The Western Region of the SSMRC has been focused on growing market share in the automation, facilities-maintenance, light-conveyor/food-and-beverage, and wind-turbine-maintenance industries.
Over the last few months, we have secured several contracts for full-time, facilities-maintenance personal with contractors working inside General Motors and several hospital systems in Texas and Louisiana. These contracts are long term, typically 10 years or more.
The new robot cell and conveyor-mockup installations in Arlington, Texas, have been completed and are being utilized to train our millwrights for various types of automation and conveyor work. Local 1421 in Arlington produced more than 100,000 work hours in the first two quarters of 2021 at the new Tesla Gigafactory in Austin. Additional projects with Tesla are continually being awarded to our partnering employers. Our employer partners also have secured multiple projects in the automation market, with major customers including Tesla, Toyota, Amazon, and Navistar. There is an extremely positive outlook for growth in this sector as more distribution and manufacturing facilities utilize automation solutions for their businesses.
Construction is underway on a new Russellville, Arkansas, training center that will be our renewable-energy training facility and house our wind-turbine-maintenance training program as well as other renewable-industry training initiatives. This facility will allow the SSMRC to develop state-of-the-art training and curriculum to meet the needs of the renewable- and clean-energy markets.
Overall, the Western Region of the SSMRC has increased work hours and market share for our target industries significantly in 2021. We look forward to continuing to support our partnering employers with labor and training needs to capitalize on opportunities in every industry we service.
I will be attending the Construction Users Round Table (CURT) National Conference Feb. 7-9 along with our Millwright First Committee to promote our organization and our employers to owners and end users. If you are interested in attending or for more information, please visit www.curt.org.
There will also be a Millwright Leadership Conference held Jan. 24-26 at our International Training Center in Las Vegas. If you are interested in attending, please contact me at jrowland@ssmrc4070.org and I will be happy to assist you with reservations.