SMART Local 46 Celebrates Its 125th Anniversary: “Just Look At The Rochester Skyline” - Rochester Sheet Metal Union ‘Extremely Proud’ Of Its History, Members & Its Many Business & Community Accomplishments Over The Years
WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, from left to right - Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Local 46 Marketing Representative Jonathan Perna, Business Manager/Financial Secretary Troy Milne and Business Agent Anthony Valenti strike a pose in front of some of the Local’s history and memorabilia - including the Tin Man, as the Rochester Building Trades Union celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2024. (WNYLaborToday.com Photo)
(ROCHESTER, NEW YORK) - Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) Local 46 Business Manager/Financial Secretary Troy Milne - who’s been a Member of his Building Trades Union for the past 38 years and was there to celebrate the Local’s 100th anniversary, is ecstatic being able to celebrate the Local’s 125th anniversary with its Membership in 2024.
“I ‘was blessed to have experienced our one-hundredth when I was just ten years in the Trade,’” Milne recently told WNYLaborToday.com. “‘I have watched it all and making a decision to become a Sheet Metal Worker was a good one.’ Local (46) ‘has always been pro-active when it comes to training and education - education is power, and we’re always trying to raise the bar’ (for the Local’s Members). ‘The work we do is intense.’ ‘We work in all kinds of weather - hot and cold and up in the air.’ ‘I’m very proud of our (125) years, of our Members being highly skilled, their training, work ethic, giving you the best product you can get - that’s the only reason why we’ve been around for (125) years. ‘For those who have stuck with it, there’s a pot of gold at the end of our rainbow.’ ‘If you start early enough, you can become eligible to retire at the age of (55).’ ‘And, you can retire with dignity.’ ‘Who does that these days?’”
One has to look no further than Rochester’s City Skyline, says Milne, to see the work his Union Local’s Members have been involved in and the legacy they have left: “Our Members ‘have had such a big hand in helping shape’ the City’s Skyline. ‘So many architectural structures, the history’ of our Skyline. From helping put up the (28) story Xerox Building to the (23)-plus story Bausch and Lomb Building. All the mechanical rooms with air handlers, vent systems. ‘That’s millions of dollars of work and over a million pounds of metal.’ The Members are always saying: ‘I did that, from the copper work to the trim work.’ ‘I smile a lot.’”
Local 46 (www.smw46.com) - which serves the Upstate New York Counties of Livingston, Monroe (where the Union is headquartered in Rochester), Ontario, Seneca, Wayne and Yates, currently represents 450 Active Members and 230 Retirees.
Over the past eight years, Milne says his Local has added 180 new Members and is hopeful more Workers will enter his Trade.
“The ‘doors are open for everyone - including Women and Minorities,’” he said.
Milne is also proud “of my team,” which was honored by the National Energy Management Institute (NEMI) in 2023 for its Training Program that features highly-sought-after Testing, Adjusting and Balancing and Indoor Air Quality Programs. (For More, Go To: “I ‘Couldn’t Be More Proud Of My Team’” - Rochester’s SMART Local 46 Honored By The National Energy Management Institute For Its Joint Apprentice Training Program’s Testing, Adjusting & Balancing & Indoor Air Quality Programs - WNY Labor Today: Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, Bringing You Labor News From Across The Nation, New York State & Western New York)
And there’s even more to be proud of when it comes to Local 46, especially when it comes to giving back to the Rochester Community.
That’s because this Union - like the Tin Man with the big heart, and its Members and Apprentices are ready, willing and able to do what they can - when they can.
Case in point, back in October WNYLaborToday.com focused a spotlight on Local 46’s Apprentices, who are involved in playing a key role in helping provide a local non-profit with a main cog need to assemble hundreds of devices that give the life-changing gift of mobility to disabled children.
A chance response to a Social Media post asking for help opened the door for Apprentices at Local 46 to begin a Labor of Love that’s providing hundreds of disabled children across the U.S. and around the globe with the life-changing gift of mobility.
Bella's Bumpas Limited is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization that has for the past six years made hand-crafted mobile chairs for disabled children, which opens the door for them to gain not only the mobility that has eluded them, but provides them with the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities that many healthy children and their families take for granted.
Each mobile wheelchair constructed by Bella’s Bumbas is comprised of a small platform made from AZEK/PVC with a plastic seat affixed to it. And with the help of a metal axle bracket that’s readied by the Apprentices at SMART Local 46, wheels are attached to each side, which allows the child to move them with their arms in order to make the chair go.
And on another front, Local 46’s Apprentices are also giving of their time and skills at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum where they’re working to restore an idled trolley car that once ran the rails in Downtown Rochester many years ago.
Business Agent (BA) Anthony Valenti has been a Member of Local 46 for 21 years, a BA for the past five and also serves on his Union’s Executive Board and Pension Fund.
Unions, he says, are “in my blood” - as his Father served as Secretary/Treasurer and as an International Organizer for the Teamsters Union in Rochester.
Valenti is especially proud of the SMART Local 46 and what it has done not only for himself and his family - but the Union’s entire Membership.
“‘It has been the best way for me to provide for my family,’” Valenti told WNYLaborToday.com. “‘It’s an honest day’s work that has given me a skill that most people can’t get.’ I’ve been on picket lines and as a kid I’ve listened to (contract) negotiations that went on in a room. (Unions are) ‘in my blood and as a Business Agent now, I want to give back to make things better.’”
Asked what he would see if given a crystal ball in regards to the future of Local 46, Valenti answered: “‘Expand’ our Membership, ‘provide new ways of training our Members and give back to our Members.’ ‘One of my personal missions is to get our Members more involved in our Union and know there are people here who they can rely on.’”
And, Valenti adds that he wants to see the Membership of Local 46 expand even more over the course of time.
Asked why, he responded: “‘People need a voice.’”
WNYLaborToday.com Editor's Note: SMART Local 46 provided several photos featured within this Labor News Story.
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