Throughout the state of Nevada, SMART Local 88 (Las Vegas) is organizing to grow its membership, strengthen union contractors and create more opportunities for members. That organizing has paid off, with the local recruiting sheet metal workers from nonunion competitors to meet ongoing workforce demands in Northern Nevada’s Reno area, home of SMART Local 26.
When SMART local unions work to bring new members into the unionized sheet metal trade, it isn’t just about growing the strength of our union. It’s about making life better for those workers and their families — and it helps current members by growing the strength of unionized contractors.
Local 88, under Business Manager Geremiah Robnett’s leadership, has demonstrated that union difference clearly. In the last two months, the local’s Organizing Department of Alfonso Lopez and Robert Diaz has signed up 15 new journeypersons from larger nonunion contractors in the region. These are foremen and workers that the local has known for years, maintaining constant contact through jobsite visits and referrals.
These newly organized Local 88 members are increasing their incomes in the range of $8-12 per hour solely on base hourly wages, with another $30 an hour in benefits that include Health & Welfare for their entire families, plus Tri-State and International pension plans.
Organizing new members to take on work in the Reno area — specifically from contractors who drive down wages in Southern Nevada — benefits the workforce for the entire state. It also helps level the playing field between union contractors and the bad-faith employers who consistently drive down area pay and working standards.
The percentage of work that union sheet metal workers and contractors perform in a given region is called “market share.” When a local union’s market share is high, that means members have more work opportunities. When a local’s market share is threatened, members could face the possibility of reduced jobs.
That’s why SMART locals organize constantly to maintain and grow their market share. A recent example from Nevada demonstrates the impact.
A threat to Local 26 members
Since construction began at Tesla Gigafactory 1 in Reno in 2014, SMART Local 26 union contractors have successfully performed almost all mechanical sheet metal work on the project. The scale of the facility required workforce support from SMART members across the country, with sheet metal workers traveling from nearly every region to assist Local 26 in meeting the workforce demands of one of the largest industrial projects in the United States.
Members at the Gigafactory in 2017
Toward the end of 2025, rumors began circulating that Tesla had started self-performing a significant portion of the sheet metal work outside of the main Gigafactory building. Initially, Local 26 was unable to verify the reports until a former Tesla employee visited the union hall seeking employment opportunities.
During discussions with the worker, organizers learned that Tesla was performing large-scale ductwork installations using more than 60 workers from across the country — workers who were not SMART members. The worker also identified the project location and explained that Tesla was staffing the operation through a temporary labor provider, Superior Skilled Trades (SST), based out of Florida.
Further investigation revealed that SST was recruiting heavily from Southern states and other regions with lower wage rates, making Tesla’s compensation package highly attractive to workers willing to travel. SST’s focus was on providing labor quantity rather than skilled sheet metal experience, resulting in many workers possessing only limited sheet metal backgrounds.
Tesla’s use of out-of-state workers posed a clear danger to SMART members, taking away work opportunities in the region. Recognizing this threat, Local 26’s Organizing Department quickly mobilized.
From left to right: Organizer Cesar Carrillo, newly elected Business Manager Sean O’Keefe and newly elected Business Representative Shane Henderson
An opportunity to build union strength
Organizers began building relationships with workers on the project and developed an extensive list of potential members from the Tesla workforce. Through consistent jobsite visits, conversations and follow-up efforts, organizers identified qualified workers who could strengthen the local union while also reducing Tesla’s ability to self-perform work.
Over the following months, Local 26 successfully recruited more than 30 workers from the project, including 18 journeypersons, 7 forepersons and 5 apprentices.
The successful recruitment of these workers was an immediate help to Local 26, which was facing a period of unprecedented workforce demand. The additional workers helped the local satisfy workforce requests while simultaneously creating opportunities for union contractors to reclaim portions of the work that Tesla had originally planned to self-perform.
As of the end of the second quarter of 2026, Tesla continues to self-perform some sheet metal work; however, the scale of those operations has been significantly reduced compared to the previous year. Through aggressive organizing and workforce recruitment, Local 26’s Organizing Department successfully mitigated a major threat to members’ work opportunities while strengthening the local’s membership for future growth.
What began as a challenge to members’ market share ultimately became one of the local’s most successful recruitment efforts in recent years. Great work, Local 26!
This is a story about heroes.
It is a story about two UTU conductor heroes in Fallon, Nev., June 24.
In utter disregard of their own safety, these UTU conductor heroes braved intense flames and choking smoke, repeatedly returning inside two burning Amtrak passenger cars to save the lives of dozens of disoriented, injured and frightened passengers — passengers who otherwise would have been hopelessly trapped in the burning wreckage hit by a tractor-trailer combination at a highway-rail grade crossing.
And in the custom of American band-of-brothers soldiers, one of these UTU conductor heroes went back one last time to bring out one of his own – removing the body of a fellow conductor before the growing flames could consume the body.
Senior military officers would be considering Bronze or Silver stars, a Navy Cross — even the Medal of Honor — for such selfless acts of extreme bravery. Amtrak President Joe Boardman is said to be considering a special honor for these two UTU conductor heroes.
Don’t expect these UTU heroes to be anything but modest. Fact is, you find UTU conductor heroes everywhere who serve and protect.
On 9/11, it was UTU conductors on Port Authority Trans Hudson in New York City who wouldn’t allow the doors of the last train below the World Trade Center to close until every person on the platform was safely on board. Hundreds of lives were saved by these selfless UTU conductor heroes.
In Covington, Va., in February, UTU conductor Dale Smith disregarded his own safety to dash down a steep embankment and into the partially frozen Jackson River to save the life of fellow conductor Alvin (A.J.) Boguess, who had fallen from a trestle, 55-feet above the water.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” UTU conductors regularly prove Fitzgerald had it backwards. Time and again, UTU hero conductors validate, “Show me a tragedy and I’ll write you a story about heroes.”
Indeed. Six died in this tragic Amtrak accident; many more likely would have had it not been for these UTU conductor heroes.
In the harrowing moments following the horrendous accident, assistant conductor and UTU Local 166 member Richard d’Alessandro, who initially was knocked unconscious in a dormitory car that took the initial hit from the truck, recovered finding himself laying outside in the desert to discover his arm broken and a finger missing.
In complete disregard for his personal safety, and ignoring his own painful injuries, he took to his radio to broadcast help – “Dispatch everything you have.”
He climbed back into the burning cars, worked his way through the dark smoke and flames in search of passengers who were completely disoriented – many injured — leading one, then another, and still others to safety through emergency exit windows.
His rescues complete, d’Alessandro’s next action was to obtain water for the elderly, which he began distributing.
Also in the dormitory car was off-duty conductor and UTU Local 1525 (Carbondale, Ill.) member Loxie Sanders, traveling to California to be with a daughter facing surgery.
With flames surrounding him, Sanders knocked out emergency windows, joining with d”Alessandro to lead injured, disoriented and frightened passengers to safety. As he heard a voice, he led the passenger to an exit window, helping them out and down to other rescuers 10-feet below the car.
Only when all passengers he could find had been led to safety did Sanders, suffering from smoke inhalation, exit the burning car.
But he went back. He went back in search of 68-year-old conductor and UTU Local 166 member Laurette Lee, whom he found dead under a metal door. Ignoring the flames and dense smoke, Sanders lifted the body and carried it outside the car away from the all-consuming flames.
Concerned that more passengers might still be in the growing inferno, Sanders went back again – his hand severely burned from scaling the car to gain entry.
Listening for voices, Sanders worked his way to more disoriented passengers, leading them, also, to safety. Only when there were no more voices to be heard in the smoke that made vision almost impossible did Sanders consider his own safety and exit the burning car a final time.
Said NTSB investigator Ted Turpin, “That was the greatest act of heroism I’ve seen in my [15 years] as an [accident] investigator.”
More heroes appeared – from a Union Pacific freight train following the ill-fated westbound Amtrak California Zephyr. Unidentified crew members from the UP train ran to the scene and assisted the passengers.
d’Alessandro and Sanders were transported to a local hospital. Among their first visitors was Amtrak President Boardman, who had taken the first available flight to Reno to be at the scene of the disaster.
As injured passengers were interviewed by investigators, they recalled most and vividly the heroic actions of these selfless rails – d’Alessandro, Sanders, and the still unnamed UP crew.
Hardened accident investigators from the NTSB and Federal Railroad Administration choked with emotion as they listened, reports UTU Arizona State Legislative Director Greg Hynes, a member of the UTU Transportation Safety Team, who was assisting the NTSB in the investigation.
“Brave men. Brave men,” was all Hynes could say. It was more than enough.
