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Governors of nine states in the SSMRC’s 11-state jurisdiction have signed a letter opposing an executive order issued in February that requires project labor agreements on large, federally funded construction projects.

Representatives from the SSMRC's Central Region attended the Mobile Oilmen's Annual Golf Tournament in late April, with the council sponsoring a hole at the tournament to bring exposure to more than 450 participants from industries in the Gulf region.

Local 1192 Business Representatives Clint Smith and Les Roberts partnered with Plant Barry and Alabama Central Credit Union at the 2022 Plant Barry APSO Sporting Clay Shoot to help raise money for children in Alabama who are facing life threatening conditions.

Several state legislatures, including those in Oklahoma and Louisiana, are considering cuts to their unemployment-benefit programs that would reduce the number of weeks people can receive aid, lower weekly benefit amounts, or make work-search requirements tougher.

The National Labor Relations Board's new head lawyer has been working quickly to beef up legal protections for workers and unions and to increase penalties for violations of the National Labor Relations Act.

Construction of the Mid-South Carpenters Regional Council Training Trust Fund's new training facility in Tennessee continues to go well, with the PEMB (Pre-Engineered Metal Building) steel erection currently underway.

Until 2018, Local 216 journeyman Trampas Jackson had spent all of his adult life serving in the military or in a federal job, but when it came time to chart a new course in his life, he chose the work of a millwright in the SSMRC.

Workers at a Bessemer, Alabama, Amazon warehouse are voting for a second time in less than a year on whether to join a union. If they vote in favor this time, the Bessemer facility will be the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the United States.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Feb. 4 requiring project labor agreements on federal construction projects that cost more than $35 million. Project labor agreements are collective bargaining agreements between building trade unions and contractors that determine wages, employment conditions, and dispute-resolution processes.

In a meeting with Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Jan. 31, SSMRC leaders discussed labor issues including visa-program abuses, project labor agreements, and tax and workers' compensation fraud by unscrupulous contractors.

Congratulations to the UBC Southern District Vice President Dennis Donahou for earning his 45-year service pin, marking the amount of time he has remained a member in good standing with the UBC.

During an eight-year period of national economic expansion following the recession of 2008, the 27 U.S. states with so-called “right-to-work” laws experienced slower economic growth, lower wages, higher consumer debt, worse health outcomes, and lower levels of civic participation than states without those laws, according to a study released last year.

The U.S. Senate is debating two bills that would establish rules regarding voting and elections. Supporters say the legislation – the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – would make it easier for hard-working American citizens to vote while strengthening election security and limiting corporate influence on elections.

Several members of Local 216 received service pins during the Local's Christmas dinner earlier in December.

Jack Bartley was recently named the new instructor for Local 729 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Mid-South Carpenters Regional Council Training Trust Fund is considering hiring one full-time instructor and one part-time instructor to deliver carpenter and millwright craft training through the United Brotherhood of Carpenters' Military Veterans Program at the Army base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

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.

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.

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.

Two robot stations at the Charlotte, North Carolina, and Arlington, Texas, training centers are preparing millwrights to work in the automotive industry and in other manufacturing facilities that increasingly use automated systems.

In a bipartisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a historic investment in the nation's infrastructure. The Senate passed the infrastructure legislation in August, and the bill is set to be signed into law soon.

The Southern States Millwright Regional Council is making significant investments in Gulf Coast training centers, ensuring the area’s power-generation and petrochemical industries have continued access to elite craftspeople with the complex skills these industries demand.

Congress continues to work on approving a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget reconciliation bill, both part of the Build Back Better plan that would create jobs for union millwrights and lower taxes, childcare costs, and other expenses for working-class families.

Robert Strickland, a former Marine and an eight-year member of Local 1263, which covers Georgia and the Carolinas, began working as a business agent for that local in September.

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.

SSMRC Central Region Director Jeffrey Smith and Local 1192 Business Agents Clint Smith and Lessie Roberts hosted a labor-management meeting last month at the Florence, Alabama, training center. The event also included a tour of the training center for partnering contractors.

Anti-labor legislation that would amend the National Labor Relations Act to severely restrict the ability of unions to organize workers from within companies has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

After working successfully with SSMRC millwrights at the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama, a previously non-union contractor has established a union division and signed agreements with several locals in the SSMRC's jurisdiction.

Labor leaders, including Millwright Local 2411 Business Agent Robert Jeffers, spoke to the Jacksonville, Florida, City Council on Aug. 10 about the need for city-funded construction projects to utilize local residents enrolled in Registered Apprenticeship Programs.

With the delta variant of COVID-19 cases rising, minimizing exposure to the virus is top of mind for utility companies and our employers. We are seeing some adjustments and new requirements being put into place.

The Mid-South Carpenters Regional Council Training Trust Fund is hiring a full-time millwright instructor to deliver millwright craft training for apprentices and journeyman at the Moss Point, Mississippi, training center.

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.

Construction of a millwright and carpenter training center is underway in Russellville, Arkansas. Compared to the current facility, the 35,000-square-foot new center will offer additional classrooms with state-of-the-art technology and more training space.

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.

Representatives of the Southern States Millwrights and Southeastern Carpenters, along with state and local officials, broke ground May 24 on a $5 million, 25,000-square-foot training center near Nashville.

When April Crownhart-Swan was 7 years old, she told her mother she was going to be a race-car driver and a union member. She has accomplished both goals.

Click above to read answers to frequently asked questions about the vaccine and to find out where vaccinations are available.

Millwright Local 1554 will accept officer nominations and hold elections at four locations across Tennessee in May and June.

Construction-industry tax fraud harms workers, their families, contractors who play by the rules, and entire communities, which lose tax revenue.

Korean workers who had fraudulently entered the United States under the Visa Waiver Program were repeatedly caught trying to work at the SK Innovation plant in Commerce, Georgia, at rates that would undercut U.S. wages.

The U.S. Labor Department is proposing to rescind two final rules that would significantly weaken protections afforded to American workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Travis Harkey of Atkins, Arkansas, has been doing mechanical work since he was 14, but he didn’t find out what a millwright was until he was 27.

The new Charlotte training center sets the stage for state-of-the-art training and new industry partnerships.

Local 1554 is partnering with other building and construction trades and the AFL-CIO to combat a bill in the Tennessee General Assembly that would add Tennessee’s right-to-work law to the state constitution.

In recognition of International Women's Day, Women's History Month, and Women in Construction Week, we would like to thank all the sisters of the SSMRC for their contributions to our union.

Esther Freeman has always had a penchant for the mechanical. She enjoyed working on cars growing up. But her welding career started with art.

Classes are scheduled to begin this month at the new training center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Members who live in the Carolinas will no longer have to travel to Georgia for training.

Workers in Bessemer, Alabama, could form the first union at an Amazon warehouse in the United States. The location for this potential "first" has been called surprising due to anti-union sentiment in the region.

SSMRC industry partner Southern Company has been named to Fortune magazine’s list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies.”

The new facade of the Arlington, Texas, training center is nearing completion. The final steps of the exterior upgrade will be new signage and landscaping.

COVID-19 cases and deaths are surging across the United States. Please help protect yourself and your family, friends, and co-workers by following Centers for Disease Control guidance and taking the COVID-19 Preparedness Qualification online course.

Our parent organization, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, has announced support of President-elect Biden’s selection of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Secretary of Labor.

James Rowland, Western Region director, represented the SSMRC at the BIC Alliance Christmas Open House in League City, Texas. As part of the event, our council donated a toy to Galveston Urban Ministries.

Robert Boynton, a Millwright Local 1263 member and a general foreman for RCC, was quoted in Vogtle's Quality Newsletter.

Q: How long have you been a millwright and a union member? A: I have been a union millwright for nine years. I was non-union for three and a half years before I joined Local 2411.

COVID-19 cases are increasing dramatically in most parts of the United States, including the South. The 7-day moving average of new cases nationwide is more than 110,000, which is more than double what it was a month ago.

Please help the SSMRC support the Miracle League of Music City, which has launched a year-end campaign to raise the final $250,000 needed to break ground on on the $2 million Miracle League Complex.

The U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed regulation last month that could make it easier for employers to misclassify workers.

The LaVergne, Tennessee, City Council approved construction of a new Nashville-area training center on June 30.

The COVID-19 Preparedness course can help you protect yourself and others on jobsites. Instructions for accessing the course have been updated.