Skip to main content

Open Your Own Shop

Finally the Building Trades have taken a look back at union history and have seen how union shops have started, which was mostly by union members who wanted to be their own boss. These people already knew what the union was about and knew the trade, and if treated properly, they’d become good union shops. One way to get a union sheet metal shop in their area is for workers to start their own shop. It’s not as hard as it might seem. I started out as a so-call shop boy and then I became a journeyman sheet metal worker. After gaining some experience a friend and I opened our own sheet metal shop. We did stripe malls, custom houses, housing tracts, and multi-story apartments. We were and stayed union and had good union workers. It’s not as complicated as it might seem. The person who hired me as a shop boy was a sheet metal worker and started his shop, True Temp in Ventura County. Then there was a shop started by a worker in Oxnard-Ventura County, and there were four shops started by sheet metal workers as well, that I recall. It worked out and most all sheet metal HVAC work was done by union workers in the 1960-’70s in Ventura County-Santa Barbara County. So, I think the unions are smart to help our workers who would like to build their own shops. This has worked for other trades, like the electricians, plumbers and carpenters. Once they become owners, then the union must work hard to keep them union by working together and not each shop working against each other. I have also seen some of these shops go nonunion for whatever reason, and most could have been saved had the union just reached out to them to keep them engaged in the union. The union needs to let the owners work, pay dues and be able to have a union retirement just like the other workers. The owners could work like a foreman-owner if they wanted to. This way they keep in touch with the work and this makes them better in the bidding of jobs for their business. This is the best and fastest way to get more union hours of work and more union members. If interested in opening your own shop, the SMART Sheet Metal is offering online courses, beginning April 15. Check out their classes at the ITI Business Development and Service Academy Courses. http://www.sheetmetal-iti.org/serviceacademy
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GOP Doesn't Support Unions

It’s time for all union members to get rid of the union members and leaders who support the GOP and its Right to Work agenda. Trump, billionaires, the GOP, and the corporate people all hate unions and any union member who votes for these GOP candidates are just scabs who are not only riding on the backs of good hard working union people but also they are dragging their feet to keep the unions from moving forward. If these so called union people cannot see their way to vote and support people who fight and support unions then they should not vote or just get the hell out of our union labor because you are killing us by your foot dragging interference. All of our union people need to understand this is an ‘us against them’ situation and Trump and his anti union corporations are not your friend and if a union person thinks they are you are dumber than a post. Trump and the corporations do not care at all about you or your family. Once they have your vote you’re of no use to them. Trump’s ...
Post a Comment
Read more

They'll Be Coming For All Of Us

Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Unions Expand or Face Extinction

In 2026 unions worldwide must educate and expand their memberships or face certain death. We need to educate our workers to understand that the republican party does not care about, does not deserve their support or votes and only cares about the billionaires. The GOP is their enemy and not their friends. The GOP and billionaires are the workers’ enemy. They want the workers’ sweat and blood for as cheap as they can get it. These greedy people and their insatiable appetite for more leaving us with much less will not stop until we’re forced to work for scraps and fighting each other for the pittance. They will not invite you to golf with them or go hunting or to dinner with them. In fact, they are always in pursuit of ways to destroy our unions and the way of life we’ve obtain by being union. One way they are doing this is to use the court system, especially the lop-sided Supreme Court, to take away our union rights and to get more states to vote for The Right to Work, which leaves work...
Post a Comment
Read more