lunch each day, and the environment began to feel more positive and supportive – everyone had each other’s back.

“My goal in organizing and creating the first annual Unions Unite event was to take that first step to building that for every jobsite, for every local,” Lee noted. “This sense of community won’t just create more amicable jobsites; it will help to break down the stigma of being a union member in the eyes of the city, showing that union culture includes a sense of belonging and acceptance for everyone.”

Moving forward, Lee is working with the Georgia Building Trades to collaborate with some of the tradeswomen she met through the Unions Unite event to create a Georgia Building Trades Women’s Committee. She sees that effort as part of a greater endeavor to strengthen and grow the labor movement in Atlanta — and beyond.

“I want the young adults to know that there’s a place for them with us, no matter the trade they go into,” Lee declared. “We are all brothers and sisters; united we stand, divided we fall.”

Union workers from SMART Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.), IBEW Local 613, IUPAT DC 77 and UA Local 72 joined the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers for a transformative community service project in June, replacing the aging Blockhouse Boat Ramp dock at Lake Allatoona. The successful “Unions Unite” event concluded months of organizing by Local 85 apprentice Dyana Lee, whose dedicated unionism helped make the project a historic one.

“We ended up having over 30 volunteers on site day of, and almost 20 people assisting me behind the scenes to create a $70,000 volunteer event,” Lee explained. “It was one of the largest union volunteer events in Atlanta history, with multiple trades coming together to build and better something for our community while creating a sense of solidarity among union brothers and sisters of Atlanta.”

“Thanks to Dyana’s hard work and determination, this project was a huge success,” added Local 85 Business Manager and SMART General Vice President Steve Langley.

Lee, who recently completed the first year of her apprenticeship, started getting active in her local in January 2023: attending Local 85 Women’s Committee meetings and taking on responsibilities within the committee at the request of chair and Local 85 President Jan Chappell. But the inspiration for a cross-trades, solidarity-driven community service event was sparked in earnest during the 2023 Tradeswomen Build Nations (TWBN) conference in Washington, DC. Lee attended the TWBN all-tradeswomen hike sponsored by the USA, learning about the organization’s conservation and restoration efforts through its Work Boots on the Ground program.

“While I was at the conference, I was inspired by the community, strength and solidarity shown between different trades,” she said. “I took the lessons I learned at TWBN and decided that I would like to spearhead a project in Atlanta to bring people from multiple trades together to give back to our community and start to foster that sense of unitedness between tradespeople.

“With the full support of my local and my mentor, Jan Chappell, I reached out to the USA to start the ball rolling on this idea.”

Lee met with USA Conservation Coordinator Cody Campbell, who walked her through the steps needed to create the type of project she envisioned. Lee then started organizing: attending meetings at other locals in Atlanta, talking to tradespeople at jobsites and eventually contacting Atlanta & North Georgia Building Trades Business Manager Randy Beall (a member of Local 85) to help connect her to other local unions. All told, she spent six months networking with potential volunteers, also delivering a speech at the USA’s Atlanta fundraising dinner to rally her union brothers and sisters to the cause.

In the meantime, Lee and Campbell worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to identify a project, eventually landing on the replacement of the courtesy dock at Blockhouse Boat Ramp. The old dock only had a few mooring points for community members, leading to traffic, congestion and safety concerns, and it was no longer ADA-compliant – restricting the number of people that could use the dock and limiting accessibility.

With the project decided, Lee doubled down on her organizing, successfully recruiting dozens of volunteers from other trades. On the day of the project, the skilled volunteer force gathered at 7 a.m., with work starting at 7:45.  

“The temperature was 88 degrees at 6 a.m., and the humidity was off the charts,” said Lee. “However, that didn’t stop my determined team from getting the job done, not only well, but fast.”

The new, accessible boat dock will benefit Atlanta community members for years to come. But to Lee, the impact extended to the worksite, where she said the sense of cross-trade community she was working to foster started to have tangible outcomes. On her job, for example, she started to see workers from different trades gathering for lunch each day, and the environment began to feel more positive and supportive – everyone had each other’s back.

“My goal in organizing and creating the first annual Unions Unite event was to take that first step to building that for every jobsite, for every local,” Lee noted. “This sense of community won’t just create more amicable jobsites; it will help to break down the stigma of being a union member in the eyes of the city, showing that union culture includes a sense of belonging and acceptance for everyone.”

Moving forward, Lee is working with the Georgia Building Trades to collaborate with some of the tradeswomen she met through the Unions Unite event to create a Georgia Building Trades Women’s Committee. She sees that effort as part of a greater endeavor to strengthen and grow the labor movement in Atlanta — and beyond.

“I want the young adults to know that there’s a place for them with us, no matter the trade they go into,” Lee declared. “We are all brothers and sisters; united we stand, divided we fall.”

In Georgia, so-called “right-to-work” laws make it hard for unions to organize and retain members, particularly when language barriers in the workplace already present challenges. Despite such obstacles, though, SMART Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.) has made big inroads at Price Industries, where approximately 70% of the workforce speaks Vietnamese as a first language.

“A new approach to internal organizing has been key to this success,” said SMART Director of Production Workers Dave Goodspeed.

“We were able to hire — from our own ranks — a Vietnamese speaker, Donson Ha,” Goodspeed explained, “and he’s a firecracker.”

Anti-union right-to-work laws allow members to opt out of paying union dues, making the inability to communicate effectively to an entire workforce potentially devastating to both workers and local unions. That was especially true at Price in Georgia: Local 85 was unable to convey the union difference and best represent its members, and workers were cautious about seeking representation from those they literally couldn’t understand.

“For a long time, Price Industries has been a hard nut to crack in terms of signing new members, primarily because Price has made a practice of hiring so many different nationalities,” Goodspeed said.

“They have people who speak English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Burmese, Cambodian, and the largest population of workers down there — probably 50% — are Vietnamese,” added SMART International Production Organizer Sharon Walker.

Local 85 Shop Steward Rich Manh Bui (left)
Local 85 Shop Steward Hai Ngo (sitting)

Until recently, only around 20–25% of Price workers had signed up with the union, Walker said, and the lack of representation had material consequences. One example: The company would post mandatory overtime notices to its bulletin boards in English exclusively, making it difficult for non-English-speaking workers who may have missed the announcement from their shop lead to know what was required of them. And in the event that a worker who didn’t speak English faced discipline, they often didn’t know how to go to their union for help.

“I didn’t know about unions until I met Sharon, and she explained to me … what a union is,” said Vietnamese-speaking Shop Steward Rich Manh Bui.

“Before, nobody represented them, and that’s why Vietnamese [workers] didn’t know anything about a union,” added fellow Shop Steward Hai Ngo. “Even when they joined a union, and they had a problem, they don’t know where they’re going — they don’t know who they’ve got to ask.”

Donson Ha

That’s where Ha and shop stewards like Bui and Ngo entered the equation. Local 85 and SMART International representatives realized they had to do more to gain the trust of the Price workforce, and in the spirit of true trade unionism, they looked to the rank-and-file for leadership. Ha, a 10-year Local 85 member, came from the building trades side of the industry — but after seeing the number of Vietnamese workers in production, especially older workers, he was motivated to change job titles.

Since Local 85 hired Ha as a subsidized production organizer, the percentage of organized workers has approximately doubled.

“I’m very happy to organize, to stand up for Vietnamese people, because they didn’t understand the union; they don’t speak English, and they didn’t know how strong it is to be a union member,” said Ha. “My job is to help them understand how it works, how the union helps people.”