The Western Region of the SSMRC has been extremely busy these past few months, and while November slowed a bit toward the holiday, we are picking right back up in December. We have shutdowns at Toyota in San Antonio and emerging work in both power gen and petro-chem for Local 2232. GM in Arlington will have a Christmas outage, but it won’t be as large as in some years, and we are picking up work slowly at Tesla for Local 1421. We have had several pulp-and-paper projects kick off in Local 216’s jurisdiction, along with a small wind-turbine project for our wind techs. Local 729 has picked up some petro-chemical work, including a major full-time maintenance contract.
Our work hours and market share are looking up everywhere in the second half of 2021. I cannot stress enough that the amount of work this spring will be more than we’ve ever seen, beginning in January and running hard through May. If you don’t have a TWIC, get one. It will pay for itself, and many locals reimburse or pay for their members to get one. Make sure your drug testing is up to date if your local participates in the DISA program. Stay in contact with your business rep and make sure to keep your dues paid. If you aren’t working, get on the out-of-work list. 2022 is going to make a lot of millwrights a lot of money, and we need you all to be ready to capitalize on the opportunities.