SMART 100 Winter 2024 Newsletter

SMART 100

A WORD F ROM YOUR BUSINESS MANAGER

Union family,

Happy New Year from everyone here at SMART Local 100! I and everyone at our local headquarters hope that each and every one of our members enjoyed the holiday season with friends and family and are ready to begin 2024 with a fresh outlook and a readiness to grow.

In this new year, I see nothing but opportunities ahead for our local. Our organization is the largest and most financially sound it’s ever been. Your dues aren’t just being collected; they’re being reinvested in the future of our union and our trade. We see it all around us, from the world class apprentices that we’re graduating from our training program here in the Washington region, to the health of our pension fund, to the demand for the good work that our members are doing in cities and small towns across the Mid-Atlantic and Appalachia.

Building on several years of financial success, we’re now in an excellent position to reap some of the rewards of our sound financial stewardship. The highly anticipated revitalization of our union hall has been planned for well over a year. When we break ground, we won’t just be building brighter, cleaner office space meeting rooms, but creating a new epicenter of excellence for the building trades. And we, as Union Sheet Metal Workers, will be the ones making it happen.

Our industry is undergoing massive changes. Tradespeople of all different backgrounds are competing for the privilege of completing much of the new kinds of construction work, like installing prefabricated and other new materials. Our new headquarters and training center won’t just be beautiful and comfortable. They’ll show that we are the tradespeople best positioned and most prepared to take on the work of the future. And for Sheet Metal Workers, that future is brighter than a welder electrode.

I can’t wait for you all to see our new headquarters –and everything else that we have in store this year. Thanks for reading, and thank you for the privilege of serving as your Business Manager. Happy 2024!

In solidarity,

Richard LaBille III Business Manager SMART 100

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

TOM KILLEEN: MAKING POLITICS WORK FOR SHEET METAL WORKERS

Tom Killeen wears many hats at SMART 100. He’s a business agent, trustee of the Washington pension, 401k, vacation and health fund, as well as chair of the COPE committee, our Union’s political action committee. Despite it all, Tom is first and foremost a Sheet Metal Worker.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school,” Tom says. “My father was a sheet metal worker and a Union business manager too,” he continues, “so I began working as a helper beginning in June of 1979.”

Like many people, Tom tried his hand at college, but it just wasn’t a fit. By January of 1980, he was already back at it, producing sheet metal roofing.

In 2016, Tom ran for office for the first time, winning the election for the position of business agent. More than anything, it’s an act of devotion to his fellow Union members. “It’s a lot of evening work!” Tom exclaims. Tom serves alongside several business agents and trustees, but he also heads up SMART 100’s legislative and electoral work as the chair of the Union’s COPE committee. He knows many people, including Union members, don’t exactly love politics, but he remains undeterred. “People don’t realize that when you decide to not be involved in politics, that is itself a political act,” he says. “When you don’t get involved, you're not just giving up your own voice, but you’re making it possible for other people – people who

don’t truly represent you – to speak on your behalf,” he continues. “You can use just about any cliche you’d like, but it’s true: if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

In this hyper-partisan and polarized era, Tom understands why Union workers may want to stay out of politics, but this is where he draws a distinction.

“There are the social issues, the really hot-button topics that generate big headlines and get people’s blood boiling,” he begins, “but that’s not all there is to politics.” He’s right too. The controversies and anger stirred up by controversial social issues are exactly why political insiders and commentators call them “wedge issues,” because they divide people.

Yet despite the pervasive anger and division in our politics, Tom knows it’s essential to move past the controversies to focus on the issues that matter most to Sheet Metal Workers and all working people. “Unless you’re meeting with officials and talking to them about the value that Sheet Metal Workers bring to the community and the economy, you’re not going to get the good paying jobs, the pensions, and the 401(k)’s we all care about,” he explains. “When we focus on social issues and the big controversies in the national news, we’re losing sight of what we have in common; it’s a race to the bottom,” Tom says. “I want to see us race to the top.”

It’s not just idealism that makes Tom think this way. He’s seen firsthand how working together can yield real results. In just the last legislative session in Annapolis, SMART 100 and its allies were instrumental in the passage of HB2, a new bill that allows Union members to deduct their dues from the state income taxes. “A lot of people don’t realize that the tax cuts passed under the Trump administration were actually a tax hike for working people,” Tom explains. “Union dues, work boots, equipment – all sorts of things that could previously be deducted suddenly couldn’t be deducted from federal income taxes anymore,” he continues. “At first, the state simply followed the feds, meaning Union dues weren’t deductible at the state level either, so we worked to pass HB2 and get back our deduction on our state taxes.”

That’s just one recent victory our Union has racked up on the political front. Tom, along with other Union leaders and members, have been traveling across the region turning anti-PLA counties into project-labor agreement (PLA) counties with prevailing wages. “We turned Baltimore County,” Tom says, “and we even got Anne Arundel County to overturn an antiPLA law they had on the books to become a PLA jurisdiction,” he continues. “Now, we’re working on Prince George’s County, where we want to see a PLA for upcoming school construction in the jurisdiction, as well as Frederick County.” In Montgomery County, Maryland’s most populous, SMART 100 helped to lower the PLA threshold to $2,500, and across the Potomac, we helped pass a bill allowing for a private right of action against contractors, meaning workers can sue employers for back wages.

Looking forward, SMART 100 will continue to work with fellow members of the Labor Movement to pass a new fire safety bill. This proposed legislation will

mandate that all fire dampers be inspected every five years. “Nationally, 66% of fire dampers are estimated to have wear or faults that present safety issues, so passing this legislation is a priority for us,” Tom notes. In any given election year, during every legislative session, and even in the off seasons, there are some routine things SMART 100 does to ensure the interests of members are always being addressed. “We work on getting pro-labor and Union members elected to office,” says Tom. “We also knock doors for our endorsed candidates, attend rallies to show solidarity with other Unions – we even collaborate with the Department of Labor to maintain apprenticeship standards.”

Maintaining strong relationships with decision makers and other stakeholders is incredibly important for the well-being of members. “During COVID, there were plenty of people in Maryland who were owed unemployment benefits, but who weren’t getting their checks,” Tom begins. “But because we’re involved and have working relationships, we were able to make the asks, clear up the red tape, and get members the benefits they had earned.”

Asked about his vision of the Union, Tom is effusive. “Our members are the Union!” he exclaims. “It’s not the officers; it’s all the members who make up the Union.” So what does the Union mean to him personally? “The Union means knowing someone has your back, that you have a community where you can relate to each other,” he says. “When we come together, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Like other member leaders profiled here, Tom appreciates all the Union has done for him and his family. “I wouldn’t have what I have without the Union and the people who came before me,” he says. “I’m grateful for everything.”

RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Congratulations to the newly retired members of SMART Local 100!

Steven Chandler

Timothy Kline

James Mozingo

Gilbert Przybylski

Brian Reidy

Curtis Tabor

Beyond 100

NEWS AFFECTING OUR UNION AND OUR TRADE

TALKING SMART: ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE!

In the latest episode of the Talking SMART podcast, Business Agent Marvin Tavarez of SMART Local 28 sat down to share his story of going from being a non-Union worker to being a SMART member.

“I was living above a corner store – a bodega… in a one-bedroom apartment,” Marvin says of his life before joining the Union. “My living conditions were awful, but that’s what I could afford at the time.”

Speaking of his time growing up in an urban neighborhood in New York City, Marvin noted the lack of education around Unions and the trades. “... Going to high school, nobody knows what Unions are about,” he says. “They don’t teach you that in our high schools.”

Seeing just how much the Union turned his life around, Marvin has felt compelled to give back – and pay it forward. “As soon as I got into the Union, I felt like I needed to give back,” he tells Talking SMART. “I started a rank and file movement on Facebook,” he continues. “It started with five members, and within a year, it reached 10,000 members on social media.”

Explaining his process, Marvin says, “what I was doing was building a rank and file movement. I felt like that was the way to go over what was going on here in New York City – it had to start at the roots and work its way up.”

If you’re not organizing members in, you’re gonna be working against them and not with them.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT MARVIN’S AMAZING STORY AND HIS WORK BUSTING MYTHS ABOUT UNION ORGANIZING HERE:

SMART ENDORSES PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN FOR SECOND TERM

The SMART General Executive Council (GEC), an elected body voted on by members of SMART local Unions, has voted to endorse President Joe Biden for a second term.

“President Biden’s first term has been a transformative one for SMART members and working people across our nation,” declared SMART General President Mike Coleman. “His unapologetically pro-worker agenda led to the passage of laws that protect Union members’ retirement security, invests unprecedented dollars in our industries and ensures that SMART members will be on the job for decades to come.”

The Biden-Harris administration has been the most unabashedly pro-worker administration in living memory, and likely the most pro-Union White House ever. In just one term, President Biden has fulfilled his campaign promises to SMART members and working families across the nation by prioritizing workers with the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and

the Inflation Reduction Act. He has also signed an executive order requiring project labor agreements on federal projects that cost more than $35 million, and agreed to a partnership with SMART, dubbed Better Air in Buildings, to improve air quality in buildings by renovating HVAC systems. SMART members recognize that thanks to the current administration, thousands of sheet metal and production members are now working on a series of new megaprojects. At the same time, all working people can be grateful that a pro-labor National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has helped hold badfaith employers accountable and benefited Union organizing and recruiting efforts.

READ THE FULL STORY AND ENDORSEMENT HERE:

WORKERS WIN FIGHT AGAINST MISCLASSIFICATION AT THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

Across the nation, bad actors continue to find ways to take advantage of workers and stand in the way when those same workers come together to stand up for their rights at work. That’s why it is so important that we have a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that takes the rights of workers seriously and that is willing to rule against bad actors when the facts and the law call for it.

In a recent decision, the NLRB struck a blow against one of the favorite tactics of corporate bad actors: misclassification of employees. Workers at the Atlanta Opera, most or all of whom worked behind the scenes to prepare performers for upcoming shows, had attempted to organize at their workplace. Predictably, their employer objected, claiming that they were not employees, but “entrepreneurs” and “independent contractors” who took on work at the company in hopes of advancing their individual entrepreneurial pursuits.

Fortunately for all workers, the NLRB did not buy the company’s ridiculous claims, and affirmed that the workers were indeed employees with the right to

organize. In doing so, the Board reversed a 2019 standard adopted under the previous administration (referred to as the SuperShuttle standard) and returned to the 2014 FedEx Home Delivery (FedEx II) standard to determine independent contractor status. Applying the FedEx II standard to the facts of this case, the NLRB found that the workers were not offering services to further their own entrepreneurial interests, and were operating as employees of the company.

This is yet another example of the current NLRB recognizing the genuine complaints of workers organizing on the job and seeing through the sometimes absurd arguments of corporate bad actors.

READ THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD’S FULL STATEMENT HERE:

ANTI-WORKER SUPREME COURT TAKES SWING AT THE RIGHT TO STRIKE

Elections have consequences, and when it comes to Presidential Elections, there is no consequence farther reaching or longer lasting than the appointment of new justices to the Supreme Court. With lifetime appointments for Supreme Court Justices, the negative effects of electing a President who opposes Unions and workers’ rights generally will be felt for decades into the future — even by future workers who are only children today.

This is precisely what we are witnessing with the Supreme Court’s dangerous ruling in Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 174

In that case, Union members working at a cement company went on strike. Their employer, Seattlebased Glacier Northwest, attempted to sue their Union, claiming that the workers were responsible for property damage. When the workers went on strike, they left behind concrete and concrete trucks, which were damaged or destroyed when the perishable material hardened inside company vehicles.

While lower courts dismissed the company’s case against the Union, Glacier Northwest appealed, claiming that workers timed their strike deliberately to

harm their employer. The archconservative Supreme Court took up the appeal, ultimately ruling that the Glacier could sue their employees’ Union.

According to CBS News, this decision by the high court “opens the door for employers to sue workers for damages if they believe that their activism hurt the business.” Only one of nine justices, Justice Brown-Jackson, who was appointed by the current administration, issued a dissenting opinion. In her dissent, the newest of the Justices wrote that this decision would “erode the right to strike.” She continued, “Workers are not indentured servants, bound to continue laboring until any planned work stoppage would be as painless as possible for their master. They are employees whose collective and peaceful decision to withhold their labor is protected by the NLRA even if economic injury results.”

READ MORE ABOUT THE RIGHT TO STRIKE HERE

PHOTO GALLERY

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos from our recent shoot in Washington, D.C.

Stay tuned for the latest video shot in our nation's capital!

Where should we shoot our next video? Baltimore, Cumberland, Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke? Go to Facebook.com/SMARTLocal100 to let us know!

Photo Gallery

PHOTO CONTEST

Each quarter, Local 100 hosts a photo contest for our members. Have a great shot of you or your Union family on the job? Send it to us at Info@SMART100.org along with your name and the names of anyone in the photo. Your picture could be displayed in the next newsletter! Here’s a gallery of past photos for inspiration:

Photo Contest

IN MEMORIAM

William R. “Ray” Mattox of Riner, Virginia

Robert J. McIntyre, Jr. of Selbyville, Delaware

Lawrence Rao of Lynchburg, Virginia

Jeffrey A. Monar of Ocean View, Delaware

STAY CONNECTED

Did you know that SMART Local 100 has a brand new Twitter and Facebook? It’s a great way to stay connected with the latest from your union!

Don’t miss a single update. Head to SMART100.org/SignUp now to update your contact information.

We’re excited to unveil our new website, SMART100.org, rebuilt to service our members’ needs. From benefits to reps to apprenticeships and more, find everything you need on your computer or phone at the same old URL!