North American trade union
The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) is a North American labor union headquartered in Washington, DC, which was chartered by the AFL–CIO in 2013. The product of a merger between the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association (SMWIA) and the United Transportation Union (UTU), SMART represents over 210,000 sheet metal workers, service technicians, bus operators, engineers, conductors, sign workers, welders, and production employees, among others, throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. The Transportation Division (which has offices in Washington, DC, and North Olmsted, Ohio) represents employees on Class I railroad, Amtrak, and regional and short line railroads; bus and mass transit employees on some 45 transit systems; and airline pilots, flight attendants, dispatchers and other airport personnel. The Division's 500 local unions organize conductors, brakemen, switch men, ground service personnel, locomotive engineers, hostlers, and railroad yard masters, as well as bus drivers and mechanics.
Members of SMART's Sheet Metal Division design, manufacture, and install their own products. Employed in a variety of occupations – from architectural sheet metal work, to fabricating, installing, and servicing HVAC systems, to shipbuilding and railroad work, they use specialized tools to cut, roll, bend, and shape flat pieces of metal into ductwork, airplane wings, car bodies, refrigeration units, and building facades, among many other products. SMART's sheet metal members complete a five-year apprentice program that combines on-the-job training and classroom instruction. SMART also offers specialized training and certification programs to journeymen and journeywomen.
SMART is governed by a 17-member General Executive Council with a General President serving as Chairman, a Transportation President (John Previsich), 11 general vice presidents drawn from SMWIA local unions, and 5 general vice presidents drawn from SMART's Transportation Division. The General Secretary Treasurer (Richard I. Mc Clees) serves as Executive Secretary. The union is structured around nine departments: Organizing, Production, Canadian Affairs, Government Affairs, Communication and Research, Education, Jurisdiction, Legal, and Railroad Mechanical and Engineering (for shipyard and railroad members).
SMWIA history.
Early years, 1888–1896.
When the Tin, Sheet Iron, and Cornice Workers' International Association first organized in 1888, the founding fathers were not looking for trouble. Union pioneers from Dayton, Toledo, and Youngstown; Memphis; Omaha; Peoria; and Kansas City, Missouri, they organized to "elevate" the trade, advance craftsmanship, and improve wages and conditions. At a time when new machinery, new methods of production, and new immigrants desperate for work were lowering standards every day, these journeymen wanted to be more than industrial "hands." They wanted to be recognized as valuable partners in the industry. "Thorough" organization was key: Once local unions were established in "every town or city where there are seven or more journeymen," one early leader explained, "every tinner in the country, both employer and employee, would reap the benefit, the employer by having more skilled and intelligent workmen, and the employees by receiving better pay and having more time for social, moral, and intellectual development." From the very beginning, then, the IA saw unionization as a "mutually beneficial" two-way street.
Employers, however, saw things differently. In the 1890s they were more likely to lock out union workers and blacklist organizers than to welcome them as industrial partners, and they often relied on armed guards to get their point across. Indeed, the largest employers frankly believed that capital and labor had "nothing to arbitrate," as the Pullman Company famously proclaimed in 1894. "The first members were considered outlaws and an organizer might as well have been Satan himself," an early leader noted. "It was well nigh impossible [for an organizer] to get into the shops," a situation that would not change significantly until 1935 when the Wagner Act finally legalized labor's right to organize.
Employer hostility was not the only obstacle: The fact that some branches of the trade were falling while others were rising also complicated the early union's plans. In the late 19th century assortment work – tinware that included household goods, cutlery, and cans, for instance – moved from shop to factory, and machine operators replaced apprentice-trained journeymen on the job. At the same time, though, the increasing use of galvanized sheet iron was creating opportunities for journeymen employed in furnace or architectural shops – demand for metal roofs, cornices, skylights, and ceilings, along with warm air furnaces and ventilation pipe, was on the rise by the late 19th century. In their case, labor-saving machinery, including sheet iron folders, or brakes, and cutting, rolling, and seaming machines, did not replace skill. But it did give rise to a new class of workmen that the Tin, Sheet Iron and Cornice Workers could not ignore: Semi-skilled specialists who produced materials for the trade.
Although many local unions feared that admitting lower-waged members would undercut journeymen's wages, a referendum vote in 1896 moved the organization forward. "The constitution of the tinners has been changed so as to admit all who work at sheet metal work into their unions," the IA reported." Henceforth, the Tin, Sheet Iron, and Cornice Workers' International Association will be known as the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers' International Association."
The rise of local autonomy.
The Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers' new membership categories addressed one aspect of industrial development. But they could not overcome the regional differences that continued to undermine trade unity. Varying degrees of industrialization and urbanization, throughout the United States and Canada, produced varying definitions of "brotherhood." In rural areas where work was scarce, local unions expected "brother" locals to welcome travelers with low dues and low initiation fees. In bustling cities like Chicago, on the other hand, where skyscrapers were transforming the skyline and building trades councils maintained high standards, local unions concentrated on taking care of their own. They charged dues high enough to support strike funds and pay full-time business agents to protect their work and enforce contracts – and they required travelers to pay their way if they wanted to enjoy these benefits.
In theory, the international union existed to balance strong and weak local unions: Per capita taxes would defray organizing costs, general assessments would finance strike benefit payments, and urban and rural "brothers" would share the wealth. Yet reality proved quite different. General vice presidents might be elected to organize their territories, but opportunities were limited since they worked full-time with the tools. Strike benefits might keep a local union afloat, but they were limited, too, since the IA lacked the power to enforce assessments. The fact that some of the best organized, big city local unions saw no reason to join the IA also complicated matters. In fact when the IA chartered a local union in New York City to compete with the independent union there, a war erupted that almost destroyed the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers
How to resolve these differences and establish the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers in fact as well as in name was a major question in the late 1890s – one that would eventually led to secession (when big city locals decided to "go it alone"), civil war (when those locals organized a rival IA), and reconstruction (when both groups formed the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers International Alliance in 1903). The peace treaty that saved the union was based on the concept of local autonomy: Big-city locals would maintain their right to set policies and membership fees "to suit their surroundings," a compromise that reflected economic reality at the time. The fact was the IA needed big-city locals more than those locals needed the IA. And as long as they were able to control their work, they expected the IA to stay out of their way.
Establishing the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association.
With that battle decided, other changes were underway: Over the next few years, the general president would become a full-time, salaried officer/organizer; international staff would include a full-time general organizer and at least four special organizers; district councils would be set up wherever they were needed to settle local disputes; and the leadership would reserve the right to amalgamate (or merge) local unions when necessary. Now per capita taxes, not local assessments, would finance a strike defense fund, and a formal dues stamp system would be implemented to protect the membership – and the international union – from careless or corrupt financial secretaries.
The next few years would also see a shift in union ranks. In 1906, the Coppersmiths' International Union, whose jurisdiction included the fabrication and installation of sheet metal pipes, vats and tanks, joined the IA. Around the same time, railroad shop workers were also becoming an important new membership group. But can makers and other low-waged factory workers, did not fare so well, despite the IA's effort to organize "provisional" locals that charged lower dues and initiation fees. Although twelve provisional locals would be launched in 1918, only one was still in business by 1924. Employer hostility, seasonal employment, and especially the unskilled nature of the work made it almost impossible to hold these unions together.
In the meantime, though, shipyard workers had come into the IA, around the time of the First World War, and by 1924 so had independent unions of chandelier, brass, and metal workers. Now representing 75 percent of the US and Canada's skilled sheet metal work force, or about 26,000 members in 1924, the IA was ready to adopt what one member called a "more up-to-date, progressive name" – The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association.
With a new name, an updated structure, and a more diverse membership, the IA was ready to move forward in the 1920s. But no one expected smooth sailing. Railroad shop workers were recovering from the disastrous 1922 national strike. Building trades workers were embroiled in a costly jurisdictional war with the Carpenters to install metal doors, window sashes, and trim (that had once been made of wood). Canadian workers were battling more radical unionists in the One Big Union movement. And employers were taking advantage of a recent economic recession to advance what they called the "American Plan" – the latest incarnation of the open-shop movement.
But, the 1920s also marked the beginning of an industrial shift for the sheet metal trade when Willis Carrier sold his invention for air-conditioning to movie-theater operators in 1922. By 1925 the system was cooling New York City's Rivoli Theater, and within a few years air conditioners were being installed in restaurants, railroad cars, and department stores.
Economic depression, World War II and post-war recovery.
The introduction of air-conditioning systems promised to expand employment opportunities for SMWIA members, but it was not enough to counteract the economic crisis that erupted when the economy collapsed in 1929. Expenditures for the construction industry dropped by 50 percent between 1930 and 1932, 35 percent of building trades workers were unemployed by 1935, and the IA was cutting expenses in order to survive: Salaries were cut 25 percent between 1933 and 1936, and another 10 percent in 1937, and publication of the monthly Journal was suspended in 1933 in favor of financing the death benefit fund.
It took the outbreak of the Second World War to revive the economy and put union members back to work. Sheet metal workers were employed in navy yards, airfields, and on railroads. They played crucial roles in defense-related construction, including top-secret projects at Oak Ridge, Tenn., Hanford, Wash., and Los Alamos, N. Mex., where the atomic bomb was in development. They served in the military, often as members of the Seabees, the Naval Construction Battalions, and fought to protect the military installations they built. The fact that SMWIA membership more than doubled between 1938 and 1946 – from 24,372 to 52,932 – reflected the vast expansion of sheet metal work during the war. At the same time, air-conditioning was becoming a necessity, not a luxury, in commercial, industrial, and residential structures, making sheet metal workers an "indispensable factor" in the building and construction industry. SMWIA handled the job from beginning to end, fabricating and installing the ductwork, dampers, and louvers, a job required. The combination of shop and field work was an added benefit: Because construction work was seasonal, fabrication work kept shops busy throughout the year. When winter weather put a stop to "outside work," for instance, journeymen could spend their time "inside" fabricating products like roof ventilators and louvers. In the meantime, though, large-scale sheet metal companies were taking over this work, setting up another challenge for the SMWIA
Traditionally SMWIA journeymen had relied on