SSMRC Sisters: Attend the Jan. 4 virtual SIB meeting and get a free t-shirt
All women in the SSMRC are invited to attend the council’s first Sisters in the Brotherhood Committee meeting. The meeting will be held online Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. Central time.
Apprentice Appreciation Day held at Savannah training center
Millwright apprentices in the Savannah, Georgia, area and their families celebrated a day of fun and information at the Savannah training center on Dec. 4. Forty apprentices and more than 25 family members, friends, and walk-ins participated in Apprentice Appreciation Day.
Local 1263 members receive service pins
Four members of Local 1263 received service pins during a ceremony held Dec. 14. Most of the members are from South Carolina and the Augusta, Georgia, area and are employed at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia, and at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Community Service Challenge Award Winner: Mike Hines
The reason Mike Hines enjoys his job as a union business agent is the same reason he has been volunteering in his community since high school. Both undertakings allow him to practice his guiding philosophies: make things better than you found them and help provide equal opportunities.
Member Spotlight: Matt Bartles
Matt Bartles is helping young people get into good-paying jobs while also combatting a shortage of skilled welding professionals. Matt Bartles first heard the term “millwright” from a guest speaker at the technical college he was attending in 2010. A decade later – after completing the millwright apprenticeship, working in the field, and becoming a […]
Local 729 president and council delegate James Perniciaro passes away at age 61
Millwright Local 729 president and SSMRC delegate James Perniciaro passed away on Oct. 31 due to complications from COVID-19. He was a kind, compassionate, generous person and will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and union brothers and sisters.
Send a video to help us celebrate National Apprenticeship Week
National Apprenticeship Week is next week, Nov. 15-21. We want to celebrate by highlighting your stories. Please send us a short video we can post on SSMRC social-media platforms.
Member Spotlight: Jeffery Phillips
Jeffery Phillips, a recent graduate of the Millwright Military Veterans Program, has experienced a crash course in on-the-job training since he transitioned out of the Army in August.
Mitchell leading millwright training in Moss Point, Mississippi
Meet Robert Mitchell, the new millwright training instructor in Moss Point, Mississippi. Mitchell has been a member of Millwright Local 1192 since 2013.
Carpenters’ Helping Hands provides grant to Local 1554 member whose home was flood damaged
Flood waters rose so quickly on Aug. 21 in Waverly, Tennessee, that Michael T. Davis had to escape his home by climbing through a window and into his boat, which the water had pushed against the house.
Member Spotlight: Jessie Patterson
Local 1263 member Jessie Patterson has achieved goals quickly in her millwright career and has discovered a passion for helping others do the same. Finding the millwright trade after leaving the military in 2012 took Jessie Patterson several years, but she’s been on a fast track ever since.
Local 1263 Business Agent Michael Hamilton retires
After 45 years as a member of Local 1263 and 31 years as the local’s business agent, Michael Hamilton will retire on Sept. 30. Mike will be greatly missed, and we wish him the best in retirement! Michael Hamilton has held many leadership positions within the SSMRC, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, and UBC Millwrights. In […]
Local 1192 members earn SSMRC Community Service Challenge Award for leading effort to support striking miners
Mitchell Howton knows what it’s like to work at the Warrior Met Coal mine in Brookwood, Alabama. He hasn’t forgotten being underground 14 hours a day, seven days a week, with the promise that next week he would get Sunday off – a promise that never materialized.
Member Spotlight: Emerson Romero
After immigrating to the United States and working as a scaffold builder in refineries, Emerson Romero found a perfect career fit as a union millwright.
SSMRC developing Sisters in the Brotherhood committee
Several SSMRC sisters have begun building a Sisters in the Brotherhood (SIB) committee for our council. Find out how you can get involved.
Member Spotlight: Ben Higginbotham
A member of Millwright Local 2232 since 2013, Ben Higginbotham will begin serving as national millwright and pile driver recruiter for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America on July 19.
Member Spotlight: Aaron Tapley
Twenty-nine-year-old Aaron Tapley has risen through the apprenticeship ranks and is now a foreman for industrial construction firm Milton J. Wood, based in Jacksonville, Florida.
Community Service Challenge winner: Dwight Murrah
Community service isn’t something Dwight Murrah does every now and then on a Saturday. It’s woven into his friendships, his marriage, his hobbies, and his relationship to the neighborhood where he lives.
SSMRC sponsors run benefiting Recovery Resource Council
The SSMRC was a major sponsor of the annual Unity Run, held in Whitney, Texas, and benefiting the nonprofit Resource Recovery Council, which provides mental and behavioral health care in 20 North Texas counties.
Millwrights and carpenters honor Arkansas’ fallen soldiers
Members of the Southern States Millwright Regional Council and the Central South Carpenters Regional Council helped create a tribute to fallen soldiers at the Veterans Memorial Park in Russellville, Arkansas.