WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation) Local 71 Business Manager Paul Crist shows off his Building Trades Union’s new and expanded Training Facility in the City of Buffalo.  The overall $1.3 million project involved purchasing a dormant two-story building and expanding its training facility by 7,500 square feet to a now, combined and overall 19,000 square feet of space - with an outdoor 21-vehicle parking lot to boot.  The effort was paid for by Member dues and a $377,000 New York State Empire State Development Grant.  (WNYLaborToday.com Photos)

(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – Yet another Member Union of the Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council has taken the next step and expanded and improved its local training offering for its Membership to take advantage of. 

This time it’s SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation) Local 71, which acquired a two-story building located adjacent to its Union Hall on Buffalo’s East Side a couple of years ago - and then invested a combined $1.3 million in Members’ dues contributions and a $377,000 New York State Empire State Development Grant to transform the structure into an updated venue to train the Workers of Today and Tomorrow.

In addition, another $80,000 was invested into new training equipment for the center.

Now, SMART Local 71 is showing off an impressive prize that creates a real-life construction site inside the building, one that even during the speed bumps brought about the Coronavirus Pandemic will benefit the Sheet Metal Workers Local well into the future.

“We were ‘supposed to’ cut the ribbon (to open the center) in mid-November, with Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul planning to be here (but the Coronavirus delayed the official event, which has yet to be rescheduled),” Local 71 Business Manager Paul Crist told WNYLaborToday.com during a recent tour he gave to Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.

The SMART Local purchased the 7,500-square-foot, two-story building and its adjacent land - which had served as home for the former Sweet Kleen Laundry on the corner of Liberty and Kensington on the City’s East Side back in 2014. 

It’s located next door to Local 71’s existing 13,000-square-foot Union Hall and Offices, 11,500 of which features an original training area the Construction Union has used for training purposes. 

The new two-story training area also provides outdoor parking for up to 21 vehicles.

“Its ‘wide open and gives us a real life’ job site situation,” Local 71 Business Agent Tim Benes (Pictured Below, On the Right, With Crist) said.  “We ‘planned it to include everything, including training on lifts and running ductwork off a mock rooftop and installing building panels with a lift.’  ‘There’s no heat in here now (It’s being added in the coming weeks), so it simulates cold weather so our Members can get more ‘comfortable working in lifts (outside).’”

Local 71 represents 600 Members, including 450 who are active. 

The Building Trades Union currently has 68 Apprentices in its training program.

Several other Buffalo Building Trades Unions, including U.A. Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 22 and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 4, have either built out or gone into new space for their Apprenticeship Training Programs, including some who have successfully applied for state assistance, like IUPAT District Council 4.

“We ‘knew’ the Painters ‘got help, so we thought - why not us?’  The money came out of the Governor’s (Andrew Cuomo) Buffalo Billion Initiative,” Crist said. “And, ‘we are the only Member of the Buffalo Trades that is physically located in the City of Buffalo, which we’ve made a commitment to.’  ‘We aren’t going anywhere.’”

It’s the training, especially the safety training that SMART Local 71’s Membership receives that’s helping them keep safe during the Coronavirus Pandemic while still working on numerous job sites across Buffalo and the Western New York Region.

“Work ‘has been good in light of the fact’ (Construction Workers) have been designated ‘essential’ through the pandemic,” Crist said.  “You see them wearing masks and using hand sanitizer and wearing safety glasses (on the job).  ‘They are taking this seriously.’  ‘I can’t say enough about (the Local’s Membership).’  Our Union has been around for (115) years and ‘they’ve kept things going, but we’ve got to keep them safe.’  And our contractors ‘have gone above and beyond’ (in the role they’re playing to keep their Union Employees safe too).  ‘Nobody does not want not to go to work.’”

“We’re ‘not getting any calls’ of our Members ‘getting hurt’ (while working on the job),” Local 71 Business Agent Tim Benes added.

And, while Crist tells WNYLaborToday.com that several of Local 71’s Members “have tested positive” for COVID-19 during the pandemic, no one has passed away from the virus.

As a vaccine is being distributed here in Western New York and across the country, and as many are hopeful of the American Public developing herd immunity in 2021, SMART Local 71 will now begin to turn its attention to the many projects its Members are currently employed on and will begin working on, as well as look to fire up its new training facility and begin recruiting new Apprentices into their Union.

“We’re looking at work at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, expansion of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, more work at local schools and some projects in other parts of (New York) State (where Local 71 Members might travel to work on in the coming months),” Crist said.

“Over the last couple of years, ‘we’re seeing a shift’ in young people ‘moving away from going to college and looking into other jobs.’  We’re taking (Apprenticeship) applications on-line from people ‘who are serious’ (about a career with SMART).  ‘They won’t have a (up to hundreds of thousands of dollars) in school debt here,’” Crist noted of the get paid while you learn opportunity.

“There’s ‘definitely been an increase’ in (Apprenticeship) applicants.  ‘People are coming around,’” Local 71 Business Agent Benes added.

And, pleasantly so to the Union, there have been more women who are applying for Apprenticeships with Local 71.

“Eight or nine,” Crist said.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: For more information on SMART Local 71 and its Apprenticeship opportunities, visit: www.smartlocal71.com/ and     www.smartlocal71.com/apprenticeship