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The U.S. Labor Department is distributing $260 million in grants to assist states in providing unemployment-insurance benefits to workers who have faced obstacles in accessing those services.

Nuclear Work Update from Nuclear Representative, David Bonds..

The Labor Department has announced a final rule that ends the Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program, adding it will direct its resources toward Registered Apprenticeships. (Union apprenticeships are registered apprenticeship programs.)

Each year, National Apprenticeship Week is celebrated during the second full week of November. This year, the SSMRC asked members to share their story to hopefully influence others to join the brotherhood. Here are submissions from our SSMRC members celebrating National Apprenticeship Week.

If you live in Tennessee, you have an opportunity to vote on a proposed amendment that would add a falsely named “right-to-work” clause to the state constitution. Amendment 1 is an attempt by greedy corporations to rewrite the Tennessee Constitution in a way that will suppress unions and harm working people in order to further inflate corporate profits.

In the state of Arkansas, the new 35,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art training center located right off Interstate 40 in Russellville was completed in May. The proximity of this facility to a major interstate has given us more visibility with contractors, state and local leaders, and the general public.

National Apprenticeship Week is Nov. 14 – 20 and we want to celebrate by telling your stories. If you would like to participate, click here to fill out the questionnaire. Answers may be highlighted and shared across SSMRC social media platforms.

Eastern Region Work Update from Eastern Region Director, Logan Brown.

High school students in Savannah, Georgia, expanded their knowledge of the opportunities available to them after graduating high school at a job fair hosted by the Savannah Chatham County Public School System Public Affairs Department.

Union millwrights from across the South will be needed to build the largest auto-production complex in Ford Motor Company’s history. The massive undertaking – which includes an electric-vehicle-manufacturing facility more than two-thirds of a mile long and a battery plant the size of 109 football fields – will provide a wealth of work opportunities for SSMRC members.

Local 1552 business agent, William Condon and signatory contractors participated in the Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association's golf tournament in Ooltewah, Tennessee.

Brothers and Sisters, We are preparing to move into the Mix 20/20 system, utilizing a secondary list for nuclear millwrights. The transition will be in place for the spring 2023 outage season. Please click the link below and fill out the form to be added for eligibility. This will not affect the general industry work […]

Eastern September Work update from Regional Director, Logan Brown.

Mark Brown, a 15-year carpenter business representative, financial officer, and trustee, began working as training director of the Southeastern Carpenters Training Trust Fund in March, helping enrich the skills of millwrights in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

From a young age, Local 216’s Austin Bryant knew he was destined to work in the construction industry. While in high school, Bryant completed two machine shop classes where he learned how to run lathes and mills along with designing and manufacturing components. After taking some time to attend community college and the economic collapse in 2008, Bryant chose to pursue a career in machining with a tool and dye mechanic shop. After working under a master machinist for two years, Bryant decided it was time for a career change.

Every year on the first Monday in September, Americans across the United States celebrate Labor Day. It is a day designated to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States.

Do you have a question about your union you would like answered? Starting in September, we will be launching a monthly "Ask your EST" segment, in which Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Wayne Jennings will dive deep into answering member questions and educating members about opportunities in our council and the UBC.

Twelve sisters represented the Southern States Millwright Regional Council at the 2022 United Brotherhood of Carpenters Sisters in the Brotherhood Conference, where they attended workshops, networked with approximately 525 sisters across the United States and Canada, and gained skills and knowledge to take back to their locals and jobsites.

Local 1192 held an orientation for apprentice and journey level millwrights on July 18 in Mobile, Alabama.  Twenty individuals attended this orientation as part of the fall and summer recruitment drive.  Most individuals completed the OSHA 10 course and is expected to start scheduled classes in January 2023.  Some will begin working in Moss Point, […]

SSMRC and UBC Southern District staff are helping to relaunch the Arkansas Labor Caucus. At a July 13 meeting, members of several labor unions met to elect officers, approve bylaws, and make a plan for recruiting members.

For the first time in 40 years, the U.S. Labor Department is proposing comprehensive updates to the Davis-Bacon Act. The changes would speed up prevailing wage updates, improve efficiency, and ensure prevailing-wage rates keep up with actual wages.

The Southeastern Carpenters Training Trust Fund hosted a graduation ceremony for eight new journey-level millwrights last month, and swore a new group of members into Local 1263 before hosting an open house of its Savannah Training Center.

Employers and employees are invited to U.S. Labor Department online forums about worker misclassification. Employees who are misclassified as independent contractors are deprived of employer-provided health, retirement, and other benefits as well as Social-Security and Family-and-Medical-Leave-Act benefits.

aluminum-recycling mill in Bay Minette, Alabama, will provide a wealth of opportunities for SSMRC partnering contractors and millwrights to install robotics and other equipment at a 3,000-acre site.

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.

All women in the SSMRC are invited to attend a Sisters in the Brotherhood Committee meeting that will be held online Tuesday, April 26, at 7 p.m. Central time.

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.

Two SSMRC staff members were among a small group of union leaders who met with the U.S. vice president and labor secretary in Durham, North Carolina, on March 2, sharing concerns about unfair competition from law-breaking contractors and about the need for government policies that support contractors who hire skilled workers and provide good wages and benefits.

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.

Focusing on a case that began in Iowa with the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters giving aid to six construction workers who were starving, NBC Nightly News broadcast a special segment on wage theft in the construction industry.

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.

In November of this year, members who live in Tennessee will have the opportunity to vote on a proposed amendment – Amendment No. 1 – that would add a falsely named “right-to-work” clause to the state constitution.

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.

The SSMRC recently purchased compressors worth approximately $30,000 each for the Moss Point, Mississippi, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, training centers.

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.

Jeff Smith, director of the SSMRC's Central Region, introduces Teresa Harmon, the new office manager for Local 1554.

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.

Meet Robert Mitchell, the new millwright training instructor in Moss Point, Mississippi. Mitchell has been a member of Millwright Local 1192 since 2013.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Southern States Millwrights helped contractor Power Techniques Inc. install three massive chutes to prevent free-falling material from damaging conveyor equipment in Alabama's largest mine.

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.

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 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.

During the National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction, we're sharing information about fall hazard awareness in oil and gas industrial settings.

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.

The 2021 spring outage season has had its challenges, but is wrapping up as a success.

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.

A $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill called the American Rescue Plan became law on March 11.

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.

The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would strengthen federal laws that protect workers’ rights to join unions. Learn more through a fact sheet.

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.

Siemens Energy has released a video recognizing the importance of union millwrights to the success of its customers in the electric-power-generation industry.

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.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, our parent organization, released a statement regarding events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Click the headline to read the statement.

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.

Thank you to all the apprentices who helped us celebrate National Apprenticeship Week by telling us why they chose to become union millwrights.

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.

States have different rules and deadlines regarding early in-person and mail-in voting. Know your what to do to make sure your ballot is counted.

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.