SMART 100 Fall 2022 Newsletter

A WORD FROM YOUR BUSINESS MANAGER

UNION FAMILY,

As the year draws to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on the wonderful work we have done together over the course of the last twelve months. Across the Washington, D.C. area, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, our members have continuously raised the bar in the trades and contributed to some of the most important and exciting projects across our region. From the shop room floor to the construction site, SMART Local 100 members have been instrumental to the success of new hospital wings, airport expansions, college and university buildings, and other infrastructure vital to this growing part of the country.

Within the Local’s offices, we’ve made great strides in modernizing our approach to member services, connecting with members, and ensuring the stability of the Local for years to come. We’ve shored up the Local’s finances and updated our pension and healthcare funds for our Union family beyond the Washington, D.C. metro area. We’ve also completed the rollout of a comprehensive member communications overhaul with new tools to keep members better informed, from a new, easy-to-navigate website, to a proactive social media presence, to the newsletter you’re reading right now. All of these innovations will allow the Union leadership to better serve all our members and will connect members more directly with Local 100 leaders in their communities and directly with our headquarters.

Staying connected with one another is key to building and maintaining unity within the Local. Anything that we want to achieve — higher wages, larger market share, better retirements — can only happen when we work together with a sense of unity and common purpose.

It’s in that spirit of unity that we perform the basic duties of Union membership, whether attending our meetings or paying our dues. Active participation by our members in Union meetings means stronger relationships and each of us having a stake in the governance and future of our Local. Much the same can be said about our dues: each time we pay our dues, we’re not just contributing funds to the Union — we’re participating in and taking ownership of the functioning of our Local.

Union dues are not fees or surcharges; they are the contributions we make that empower us to improve the lives of all our members and grow our movement. Dues allow us to organize new members. Dues allow us to go to bat for members when an employer fails in its obligations under a contract. And dues empower us to train the next generation of sheet metal workers and shape the future of our craft.

As SMART Local 100 members and members of the larger labor movement, we value a fair balance between our work and personal lives and know the importance of family. With the holiday season upon us, I would encourage you to enjoy as much time as possible with those you love and hold dear. This time when families come together from near and far comes only once a year, and after several years when public health concerns made it unsafe for us to be near those we love, this holiday season is an especially important one for loved ones to come together again. Our forebears in the labor movement fought long and hard so that we could earn a living generous enough to sustain our families and have the time to enjoy their company. Let us all honor their memory, as well as our commitment to each other and to family, during this special time of year.

In Solidarity

Richard LaBille III Business Manager

SMART 100

Washington, D.C. • Baltimore • Cumberland • Roanoke • Norfolk • Richmond

Special Report:

PENSIONS STILL THE GOLD STANDARD FOR RETIREMENT

These days, there are so many different types of retirement accounts, not to mention the companies and TV ads trying to tell you why their retirement accounts are the best. The most famous example is the 401(k), which is often promoted as the go-to retirement account for savings and tax purposes. Public sector workers have the options of 457 or 403(b) plans as 401(k) equivalents. There may be different benefits or drawbacks to any given type of retirement account, but at the end of the day, what are any of them but a replacement for the best retirement plan out there: the pension.

Pensions are one of the greatest benefits of Union membership. They generate massive returns on investment over the long term, providing retirement income to members for years to come. Pension plans also are professionally managed with the highest standard of care, meaning that funds are kept safe by people whose job it is to be responsible for the financial health of the plan. Perhaps just as appealing, you don’t need to do nearly as much of the worrying, planning, or accounting that you may need to with a retirement plan based around individual accounts.

For decades, pensions were the default mechanism through which working people secured regular income after their working years ended. This was so much the case that in some other English-speaking parts of the world, “pensioner” became another word for a retiree or senior citizen.

The decline of pensions in the U.S. can be traced to attacks on Unions and the rush to privatize the retirements of millions of Americans. Pushing working people out of large,

healthy pension plans and into millions of individualized accounts may have been a boon for retirement planners, investors, bankers, and other financial services and tax professionals, but for working people who want a safe retirement, the switch seems hardly worth it.

Today, if pensions are discussed at all, it’s usually when someone is claiming they are old, outdated, or unaffordable. They usually are spoken about as something that county employees, teachers, or Union members have because they’re “behind the times” or, far worse, because they’re “entitled”. The thing is, we work to pay for our retirement. It’s something we earn and are therefore entitled to, and as Union members, we know we’re stronger when we come together in work and in retirement.

It may be impossible to know how many people in America today wish they had the security and the peace of mind that comes with a pension. For too many people under a certain age, or for anyone who has been working their whole career in a non-union setting, they may not even be able to describe what a pension is — but they would certainly love the stability and guarantee of a stable retirement that comes with being vested in a pension plan.

That’s why it’s so important that we as Union members come together to fund our pension plan. It’s a privilege denied to far too many working people in our country, and it’s our best bet for a secure and enjoyable retirement with our friends and family.

Endorsed Candidate Profiles

GOVERNOR-ELECT WES MOORE

Born in Takoma Park and now a resident of Baltimore City, Wes Moore is a Maryland native, although tragedy early in his life would take him away from his home state for many years. After his father passed away when Moore was only 4 years old, Moore lived with family in the Bronx, New York.

From the late ‘90s until the mid-2000s, Moore served his country in the U.S. Army, earning the rank of captain and serving in Afghanistan. As a young man, Moore also secured the privilege of studying as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in the UK, earning a degree in 2004.

Since concluding his service, Moore has worked as an entrepreneur and non-profit leader, founding his own production company as well as a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students bridge the gap from high school to post-secondary education. He has also served

as the CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an organization dedicated to addressing the many negative impacts of poverty.

Moore is also the author of the bestselling book The Other Wes Moore, which details the two very different life paths taken by Moore and another young boy by the same name.

Moore and his running mate, Aruna Miller, won both the Democratic nomination and the General Election on November 8, 2022. Moore lives with his wife and two children.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR-ELECT ARUNA MILLER

From 2010-2019, Miller served as Maryland State Delegate for District 15 in northwestern Montgomery County, which includes all or parts of Potomac, Germantown, Gaithersburg, Clarksburg, Boyds, Poolesville, and Darnestown. In her two terms in office, Miller fought for paid family leave and for the expansion of collective bargaining rights.

Prior to serving in public office, Miller was a transportation engineer serving local governments and communities in several states. She has three daughters and lives with her husband, David, in Darnestown, Maryland.

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY EXECUTIVE STEUART PITTMAN

Born and raised in Anne Arundel County, Steuart Pittman has been dedicated to serving the people, land, and animals of the county where he and his family have deep roots. For 35 years prior to becoming County Executive, Steuart ran his own businesses and nonprofit, first running his own farming and horse training enterprise, then opening an organization dedicated to creating second chances for retired racehorses.

As County Executive, Steuart led the way on creating Anne Arundel County’s prevailing wage law. This effort, which Steuart both introduced to the County Council and signed into law, led to Anne Arundel County joining the surrounding jurisdictions in guaranteeing wage and fringe benefit minimums for members of the construction trades working on county contracts.

In 2021, Steuart joined County Executives from the largest counties in the state to press the Maryland General Assembly to extend collective bargaining rights to community college employees. Despite Maryland’s tradition of collective bargaining and the fact that public employees had already enjoyed collective bargaining at the county and state levels, employees in this specific type of public sector employers were excluded. Now, thanks to efforts of Pittman, his fellow Executives, and the labor community, thousands more employees across the state have the right to unionize.

CALVERT COUNTY COMMISSIONER CANDIDATE BROTHER DARRELL ROBERTS

Win or lose, Darrell Roberts has always been about public service. For this SMART brother from Calvert County, the hard work of running for office on top of working full-time and taking care of family responsibilities is just a part of life.

Darrell started his career in the Navy. When he returned to the States and began working in the trades, he hardly knew anything about the value and importance of being in the Union. “Growing up in the South, I didn’t know much about Unions,” he told us. “It was when I moved to Pennsylvania after the Navy that my friend introduced me to his dad, who had been Union his whole life. He never preached to me or pushed me, but he told me about what being in the Union meant for him and his family and their peace of mind. It was those conversations that got me interested.”

After learning the Union way from his friend’s family, Darrell lent a hand as his friend tried to unionize the shop where they were working at the time. When those efforts didn’t yield the right results, Darrell left that company and connected with a local Union organizer when he moved on to his next job. “That’s when I became a salt with Local 19 out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania,” he says.

Darrell’s commitment to his country and fellow workers were always on his mind. While working in HVAC, he was also a volunteer in the Army National Guard for six years. This was

after already spending three years in the Navy. In 20032004, Darrell had orders to deploy to the war-torn state of Kosovo in the Balkan Mountains north of Greece and Macedonia. He led an infantry squad on peacekeeping patrols, navigating the tough landscape as well as the intense ethnic and religious divisions between the people.

After his deployment, Darrell returned home once again and resumed his work in the trades. While working on an HVAC installation job at a public school, he met someone who told him about Helmets to HardHats, a program designed to help returning service members adjust to a career in the trades. “I wished I had met this guy when I left the Navy!” Darrell exclaims. Learning about how the program helped veterans make this transition, Darrell once again jumped in and began helping run the organization’s local division, securing a grant for the group and training returning heroes to begin their next career.

“That same guy I met that day at the school then gives me the job description for Executive Director of Helmets to HardHats. I didn’t know if I would be the right fit, only having a high school diploma as far as formal education at that time, but I applied and got the job! I ended up running the program in D.C. for 14 years, working with governors from all over the country of both parties and with senators and congressmen from both parties. Over that time, we helped over 36,000 vets make the transition.”

Darrell still worked on improving his life and life for his family while putting others first. In the evenings after work, he attended night school, earning his Bachelor’s in Business Administration. Then another friend mentioned a night program at Georgetown, and again Darrell enrolled, earning another degree — this time a Master’s in Executive Leadership. “These were opportunities I couldn’t have taken advantage of as a kid — but it was hard to work, take care of family, and go to school at night. My wife was my inspiration, though,” Darrell says.

Since leaving Helmets to HardHats, Darrell has served as Director of Organizing at SMART. “When the position opened up, I didn’t even think about it; I just wanted to be in the fight. If we’re not growing, we’re dying.”

Now, Darrell is taking his dedication and the skills he’s learned as a sheetmetal worker, a sailor, and a soldier to serve the people of his community. “We’ve seen so much

division in this country, especially since January 6, but that’s not really how it is at the local level,” he explains. “I don’t care about your affiliation. People at their core are good people. You don’t need to be an R or a D to work toward a common goal and help people out. I want people to know I’m a vet and a sheet metal worker. That’s who I am. I’ve protected this country, ran a nonprofit, and worked hard. Let’s focus on the county and its residents and operate with integrity and transparency.”

Asked about his priorities as a County Commissioner candidate, Darrell is clear. “We need to give access back to residents. County Commission meetings need to be held in the evenings so working people can attend, and we need town halls in locations throughout the county so everyone can feel heard.” And on the local economy and labor? “We need to invest in local workforce development and construction. For any project local taxpayers invest in, we need to make sure the work is done by local, well-trained, Union workers.”

For SMART Local 100 members who donated, Darrell has a message. “SMART 100 endorsed and donated immediately. That’s money donated by members, and I realize that. I want them to know that my family and I are doing all we can and putting that money to good work.”

Editor’s note: while Brother Darrell Roberts ran an admirable campaign, he ultimately did not prevail in the November 8 General Election.

I’ve protected this country, ran a nonprofit, and worked hard. Let’s focus on the county and its residents and operate with integrity and transparency.”

Retirement Announcements

Michael W. Bachman

Daniel K. Finch, Sr.

Dean C. Gardner James E. Goins

David M. Tyree Douglas P. Vanpelt Daniel W. Yarbough

Beyond 100

NEWS AFFECTING OUR UNION AND OUR TRADE

OCTOBER 15 NOW ANNUAL RAILROAD WORKERS DAY IN NEW JERSEY

As SMART-TD and other labor organizations representing workers in our nation’s railroad companies have been battling for basic workplace safety and dignity, our Union family in the Garden State are being recognized for their tireless efforts and their critical role in keeping the state moving forward throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. After being signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy, Senate Joint Resolution 86 (SJR 86) now officially makes October 15 Railroad Workers Day in the state.

Noted SMART-TD New Jersey State Legislative Director (SLD) Ron Sabol: “The men and women moving freight and passengers through the pandemic were not only essential workers, they should be viewed as heroic. Wherever there is

a crisis going on, you have railroaders putting it on the line to fix it. Where there are wars, railroad infrastructure is always on the list of targets. Much is asked of our men and women, whether it means getting supplies to store shelves and nurses to their shifts during COVID or getting people out of Ukraine to avoid civilian casualties. Railroad workers are getting it done everywhere you look. This consistent selflessness in times of chaos is why I thought it was important to get this bill done. These men and women deserve recognition and respect.”

Scan QR Code to read the full story.

AFL-CIO CALLS FOR SWEEPING REFORMS OF H-2B VISA PROGRAM

The Department of Homeland Security recently announced it will increase the number of H-2B visas available. These are visas typically granted to seasonal workers (“temporary nonagricultural workers”). While these could be — and should be — Union jobs, the current system allows for rampant abuse of workers.

In a release, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler denounced the increase and the current structure of the H-2B program, noting that “continued increases in the number of visas without improved safeguards put migrant and U.S. workers alike at unacceptable risk.” Shuler continued, “We hear a lot about labor shortages these days, but the shortage of good jobs is a crisis that gets far too little attention. Workers are no longer willing to risk their lives to work for meager wages without child care support, paid leave or basic safety protections, and they are taking collective action in record numbers to demand dignified treatment and a fair share of the wealth they help create.”

TALKING SMART EPISODE 24: BELONGING AND EXCELLENCE FOR ALL (BE4ALL)

Check out the latest episode of Talking SMART, SMART International’s podcast by sheet metal workers for sheet metal workers. Guest hosted by Dushaw Hockett, founder and executive director of Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity (SPACEs), this episode covers the Belonging and Excellence for All (BE4ALL) effort, “a bold, long-term effort to transform the unionized sheet metal industry by creating workplace and business environments that are welcoming and foster belonging for all workers and contractors.”

Recorded live at the SMART Leadership Conference in San Francisco in August 2022, the episode features SMART General President Joseph Sellers, SMACNA CEO Aaron Hilger, and SMACNA past President Angie Simon, discussing how the organizations work together to build a thriving industry where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

Scan QR Code to listen to Talking Smart.

Scan QR Code to read the full statment.

From left: SPACE Founder Dushaw Hockett, SMACNA past President Angie Simon, SMART General President Joseph Sellers and SMACNA CEO Aaron Hilger.

In Memoriam

G. Soderberg James R. Walker Donald F. Wood

John Arnn, Jr.

David Brode

Carroll L. Groomes Ryan Reece

Frank

SMART 100

Photo Gallery

In each newsletter, we like to show off photos of our members hard at work. These photos were captured at the SMART Local 100 Training Center.

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