Better Wages and Benefits
Earn a good salary while learning your trade – a salary that increases as your skills and knowledge increase.
ZERO Student Loan Debt
When you graduate from our JATC program you will do so with ZERO student debt.
Hands-On Experience
Learn from experience instructors with hands-on training for the skills you need to excel.
Part Of The Union Family
Trade unions have an incredible network. When you join a union, you join a global family.
Why Join The Apprenticeship Program?
The SMART Local 55 Sheet Metal Apprenticeship Program offers unmatched training in the sheet metal industry. Our dedicated team provides the highest level of training to ensure our apprentices and journeypersons enjoy successful careers while offering our contractors the best trained workforce in the industry. Our facilities offer hands-on training, but like any great organization, our greatest asset is our people. Our full-time staff has more than 200 years of sheet metal experience and 40 years of teaching experience.
Do you have the desire and aptitude to listen, learn and work with your hands and mind?
If so, a sheet metal apprenticeship could be just what you need.
When you enter an apprenticeship, you agree to work in an on-the-job training program and attend specialized classes for four years. As an apprentice in the unionized skilled trades, you:
- Earn a good salary while learning your trade – a salary that increases as your skills and knowledge increase
- Receive books and other educational material free of charge
- Learn from instructors who have hands-on experience in the sheet metal industry
- Put everything you learn to work right away—your career begins with your apprenticeship
- Graduate with ZERO student loan debt
Learn More at the International Training Institute:
There is no cost to the apprentice for training, although the apprentices are required to purchase their own hand tools and drafting kits.
Our Campuses
Spokane Campus
JATC Coordinator: Josh Mazzella- Phone: 509.928.5009
- Fax: 509.928.3022
Boise Campus
JATC Coordinator: Greg Backus- Phone: 208.562.0237
- Fax: 208.362.3664
Answers to the Questions Most Asked by Workers in the Sheet Metal Industry When Joining a Union
American workers have been joining democratic unions since the end of the 18th Century. Economic history has shown that only when workers join together in unions can their voices be heard and the lives of themselves and their families be bettered.
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Collective bargaining. A local union of the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 55 (SMART Local 55), to which you will belong, will form a bargaining committee of your fellow employees, to meet with your employer and together negotiate a contract that will spell out exact wage rates, job classifications, work conditions, pension, and health benefits, and other concerns you have.
The International Association will assist SMART Local 55 in these negotiations as needed to achieve the results everyone desires. Once the bargaining committee and your employer agree on a proposed contract, it will be put before all members of your bargaining units/no vote.
The agreement that SMART Local 55 negotiates with your employer is signed by both parties and is a legal contract. Your local union and the International Association will take whatever legal action would be necessary to enforce every aspect of this document.
Every job site or manufacturing plant has a union steward who is one of your fellow workers. He or she is your contact for any concern or grievance. A meeting with your employer can be arranged by your union job steward to address your concerns. If this fails, your local union business representative can be brought into discussions, and also an International Association representative when needed.
Monthly dues, where part goes to the local union and part to the International Association to finance their work on your behalf. The dues rates are established by vote of delegates to the International Convention every five years and in your local union by a vote of the entire membership.
Considering the benefits you gain through your union membership, these monthly dues literally pay for themselves. It just may be the best investment you ever make throughout your working lifetime.
All officers of the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 55 are elected by the entire membership in a secret ballot. Elections are governed by Federal Labor Laws to ensure they are democratically conducted. Most importantly, the Official Constitution of the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association guides the overall activities of our union.
- Contact our Business Representative online using the form above, call 509.666.6693, or visit our office in Spokane, Pasco, or Boise, ID.
- A local union representative will contact you to discuss your situation and advise you of the SMART Local 55 Program.
- The law requires that employees must show that they are interested in being represented for purposes of collective bargaining. Employees’ interest is shown by a “signed authorization card”.
- When a majority of employees in your company have signed authorization cards, your local union will request recognition from your employer.
- Your employer can recognize and agree to negotiate a union contract with a bargaining committee of your choosing from the employees and a representative of the union.
- If your employer does not recognize the union, the union may petition the National Labor Relations Board, and the NLRB will set a date for an election. If the results are in favor of the union, the NLRB will certify the union as the legal bargaining representative for the employees.
- Collective bargaining then will begin with your employer to negotiate a union contract. No union contract can be signed without the full knowledge and consent of the majority of the employees covered by it.
The Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association (SMWIA) has a long history of settling local union/employer problems without the need to strike. Procedures for settling disputes, including arbitration by an outside, objective party, are in place to prevent strikes. Only as a last resort is a strike called.
NO. Your right to join a union of your own choosing is guaranteed by the laws of the country. The National Labor Relations Act gives you the right to form or join a union for the purpose of collective bargaining. The law prohibits your employer from interfering with your efforts to organize.
Unions, including the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association through its Political Action League (PAL), are involved in politics for three good reasons:
1. To protect themselves and the gains they have won for workers through collective bargaining.
2. To promote justice, fairness, and equal opportunity for all workers.
3. Elect public office holders who believe in the above.
No dues monies are given to political candidates running for office. Only voluntary contributions to PAL are used to contribute to political campaigns.
