TALKING SMART

A lot has changed in the many decades since sheet metal workers first organized in 1888. Back then, “tin knock­ers” were known for their snips and hammers; today, technological advancements like AutoCAD and artificial intelligence have not just shaped the way we work, but the world in which we live. However, one thing has not changed: the pride that comes with being a skilled tradesperson. Being able to drive past a building and say, “I built that.” That precise feeling is what Local 24 (central Ohio) member Roger Hoover drew upon when he titled his 2026 book, I Built That! And So Can You. Now available for purchase via Braughler Books, the 128-page book was called a “must read for students” by the Urbana Daily Citizen. Working in the industry as an appren­tice, draftsman, foreman, estimator, field supervisor, project manager and instructor — Hoover’s book has plenty of insights for both current members and future sheet metal workers. It includes stories from throughout Hoover’s career, which spans from the years predating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to the high-tech data centers of today that thousands of SMART sheet metal workers are helping build today. He has witnessed many innovations throughout his years in the trade — and he played a key role in more than a few. Hoover has also played a part in helping our union and our industry expand. Starting in the 1990s, he partnered with SMACNA to deliver leadership classes across the United States and Canada, and he authored the Basic Sheet Metal Estimating Manual through the same partnership. Today, with the publication of I Built That! And So Can You, he aims to keep spreading the gospel about working in the sheet metal industry, particularly to young people who may otherwise think the only road to job security is a college degree.   In this episode, Roger speaks with Talking SMART about his career, some of his most memorable stories, what inspired him to write the book and more.

We hear about anxiety, stress and burnout all the time, but loneliness — the feeling of being cut off or unseen, even when surrounded by others — has become one of the most serious public health challenges of our time, and it’s hitting working people hard. Loneliness impacts every element of a person’s life, from their happiness at home to their ability to do their job. To help us understand the loneliness epidemic and what we can do about it, we’re joined by Dr. Michael Barnes, head of the Michael Barnes Family Behavioral Institute and a member of SMART Local 15. Dr. Barnes works with SMART to assist members with mental health, substance abuse and peer support, including initiatives like the SMART MAP, and he is a leading expert in the field. In this episode, he discusses resources available to SMART members and the importance of putting solidarity into practice in order to help members feel less alone. SMART membership can be an antidote to loneliness, as long as we ALL work to make sure our brothers and sisters feel welcomed in our union.  “We can be the answer to loneliness for a lot of people, but we can also be the opposite of that,” Barnes said, adding: “People do care, and it is our responsibility to self-assess. If we’re lonely, if we’re struggling, there are services. It’s a matter of having the courage to ask. There are risks; the other side of that is for individuals who don’t have risks to recognize that they don’t have to have a PHD to help someone.”  This season of Talking SMART focuses exclusively on mental health and the resources available to SMART members. Make sure to subscribe on your preferred podcast program.  Talking SMART brings listeners the voice, stories and power of SMART union members across North America. Members are invited to send feedback and questions to [email protected]. 

Even the strongest among us can fall: to exhaustion, to despair, to the weight of the fight. But in this union, we don’t leave any member behind.   In the third episode of Talking SMART, we’re joined by Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT) Administrator Aldo Zambetti and Jeremy Holburn of the SMOHIT Helpline, a 24/7 helpline that SMART members and families can call whenever they need support (1-877-884-6227). Brothers Zambetti and Holburn talk about the SMART Member Assistance Program (MAP), the resources available to members and local unions when it comes to mental health support, the importance of talking about your own experiences with mental health, and much more.  “We spent so much time dealing with on-the-job safety, workplace safety [in the past], and we sort of stayed away from work-life balance, we stayed away from things that make us not so safe. When we’re dealing with emotions, and depression, and anxiety, and any time of mental situation or emotional situation that we might be going through, and how it affects us on the jobsite.”   This season of Talking SMART focuses exclusively on mental health and the resources available to SMART members and their families. Make sure to subscribe on your preferred podcast program.  Learn more about SMOHIT here: https://www.smohit.org/  

“You are not alone. You don’t need to walk alone. Your union is here — we have your back.” In the second episode of this season of Talking SMART, we’re joined by SMART Director of Wellness and Mental Health Support Chris Carlough and Union EAP CEO Ben Cort. Together, their work helps ensure that SMART members and families across the United States and Canada don’t have to face life’s challenges alone. Carlough and Cort discuss the problems they’ve found in other employee assistance programs, the high-quality services members have access to via Union EAP, directions on how members and families can make use of Union EAP, and much more. They also talk about confidentiality, the importance of mental health on the jobsite, and recovery. As Cort said: “We don’t put a limit on, okay, here what we can do, here’s what we can’t do. Very simply put, if it’s getting in the way of our members’ ability to do their best work and live their best lives, we’re there for it.” This season of Talking SMART focuses exclusively on mental health and the resources available to SMART members. Make sure to subscribe on your preferred podcast program.

The newest episode of the Talking SMART podcast is LIVE NOW!   This is the first episode in the first-ever themed season of Talking SMART, which will focus on mental health. Over the course of the season, SMART members and guests will dive into the concept of mental wellness, what different types of mental illness can look like, the resources available to members and their families and much more. Listen to the first episode today, featuring SMART Director of Wellness and Mental Health Support Chris Carlough!   “Really, all [that] people that are in pain want to have is to be heard, and to know that they’re not alone. And that’s what this whole thing really centers around: That you’re not alone.”   Talking SMART brings listeners the voice, stories and power of SMART union members across North America. Members are invited to send feedback and questions to [email protected].

In this Talking SMART special episode, SMART General President Michael Coleman, SMACNA President Anthony Kocurek and returning guest host Dushaw Hockett discuss the Belonging and Excellence for All initiative, also known as BE4ALL.   Their conversation, which took place at the end of August 2023 during the SMART Leadership Conference, explores why BE4ALL is so vital for the unionized sheet metal industry as we enter a period of unprecedented opportunity.   “We have some projects where the workforce for that project alone exceeds the amount of members we have in that entire local,” said GP Coleman. "We cannot apprentice our way out of this problem. The numbers don’t line up. So, we have to get outside our comfort zone. And we have to look at all kinds of different ways to bring in a workforce that’s not the traditional way we did that. And the issue with that is we need to be welcoming when we do this.”  The values of belonging and inclusion are not only a core part of the solidarity that defines our organization and the labor movement – they will be crucial to ensuring that local unions can meet the workforce demands created by megaprojects, federal legislation and a new emphasis on our industry. Only by bringing all workers into our union will we be able to secure the jobs, hours and collective bargaining strength that lie before us.   Dushaw Hockett is the founder and executive director of Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity (SPACEs), a Washington, DC-based organization that is working with SMART and SMACNA to move forward with the BE4ALL initiative. 

For this episode of Talking SMART, we sat down with Local 28 Business Agent Marvin Tavarez to discuss his journey from working non-union to being organized into SMART. He breaks down some of the myths about organizing into a union versus taking a more traditional full apprenticeship route. “Some people are like ‘Oh, that’s the backdoor, that’s the backdoor,’ ” says Tavarez. “But at the end of the day, it all comes down to educating the membership. You know, if you’re not organizing members in, you’re gonna be working against them and not with them.” Tavarez also discussed his efforts to help build a rank-and-file building trades movement, including organizing rallies attended by thousands in New York City. “As soon as I got into the union,” says Tavarez, “I felt like I needed to give back, someway, somehow. I was getting so much from the union… what can I do to contribute? So, I started a rank-and-file movement on Facebook. Started with like five members. Within a year, year and a half, it grew to over 10,000 members on social media.” At the end of this episode, in his last open mic segment before he retired at the end of May 2023, former SMART General President Joseph Sellers discusses the road ahead for SMART, as we work to train a new generation of members and staff up scores of large “megaprojects” across the United States and Canada. Return to Talking SMART index page. Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people’s voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day.

In this episode of Talking SMART, we’re digging into the fight to improve rail safety at both the state and federal levels in the weeks following the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio.  The East Palestine derailment and other well-publicized accidents since have made clear what SMART-TD and rail labor have been saying for years: Precision Scheduled Railroading is bad for workers, the public and the environment. SMART-TD Alternate National Legislative Director Jared Cassity and SMART-TD Government Affairs Representative Daniel Banks joined Talking SMART to discuss current efforts to pass state and federal rail safety legislation, as well as how members and allies can get involved. At the end of this episode, listen to the open mic segment with SMART General President Joseph Sellers, who discusses what SMART is doing to recruit nonunion sheet metal workers and meet the workforce needs presented by megaprojects, infrastructure investment and more.

This episode, we’re talking about how a wave of new megaprojects – or projects valued at over $1 billion – is creating unprecedented job opportunities for SMART sheet metal workers across the United States and Canada, as well as driving new changes and growth in the benefits available to SMART members.    Darrell Roberts   John Daniel   Ken Colombo To meet the ongoing demand for sheet metal workers, SMART and SASMI are coordinating to expand travel incentives and benefits available to SMART sheet metal workers who are willing to travel for work, and the International is developing resources to help local unions organize to secure more work for SMART members. Our guests for this conversation are SMART Director of Organizing Darrell Roberts, Local 265 President/Business Manager and SMART 11th General Vice President John Daniel and SASMI Executive Director Ken Colombo. Throughout the conversation, Roberts underscored how the large volume of pending work presents huge growth and organizing opportunities for SMART, as well as challenges for locals in terms of staffing these large projects. Colombo, meanwhile, detailed the new and increased financial incentives for SMART sheet metal workers willing to travel for work. And Daniel emphasized how megaprojects and new work stemming from infrastructure legislation are driving SMART to innovate to meet workforce needs across our two nations. “Our absolute need to grow, paired with the megaprojects, the infrastructure spending," said Daniel, "that's going to create the opportunity for us to meet the numbers that we need moving forward. And it's also going to drive us to evolve as an organization.”  At the end of this episode, listen to an open mic conversation between SMART General President Joseph Sellers and a SMART Local 24 (northern Ohio) member about megaprojects, traveler opportunities and how members can get involved with the union. Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people's voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day. Talking SMART is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network — working people’s voices, broadcasting worldwide 24 hours a day.

This episode, we’re talking about the Belonging and Excellence for All project, also known as Be4All. As a joint effort of SMART, union signatory contractors in SMACNA, and the International Training Institute, the project is tasked with working to ensure that all members, particularly those from historically underrepresented groups, feel welcome and experience all the opportunities that come with being a union member. In short, Be4All is a bold, long-term effort to transform the unionized sheet metal industry by creating workplace and business environments that are welcoming and foster belonging for ALL workers and contractors. We have a special guest host this episode – Dushaw Hockett, founder and executive director of Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity (SPACEs), a Washington, DC-based organization that is working with SMART and SMACNA to move forward with the Be4All project. At the SMART Leadership Conference in San Francisco in August 2022, Hockett sat down with SMART General President Joseph Sellers, SMACNA CEO Aaron Hilger and SMACNA past President Angie Simon to discuss how both organizations are working together to build a thriving industry where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, everyone feels welcome, and sheet metal workers and contractors work together to achieve the highest standards of excellence in their skills and crafts. We hope you enjoy the conversation...