SMART & SMACNA: Embracing the future and honoring history

The past few months, Partners in Progress has been taking our readers on a trip down memory lane to catalog the journey and growth of the SMACNA-SMART partnership. The reason was two-fold. First, to commemorate 75 years of partnering at the national/international level and second, to inspire local areas to begin or continue to work together for the betterment of the signatory sheet metal industry.

One of the most important advantages of developing an effective labor-management partnership is the ability to jointly study evolving industry technology and trends and devise a strategy to pursue new work opportunities. “The Sheet Metal E-Volution” starting on page 4 provides good examples of how innovative contractors and their Locals can collaborate to pursue industry work opportunities in remote systems and monitoring technologies. These are driven by multiple factors, including enhanced interest in smart buildings, energy efficiency, the pandemic-related ventilation improvements, and climate change.

Each year, millions of North Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness. When the SMACNA-SMART partnership began in 1946, there was a tremendous stigma surrounding the topics of mental illness, suicide, and addiction. That stigma prevented people, including those in the sheet metal industry, from getting the help they needed to live fulfilling and comfortable lives.

Today, there are few families who have not experienced a loved one struggling with mental illness or addiction. In commemoration of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, we feature how the sheet metal industry’s SMART MAP (Member Assistance Program) is “Reaching Out” (page 10) with a peer mentoring program that identifies and trains SMART and SMACNA members to provide first contact, frontline support for those in our industry who are struggling. If your area has not participated in SMART MAP training, act today to bring this life-altering program to your area.

Also, be sure to read this month’s “My Journey” on page 7 to learn why the SMART MAP program is a “labor of love” for SMART’s Director of Education. He believes that the health of our members and workforce is the most important common interest for labor and management.

Successful labor-management partnerships require inspiring leaders on both sides. Different people have varying criteria they use to determine their success as leaders. Many of those criteria involve “backward” data points—an example would be, “Did I reach my sales goals for the last calendar year?” Want to learn a way to assess the effectiveness of your leadership in real time? Page 11 reveals the one question you can ask yourself to reveal your true success as a leader. (Hint: It involves the influence you have on your team!)

The North American sheet metal and construction industry has always had a strong alliance with those who serve their countries. Most recently, SMACNA and SMART have collaborated to recruit service members leaving the military for great careers in our industry. The month of May provides us with an opportunity to honor those American service members who made the ultimate sacrifice and died in service to their country. (Our Canadian partners honor their fallen heroes on Remembrance Day in November.) Check out “Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall” on page 12 to see how Morris Sheet Metal and Local 20 at Fort Wayne’s SMART Army pooled their resources to build The Healing Wall, an 80% size replica of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, DC, that honors 58,320 fallen service heroes, including 1,534 from their home state of Indiana.

We round out the May issue with the third article in our series honoring the achievements of the National SMACNA-SMART partnership, reviewing the 21st century programs that strengthened our partnership foundation (see page 14). Tune in to the June edition for the current tools and programs available to build your local labor-management partnership. ▪

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SMACNA and SMART have been Partners in Progress for 75 years, and it is time to celebrate. Tell us about your partnership success story, share your organization’s partnership initiatives, or send in photos—recent or historical—that show off your labor-management partnership. Contact editor@pinpmagazine.org