Cooperation is King

Cooperation is King

By Don Procter

Labor-management relationships in the sheet metal industry have come a long way from when the “us versus them” philosophy was the norm. Those divided attitudes might have worked in the 20th century, but times are different. Cooperative relationships are proving to get things done these days. A good example is the partnership between the Sheet Metal & Roofing Contractors Association (SMRCA) of Miami Valley (Dayton) and Local 24, which covers 88 counties in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia.

It was actually at the 2018 Partners in Progress Conference where these labor-management partners established a key initiative to raise apprentices’ wages for the first two years in order to increase retention.

The Sheet Metal & Roofing Contractors Association of Miami Valley (Dayton) and Local 24’s joint marketing/recruiting committee has developed a social media footprint that has attracted many qualified applicants. From left to right: SMRCA Designer and Print Manager Joe Williams; Local 24 Business Representative Mike Tipton; SMRCA Managing Director Rachel Pinkus; Local 24 JATC Administrator Eugene Frazier; SMRCA Managing Director Megan Miller; Local 24 Business Representative Rick Perdue; Kathy Kerber, President of KSM, Inc. and a member of the joint Best Practices Market Expansion Task Force; and SMRCA Executive Vice President Bob Pope.

Photo courtesy of Sheet Metal & Roofing Contractors Association, Miami Valley.

SMRCA Executive Vice President Bob Pope and Local 24 Business Representative Mike Tipton worked together and managed to accomplish the goal without raising the costs of the total contract package. They moved a small portion of the apprentices’ pension contribution to their hourly rate.

The move has proven successful. Tipton says the retention rate of first- and second-year apprentices has increased by more than 50% since the wage hikes of a $1.25 an hour in year one and $1 an hour in year two. “It transitions those apprentices to where they were supposed to be by their third year,” Tipton says.

Fifteen years ago the two sides would have been at loggerheads, Pope says. “We would have ended up going to the bargaining table to figure it out. I guess we let personalities get in the way. Instead of cooperating, we thought we could punch each other in the nose and win.”

That adversarial relationship might have worked during better times—the 1990s, for example—but since that time, both sides have lost a big chunk of the market to the nonunion sector, Pope says. Attitudes between the two sides had to change to try to make up lost ground. “Our relationship went from strained to good.”

Pope says that new leadership in Local 24 and SMRCA helped bring about the change. “The main thing we learned at the Partners in Progress Conference is that we needed to formalize our cooperation and get together more often,” he says.

The two sides came up with new marketing strategies for recruitment, and now they meet quarterly to review social media initiatives that target young people most likely to enter the trade.

Nowadays, contractors and their union partners attend job fairs together, says Rodney French, business manager and financial secretary-treasurer for Local 24. “The union can recruit as many people as they want, but there have to be jobs for them, which is why it is important to have the contractors at the table with us,” French says.

Marketing efforts, such as those presented at jointly-hosted apprenticeship contests, also are working, Pope adds. Out of nine recent applicants, seven were strong candidates for the field. “Two years ago, only one out of nine applicants would be suitable,” he says.

French says the Partners in Progress Conference is seminal for all the Locals because it opens the dialogue to key nationwide issues. “We have been able to use a lot of the information we get there in the Local and at the association,” French says.

A case in point is bolstering recruitment of women and minorities, French says, adding that since the Partners in Progress Conference, Local 24 has started a women’s committee to address day-to-day issues women experience in the field.

Tipton, who believes many of the young contractors in the field represent a cooperative voice in the industry, says the establishment of quarterly labor-management meetings opened up communication lines to facilitate brainstorming sessions on matters like upcoming projects and workforce needs.

A Dayton, Ohio, high school class tours Local 24’s training center during the 2018 National Apprentice Week open house that was implemented as a result of attending last year’s Partners in Progress Conference.

Photo courtesy of Sheet Metal & Roofing Contractors Association, Miami Valley.

The development of certification training for fire and smoke damper inspection, repair, and installation, meant Local 24’s business agents and mechanical contractors started looking at avenues for work, including schools and hospitals. The training idea is the brainchild of SMART International and the National Energy Management Institute Committee (NEMIC).

“I think that is where the labor-management meetings come in, because every quarter Mike (Tipton) is there with the contractors asking if they have their certifications up on firelife safety,” Pope says. “It is one area where these meetings keep us moving ahead.”

French adds that the aim is to establish training and certification recognition for all the fire damper inspections in federal buildings, such as courthouses, post offices, and military facilities. “It is not accomplished yet, but without labor, the management, and our contractors buying into this, we would never have gotten this far,” he says.

That recognition is important, French says, noting that inspections can save lives and property, plus they provide significant workforce hours for Local 24 members while creating work for the contractors.

Students try out a virtual reality unit set up by Ohio Valley Sheet Metal Apprentice Coordinators Group and provided by the sheet metal ITI on display at the Skills USA Contest held annually in Columbus.

Photo courtesy of Sheet Metal & Roofing Contractors Association, Miami Valley.

Through the Partners in Progress Conference a proposed light commercial agreement has been discussed but both sides have agreed to hold off for now because of existing workforce shortages in the building trades in Dayton. “These quarterly meetings let us revisit that kind of thing,” French says, adding that there is no better example of the solid relationship labormanagement has than when eight tornadoes devastated parts of the Dayton region last Memorial Day. Many members of Local 24 lost their homes and belongings.

In response, both sides went into action the day after. First they found out who was affected and then put an action plan in place. Many who helped came from jurisdictions outside Dayton.

“Our members and the contractors cleaned the houses up, saved what they could, cut trees down, you name it,” French says. “They came together and did this. The contractors brought trucks, bobcats, chainsaws, and other necessary equipment. There is no way labor could have done this on its own.”

Even though power outages cut access to payroll registers, contractors made sure employees got their pay checks. Some of them even wrote personal checks to employees who were tornado victims to help them get by until payroll systems were back up.

The aid effort included organizing a food drive to feed the teams of workers and contractors in the rescue mission. Both sides wanted to foot the bill for meals, French says. “I found it amusing that the union and the contractors would fight over that.” ▪

A freelance writer based in Toronto, Don Procter covers the building, design, and planning industries in Canada and the United States.