International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers

International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers

Founded	2011
Members	216,000
Head union	Joseph Sellers, Jr. (General President)
Affiliation	AFL-CIO, CLC
Office location	Washington, D.C.
Country	United States; Canada
Website	smart-union.org

The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) is a trade union of skilled metal workers who perform architectural sheet metal work and who work in the airline, bus, mass transit, and railroad industries. The merger of the United Transportation Union (UTU) and the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (SMWIA) was finalized on August 11, 2014.

Merger

In 2005, the AFL-CIO adopted a policy encouraging mergers among its members, particularly by smaller unions into larger ones or smaller ones into amalgamations of larger organizations.^[1] The SMWIA (which was based in Washington, D.C.) represented workers who fabricated and installed heating and air conditioning work, shipbuilding, appliance construction, heater and boiler construction, precision and specialty parts manufacture, and a variety of other jobs involving sheet metal. These included some metal workers in the railroad industry.^[2] UTU (which was based in Cleveland, Ohio) represented primarily bus, mass transit, and railroad workers.^[3] In 2006, SWMIA joined a coalition of labor unions (the Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition) seeking to jointly negotiate new contracts with the nation's freight railways and Amtrak.^[2]

The experience of working together was a positive one, and merger talks between the two unions began. These talks yielded a merger agreement in which SMWIA and UTU would, effective January 1, 2008, merge into a new union, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (to be known by the acronym SMART).^[4] The SWMIA executive council approved the merger on June 13, 2007.^[4] Because the SMWIA constitution provided for merger by action of the executive council alone, no SMWIA membership ratification vote was held.^[4] The board of directors of the UTU approved the merger on June 11, 2007.^[2] The UTU constitution required action by the membership, however. In the weeks before the UTU convention of August 2007, 71 percent of the members voted to approve the merger.^[4][5]

Lawsuit

Malcolm "Mike" Futhey was a member of the UTU board of directors at the time the merger was proposed in August 2007. He specifically asked whether provisions in the UTU constitution providing for each craft's autonomy would survive the merger, and was assured they would. He subsequently strongly supported the merger both at the board level (voting in favor of it) and during the UTU convention. Futhey was elected UTU president in August 2007, and took office on January 1, 2008. But by the end of 2007, Futhey swiftly came to strongly oppose the merger. Futhey's opposition was based, in part, on his growing concern that his predecessor as president, Paul Thompson, had lied about the survivability of the UTU craft autonomy provisions. But Futhey also opposed the merger because the high cost of living in Washington, D.C., effectively imposed a significant salary cut; that Futhey would have his salary cut in order to ensure that, as third-ranking officer in the new organization, he would not have a salary higher than former SMWIA officers (who would rank higher than him);^{[lower-alpha 1]} and because he now suspected that his role in the merged organization would be a powerless one. When two members of UTU filed suit to block the merger, president-elect Futhey worked with them to ensure they found a favorable venue, helped them raise funds for their lawsuit, and offered to provide favorable affidavits and testimony. Once in office, Futhey immediately ended UTU's legal attempts to enforce the merger.^[7]

On December 27, 2007, Judge John R. Adams of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the merger, finding that there was reason to believe that the UTU merge vote violated the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA).^[8] Judge Adams' TRO was due to expire in April 2008, but he extended it to June.^[9] Concerned by Futhey's about-face, a majority of the UTU board of directors (including John Babler, Vic Baffoni, Roy Boling, J.R. Cumby, John Fitzgerald and C.A. "Tony" Iannone) and National Legislative Director James Brunkenhoefer filed suit to enforce the merger on behalf of UTU members. Futhey charged these individuals with improper conduct under the UTU constitution, and began internal proceedings to have them stripped of their union membership.^[10] The seven individuals were ejected from the union, and sued to regain their membership.^[11] In Babler v. Futhey, 669 F. Supp.2d 873 (N.D. Ohio 2009). , Judge Adams held that the punishment of the seven violated the LMRDA. The union appealed, but the ruling was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Babler v. Futhey, 618 F.3d 514 (6th Cir. 2010). .^[12]

The Sheet Metal Workers union appealed the TRO. In Michael v. Futhey, 08-3932 (File name 09a0697n.06) (6th Cir. 2009-10-23). , the Sixth Circuit overturned the TRO.^[13]

Arbitration

Having won the legal battle, the SMWIA continued to press the UTU for merger. But President Futhey and his board of directors (the six former board members not yet having been restored to their positions) voted on April 10, 2010, to break the merger agreement. The merger document agreed to by SMWIA and UTU provided for dispute resolution by an arbitrator, and for enforcement of terms in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. UTU refused to go to arbitration, so SMWIA sued to compel arbitration. In Sheet Metal Workers' International Association v. United Transportation Union, 767 F. Supp.2d 161 (D.D.C. 2011). , Judge John D. Bates granted the motion to compel arbitration.^[14] The two unions asked AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to select the arbitrator, and he chose Georgetown University Law Center professor Michael Gottesman.^[15]

In October 2011, Gottesman issued his findings, arguing that the merger agreement was valid. Futhey's claims about misrepresentation were dismissed, as were a wide range of other objections to the merger document and the form and manner of its adoption.^[16][17] On November 10, 2011, Futhey issued a message declaring that UTU would seek to merge with SMWIA under the terms of the original merger agreement.^[15] The merged organization, SMART, came into being in December 2011.^[18] The two unions completed their merger on August 11, 2014.

Structure of the union

The union is governed by three officers: a General President, a General Secretary Treasurer, and a SMART Transportation President. The union is governed by a 17-member General Executive Council. Eleven Vice Presidents on the council are elected from the sheet metal locals. Four individuals with the title "Vice President/International Representative and General Vice President", the National Legislative Director, and the President Transportation Division/General Vice President are elected from former UTU locals. OFficer and council terms last for five years, with elections held at the general convention.

The union has two membership units, The Railroad, Mechanical and Engineering Department, and the Transportation Division. The Transportation Division encompasses the locals of the UTU, and the constitutional provisions governing the division are essentially those of the old UTU constitution. The two membership units have their own dues, governance structure, and operating procedures in addition to those prescribed by the SMART constitution. SMART headquarters has two departments which serve both membership units, the Mechanical and Shipyard Department and the Production Department. These departments assist members with collective bargaining, research, contract implementation, representation, and other services. The Mechanical and Shipyard Department services bus, mass transit, and railroad workers as well as sheet metal workers in shipyards. The Production Department serivces sheet metal workers in all other industries.

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