SSMRC Central Region Director Jeff Smith promoted our recruitment and training capabilities April 13 when he met with leaders of the Tennessee Automotive Manufacturers Association and Ford’s BlueOval City project under construction near Memphis. The meeting took place during TAMA’s Spring Conference.
Tax fraud hurts everyone – workers, including our members, and their families, law-abiding contractors, communities, school children, veterans, and all taxpayers. That’s why we unite with the UBC and other regional during Tax Fraud Days of Action every year.
Marty Walsh, a former union member, has led the U.S. Labor Department with policies and initiatives for strengthening workers’ rights, unions, and union apprenticeships. The nominee to be his successor is equally qualified and just as committed to defending working people’s rights and holding corporations accountable under the law.
Recruitment is a vital part of growing and strengthening the union, and the SSMRC Sisters in the Brotherhood Committee has made recruitment a top priority for its 2023-2024 goal cycle. Through collaborations with local business agents and training directors, several SIB members have been able to attend conferences and job fairs to reach out to young adults and working men and women.
Construction of a 25,000-square-foot training center in La Vergne, Tennessee, near Nashville, is complete. The next step is installing training equipment, and a grand opening is slated for May. The new building consists of 20,000 square feet of training space and 5,000 square feet of office and administrative areas.
Union millwrights are already working on a $2.5 billion expansion announced yesterday of solar-panel manufacturing facilities in northwest Georgia. Those millwrights and others will be needed at the Dalton factory during the next year, and opportunities for SSMRC members to work at a similar factory in Cartersville, Georgia, are likely, said Robert Strickland, business agent for Millwright Local 1263, which covers Georgia and the Carolinas.
When contractors fail to pay proper employment taxes because they pay workers under the table and misclassify employees: Workers lose pay, benefits and opportunities for safe, decent jobs for their families. Taxpayers and our communities lose billions of dollars in public funds. Contractors who abide by the law and pay taxes lose work to those […]
Do you know how much tax revenue is being siphoned out of your state and county? If you’re a legislator, stopping construction-industry tax fraud IS YOUR JOB. Are you the one turning a blind eye to workers’ comp fraud and tax fraud or are you part of the solution? Learn more about construction-industry tax fraud […]
Q1 2023 Civic Action E-News: Council ensuring members benefit from historic construction spending; State and national labor news; and more
SSMRC Political Director Rick Halford will be among the speakers at an event aimed at highlighting ways unions and collective action by workers can alleviate the most pressing problems facing northwest Arkansas residents. The Northwest Arkansas Labor Council and the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville Education Association/Local 965 will host the Northwest Arkansas Labor Spring Teach-In…
SSMRC leaders networked with elected officials, contractors, and manufacturers at the 2023 Auto Focus Summit hosted by our training center in Charlotte, North Carolina, March 1-2. The Southern States Automotive Contractors Association, an organization the SSMRC was instrumental in creating, held the event.
The SSMRC is part of a committee that is working to make sure union members – and particularly our millwrights – gain substantial job opportunities through programs that will funnel billions of dollars into infrastructure, technology, and clean-energy projects during the next decade.
Q1 Industry Partner E-News: Regional updates; Networking and recruiting opportunities; Nashville training center opening soon; Federal funding favors union contractors; and more
As each new year begins, we look at projected industry spending that might provide additional bidding opportunities for our partnering contractors. For the Central Region, the industrial-spending outlook on capital and balance-of-plant opportunities for the first half of 2023 totals more than $19 billion.
During the first quarter of 2023, growth will continue across the Western Region after a record year in 2022. There will be emerging work in clean energy and infrastructure funded by federal dollars, with multiple projects breaking the $1 billion mark on total insurable value.
The contractors of the Eastern Region – the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida – have hit the new year running. We are looking at several projects worth more than $1 billion this coming year.
A bill in the Tennessee Legislature would micro-manage how votes for union representation are conducted at private businesses. The bill would make a secret-ballot election the only option for forming a union for employees who work for an employer who has received economic incentives from the state of Tennessee.
The Arkansas House of Representatives approved a bill Feb. 22 that would eliminate work permits that require children under 16 to provide proof of age, job and work-schedule descriptions, and parental consent to the state Labor Department. The Arkansas Senate is expected to consider a companion bill next week.
The launch of a $450-million project to turn a brewery in North Carolina into a pet-food factory lined up perfectly with the opening of a union training center in that state, providing hands-on learning for newly recruited SSMRC millwrights and a skilled labor force for contractors working at the site.
The Southern States Automotive Contractors Association, a group the SSMRC was instrumental in creating, is hosting the Auto Focus 2023 summit March 1-2 at our Charlotte, North Carolina, training facility. The event is aimed at confronting – and finding solutions to – challenges in the automotive industry.