STRIVE TO SUCCEED

The Partners in Progress challenge has a new deadline and new structure to ensure local areas can still claim their joint marketing funds.

By Jessica Kirby

The Strive to Succeed Challenge—part of the Partners in Progress Conference—brings labor-management teams together in a friendly competition with other areas across the country. Like most events, Strive to Succeed has been impacted by COVID-19, but the challenge is still on in a different form. Announced earlier this summer, the deadline to complete Strive to Succeed 2020 and its structure have changed to help all local areas that participate earn joint marketing funds.

“The Strive to Succeed Challenge was a fun way for all parties involved to get the most out of the 2020 Partners in Progress Conference,” says Joye Blanscett, Director of Labor Services and Human Resource Management for SMACNA and Conference Liaison. “We enjoyed charting participants’ success along the way.”

Launched prior to the Partners in Progress 2020 Conference, The Strive to Succeed Challenge invited local areas to complete simple, low-impact tasks before, during, and after the conference in order to earn up to $3,000 for use towards future marketing. The ultimate goal? Building collaborative labor-management relationships.

SMART Locals in conjunction with SMACNA chapters and contractors complete the tasks in two phases, and their progress was recognized along the way. Phase one consisted of four segments of unique tasks designed to engage the resources available through Partners in Progress, and it encouraged participants to build their labor-management relationships by delving into the needs and opportunities of their local market.

“Upon successful completion of phase one of the challenge, participants received $1,000 to use towards future marketing in their local area,” Blanscett says.

Phase two of the challenge required SMART unions along with SMACNA chapters to develop the goals identified in phase one into a longer-term plan of action. Areas who developed one of the plans below and provided a copy to the Partners in Progress team were eligible to receive an additional $2,000 to use towards marketing in their local area: • Make an application for an ITI training grant; • Develop a digital marketing plan; • Negotiate a market recovery agreement; • Create/update a recruitment and retention plan; or • Develop a joint labor-management strategic plan

“The ultimate goal of the challenge is bringing SMACNA chapters and SMART Locals together to build stronger relationships and follow the ideas shared during the recent Partners in Progress Conference,” Blanscett says. “Now, even those who did not attend the conference can participate.”

Given the restrictions in place due to COVID-19, the challenge’s structure has changed. Locals and chapters need only complete the simple tasks below to secure $1,500 to be used toward future marketing campaigns. Additionally, the deadline date to complete these tasks has been pushed back to February 28, 2021.

1. Meet together (virtually or in-person) as labor and management to identify a joint goal. 2. Identify a timeline and action steps to develop and ultimately implement the agreed upon goal. 3. Discuss how implementation is progressing as a group, and make adjustments to your plan as needed. 4. Report on your progress to pinp@smacna.org by February 28, 2021.

Local 71 and SMACNA in Buffalo, New York, responded early and strong in the Strive to Succeed Challenge.

Andre Mayes, market development representative for Local 71, said the decision to participate came from a strong belief that the union and signatory contractors work better when they cooperate to achieve common goals.

“When you lack a shared strategy, you can wind up with two captains trying to point one ship in different directions,” he says. “Getting projects done on time and under budget does not need to contrast with safety and fair compensation for labor. In fact, they are all easier to achieve individually when they are reached for simultaneously by all parties involved.”

Andrew Nowak, director of operations at SMACNA Buffalo’s Mollenberg-Betz, agrees. “For our group, participating in the challenge was not a question, as we are continually working together on the majority of the topics and challenges anyway,” he says. “Local 71 and SMACNA Buffalo have a history of success in our business relationship. We pride ourselves on our continuous communication and respect our positions within our industry.”

To fulfill the challenge requirements, Mayes took charge of setting up the meetings between Local 71 and SMACNA and ensuring the partnership achieved its mutually agreed upon goals in a timely fashion.

He believes both groups will have a more successful outreach and advertising program as a result of participation in Strive to Succeed. “We have always had a good relationship, but having a common voice will help us communicate better with our members and contractors as well as the general public and prospective sheet metal workers,” he says.

“The challenge provides a valuable infrastructure to promote result-driven communication between the labor and management team members,” Nowak says. “By the end of the challenge, we had results that were tangible and that we could actually apply to achieve our goals.”

Local 71 and SMACNA Buffalo haven’t yet decided how they will spend the market funding, but they have discussed an advertising budget.

Mayes says he would absolutely recommend Strive to Succeed to other labor-management partnerships interested in achieving a common goal.

“There is never a reason to not set goals that help to push you to work better together,” he says. “I believe that this challenge was a good warm-up exercise for what I hope to be continued mutual assistance. I don’t think it’s an end, but a good beginning.”

“I would like to thank Joye Blanscett and everyone who helped to put this together, as well as the SMACNA partners we worked with here in Buffalo to achieve our common goals,” Mayes says. “When you sit down with someone on the other side in this industry, you often find that everyone wants the same things—more market share, more hours for workers, and more of the pie to be divided up on the union side. We all work far better together than apart.”

Local areas interested in participating in the Strive to Succeed Challenge still have time. Reach out to pinp@smacna.org for specific requirements and to register. Ready your submit your materials? Remember to report on your progress to pinp@ smacna.org by February 28, 2021. ▪

Jessica Kirby is a freelance editor and writer covering construction, architecture, mining, travel, and sustainable living for myriad publications across Canada and the United States. She can usually be found among piles of paper in her home office or exploring nature’s bounty in British Columbia’s incredible wilderness.

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