The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association headed to the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) meeting last week in Washington D.C., where its members elected to endorse President Joe Biden ahead of the November 2024 general election.

During his keynote address, NABTU President Sean McGarvey described the extraordinary difference building trades unions make in the lives of workers across North America. He also outlined the progress unions have made in recent years: pro-worker laws that invest in industry, an executive order from President Joe Biden requiring project labor agreements on large-scale federal construction jobs, permitting reform and expanded prevailing wage protections that raise pay for construction workers, to name a few.

“Behind every policy win, behind every investment win, there are real workers’ lives at stake,” McGarvey told the capacity crowd. “We cannot back down, we cannot slow down – we must keep fighting."

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been stridently pro-worker throughout his time in office, signing laws that establish air ventilation programs for public schools (with strong labor standards attached to create jobs for SMART Local 10 members); implement the most expansive prevailing wage enhancements in state history and the largest increase ever to the Minnesota work compensation system’s permanent partial disability fund; ban anti-union captive audience meetings; and much more (including a two-person freight train crew law).

“It’s not about winning races so you can get more political capital to go out and win another race,” he declared. “You win races so you can burn the hell out of that political capital to improve people’s lives.”

Attendees time in various workshops, networking with fellow trade unionists to pursue organizing, legislative and investing strategies that build power for union members. In the capital strategies and organizing workshop, attendees heard from a panel that included asset managers, a union organizer and an investigative journalist, who each spoke to different aspects of private equity’s power in American society – and how unions can work together to pressure hedge funds and managers into adopting strong labor principles.

In a session on military service members’ rights, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) educational benefits and Helmets to Hardhats, attendees learned about the laws and benefits protecting servicemembers and veterans — and how to put those laws and benefits to work in JATCs.

And SMART General President Emeritus Joseph Sellers moderated a panel on investing in commercial real estate with leaders from Ullico and the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT), diving deep on questions of commercial real estate and detailing how investing in labor-forward companies can reap dividends for everyone. One example: the AFL-CIO’s investment in housing construction, which creates union jobs and yields a return on investment for union funds.

On Tuesday night, SMART local officers and International staff gathered for the annual SMART Political Action League (PAL) reception, where SMART General President Michael Coleman awarded plaques to the 31 local unions whose members donated the most, per capita, to the PAL fund – helping SMART support politicians who work to create jobs and protections for union sheet metal workers.

Attendees came together on the final day of the NABTU Legislative Conference to hear from governmental allies on the federal, state and municipal level, and to lobby Congress to pass pro-worker policy that creates union jobs and benefits members.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro outlined the benefits of pro-labor policy. Shapiro, who issued a directive to all agencies in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to use project labor agreements whenever possible (a directive that went into effect April 1), explained how policies like responsible contractor ordinances and PLAs benefit workers, high-road contractors and the building tradespeople of the future. And in order to benefit those future trades workers, Shapiro told NABTU, he signed an executive order to create a first-in-the-nation initiative to invest up to $400 million in federal funding to train up to 10,000 new workers in Pennsylvania.

“We are giving every Pennsylvanian the freedom to chart their own course and the opportunity to succeed,” Shapiro said to a standing ovation. “We have a tremendous opportunity right now – and the progress we make is going to run right through your union halls.”

The conference’s final plenary session concluded with a speech from President Biden, who just that morning received NABTU’s endorsement in the United States presidential race.