 | | See the 2008 PINP Conference Brochure in Partners in Progress. |
With less than a month to go before the Partners in Progress Conference in Las Vegas, it’s worth repeating that representatives from SMACNA chapters and signatory contractors and SMWIA Local Unions will benefit greatly by being on hand to “face challenges and create solutions.”
This conference is not just for the senior leadership, it’s also for new or future owners and managers and business managers. These are the people who will be playing a larger and larger role in ensuring that the union construction industry continues to exist and even manages to restore its competitive position in the marketplace.
Sessions for these young leaders—and the people who are trying to identify them—are key on the agenda.
Robert Wendover, managing director of the Center for Generational Studies, will run a session that will discuss how to inspire workforce leadership and instill a sense of purpose among the newest industry entrants. Young leaders are specifically invited to speak their minds.
 | | 2008 Partners in Progress Conference Agenda |
What’s more, Mark Breslin—renowned Labor speaker—will address issues such as succession planning. He’ll also address the unique issues that contractors and labor face regionally. (See the agenda for all of the details. It can be found in the latest issue of Partners in Progress.)
Our joint goal is to shape the landscape of tomorrow’s union sheet metal construction industry. The task is not an easy one. It will require leadership, change, trust, dedication, and hard work. We can take advantage of the opportunities that are ahead of us, but only if we—together—remove our blinders and take a hard look at what the future may hold.
We’ll see you in Vegas on April 3!
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 | | Find tips on the skills, attitudes and behaviors required for success on the jobsite and life. |
As reported in Vol. 6, No. 3 of Partners in Progress, SMWIA and SMACNA recently distributed Survival of the Fittest, a complimentary poster featuring 50 practical and light-hearted tips on the skills, attitudes and behaviors required for success on the jobsite and life.
Renowned construction industry strategist Mark Breslin created the poster and agreed to allow SMACNA and SMWIA to add their logos, plus the combined Expertise logo. Breslin’s message is that the future of union construction is within the hands of each tradesperson on the jobsite and each signatory contractor.
“I believe that market forces today are making business decisions based on negative worker stereotypes that… persist as obstacles in marketing, organizing and public relations,” Breslin says. “The time has come to address these issues in a proactive and noncompromising manner…”
This poster was accompanied by a letter signed by SMWIA General President Michael J. Sullivan and SMACNA President Ronald J. Palmerick. It encouraged Local unions, SMACNA chapters, and contractors to display the poster and “step up and lead” by attending the 2008 Partners in Progress Conference (http://www.pinp.org/conf08/index.htm). Find a larger version of the poster at http://www.pinp.org/resources/PIP/vol6_no3.pdf. Pull it out and fill in your own tip for #50!
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It’s hard these days to spend 24 hours without someone, in some form or another, talking about the concept of ‘green,’ which represents a politically correct way of viewing what we do on a daily basis in terms of its environmental impact and subsequently making the right choices to adhere to the principles involved.
 | | 'Green' is a way of viewing what we do on a daily basis in terms of environmental impact. |
To the average consumer, most of this is simple to understand. You save energy by keeping the temperature at 68 degrees in the winter or closing the curtains during the day in the summer.
In the building trades, however, this adherence to ‘green’ principles becomes a major challenge that begins with site selection and entails not only the overall design and construction of energy-efficient homes and business sites, but the selection of everything from materials to maintenance.
Demand by building owners and regulatory agencies for environmentally sensitive projects “has put the construction industry in a reactive mode as it adjusts to the requirements imposed by project contract documents and third-party certification requirements,” says Thomas E. Glavinich in his introduction to the HVAC Contractor’s Guide to Bidding Green Building Projects. (Download this document at http://www.smacna.org/members/pdf/management/SMACNA_Bidding_Green_08OCT07.pdf.)
Instead of playing catch-up, Glavinich adds, we need “to embrace the principles of green construction and become proactive, which is not only good for the environment but also good for business.”
At the core of this shift from ‘reactive’ to ‘proactive’ policies in the construction trade is the necessity for education, not just about ‘green buildings’ and how they’re designed and built, but how labor unions and signatory contractors can work together to take advantage of this increasingly important and rapidly expanding market.
 | | Locals 36 and 258 and St. Louis Metal Works are working together on 'Green' projects. |
In St. Louis, MO, both sides of this equation are working on it.
For Dan Andrews, Training Director for Sheet Metal Workers Local 36, the process began when his daughter became Chapter Coordinator of St. Louis’ Green Building Council. At which point, he says, “information began to trickle back and forth about the potential for our contractors, because of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accreditation process.”
That process, a function of the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) commitment to the “promotion of environmentally friendly, high performance buildings,” begins when an owner registers intent to have a building be LEED certified and the development project officially labeled ‘green.’ (Find out more about the USGBC at http://www.usgbc.org/.)
According to Andrews, a lot of issues that enter into the process, from recycling initiatives to water retention and proximity to public transportation. “ About 30 of the 52 points necessary for “Platinum” certification are in the ‘energy’ and ‘clean air’ (HVAC) categories.”
This means everyone—from owner to architect, contractor, and sheetmetal craftsman need to become more educated about ‘green.’
“Everybody is going to have to make the adjustment soon, because building codes are already starting to change, reflecting the need for more efficient HVAC systems,” says Caleb Goldkamp, a self-appointed ‘green guru’ of St. Louis’ Frank Fisher Heating.
“Most of this type of work doesn’t require retraining,” Goldman adds. “For the most part, it’s things we know how to do. We just haven’t been asked to do them before.”
There’s no argument from Kelly Luckett, president of St. Louis Metalworks and inventor of Green Roof Blocks, used in the Extreme Makover television program. (See articles about this project in The Journal at http://www.smwia.org/journal/2007_july_aug.pdf page 6 and http://www.smwia.org/journal/2007_nov_dec.pdf on page 44.)
“It could be something as simple as hauling your waste at a construction site and separating it into the proper containers,” he says. “It’s not a skill or training that’s required. It’s a matter of understanding the mandate and complying.”
Tapping in to this new market is all about education and shared information. It’s important for contractors to understand the nature of the mandates necessary for ‘green’ certification and to actively pursue the work. It is also incumbent upon the unions to understand the mandates, so that when the ‘green’ contract comes down to implementation, field workers have a full understanding of what’s expected of them.
“I think the training needs are pretty equal,” says Luckett. “Contractors have to recognize the value of going after these projects; that’s where it starts on a company level.”
Andrews says he would like to see more contractors actively pursuing ‘green’ work. “As a training director, I’m always looking for things to keep my people above standard, but the contractors have to be out there pursuing the work. We can train all the people in the world, but if there is no work for them, it doesn’t do any good.
“I think it’s largely a public education process,” Luckett says. “We need to educate contractors about the income potential.
“There’s a lot more of this type of work now than there was a couple of years ago,” Luckett adds. During the next few years, the ‘green’ industry will continue to drag the construction industry into this by its hair.
“If we want to continue to stand on our feet, we need to work together,” Luckett concludes.
Maloney is a freelance writer based in North Carolina. To learn more about Bidding Green and the future of Construction Contracting, attend the 2008 Partners in Progress Conference (http://www.pinp.org/conf08/index.htm) at Caesars Palace in Los Vegas on April 3-5.
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One of the key ways to recruit and retain younger sheet metal workers is to use visual campaigns that appeal to them. This is exactly why Bob Lawless, CEO of Blue Diamond Sheet Metal in New York (http://www.smacna-li.org/bluediamond.htm), is always looking for creative ways to use the HVAC Expertise logo.
As reported in a recent issue of Partners in Progress (http://www.pinp.org/resources/PIP/vol6_no3.pdf), Lawless says the logo has a “youthful, energetic look” that can help get more young people interested in the industry and help with recruiting.
 | | Being creative in how you apply the Expertise logos can generate a variety of benefits. |
There is no doubt that his trucks adorned with “Tinny”, the company’s sheet metal mascot——who has the Expertise logo on his chest——get attention. But also, Blue Diamond gets positive feedback using the HVAC Expertise logo on most, if not all, of their correspondence, including shop drawings.
If every signatory contractor used the logo to brand themselves as committed to professionalism and competence, more customers would get the message that it’s always worth it to seek out expertise.
 | | Using the Expertise Logo builds branding and associates SMACNA and SMWIA with expertise. |
Although legal forms sometimes seem intimidating, it’s actually straight-forward to get permission to use the logo. Even better, it costs nothing! All SMWIA Locals and signatory contractors, SMACNA chapters, labor-management committees, Trusts, and JATCs are invited to take this step.
Forms are available at http://www.pinp.org/. Click on the two links in the lower right-hand corner to download them. Describing the use of the logo can be as simple as “advertising”. Exact details are not required.
Direct questions about licensing or examples of creative uses of the logos to editor@pinp.org. Be sure to include photos!
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Reading about the importance of building the expertise brand, doing marketing, expanding markets, and working together with as labor-management partners is all well and good. What really matters is putting these concepts into practice. Some of our members are doing just that—and the evidence is showing up on the Internet. Below are links to websites that stand as an example of putting theory into action. (Click on each of the links to explore the websites.)
IndianaTrueStory (http://indianatruestory.com/)—This site goes into detail about the high degree of cooperation between unions and management over many decades and why that matters to potential applicants and the customer.
SheetMetalPartnership (http://www.sheetmetalpartnership.com/)—A state-of-the-art site with videos, testimonials about how Sheet Metal Workers Local 9 and Colorado SMACNA work together for the good of their customers, employees, and local economy.
Orange Empire SMACNA & SMWIA (http://www.smacna-oc.org/)—Featured prominently on the page is a statement the Orange Inland Sheet Metal Labor Management Cooperation Trust is committed to the success of the union sheet metal and HVAC industry of the area by promoting excellent in labor management relations. The site highlights “precision craftsmanship and project solutions.”
If you have an website or literature that exemplifies an outstanding sheet metal partnership in action, please send the information to editor@pinpmagazine.org so that we can highlight it in future issues of Partnership Communicator and Partners in Progress.
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