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SMART Local 46’s Leadership Is ‘Guiding’ This Building Trades Union ‘Into The Future’

Case In Point, A Unique Heating/Cooling Training Device That’s Attracting New Members To The Rochester Union & Providing Membership With A ‘New Form Of Education’

Published Monday, June 16, 2025
by WNYLaborToday.com Editor-Publisher Tom Campbell
SMART Local 46’s Leadership Is ‘Guiding’ This Building Trades Union ‘Into The Future’

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above (from left to right): Local 46 Business Agent Jonathan Perna; Business Manager Anthony Valenti, Jr.; and Training Director Tim Ventress show off the Rochester Building Trades Local’s newest training tool - a heat pump trainer that features an inverter compressor and refrigerant. Local 46 has not just one, but two of them, and is believed to be the only Trades Union with such training equipment in all of New York State. The units are upgrading the SMART Local’s offered Apprenticeship Training, which is working to attract new Members to the Union, including young people who are intrigued by the units when they are taken to local trade fairs and career day events. (WNYLaborToday.com Photos)

 

(ROCHESTER, NEW YORK) – You might describe it as a way of connecting with not only its current Members, but attracting new ones to SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers) Local 46 in Rochester.

This Building Trades Local has a new training tool - not one, but two unique and lightweight heat pump trainers that feature an inverter compressor and refrigerant, which can be easily operated and viewed, as well as quickly transported to anywhere Local 46 wishes.

In fact, Local 46 is believed to be the only Trade Union with such an offering in all of New York State, which has not only enhanced its overall Apprenticeship Training menu - but is also working to attract new Members to Local 46, including many young people who are intrigued by the units when they are shown off at local trade fairs and career day events.

“I’m ‘extremely proud’ of our Union ‘and the people in place right now,’” 49-year-old Business Manager Anthony Valenti, Jr. told WNYLaborToday.com during a recent demonstration of the training device. “‘Not only are we growing our Union, but we also have people younger than us coming up - Trustees in their thirties and forties.’ We’re ‘offering career opportunities and supporting our Members at the same time.’ ‘My goal is to not only reignite Membership participation but grow our Membership to (1,000) to increase our bargaining power, expand our opportunities and help our Members' health care and retirement plans.’ ‘And we plan to reinvest in and revitalize our training programs - taking it back to the basics of our core skills in both sectors of commercial and residential.’”

Valenti leads a trio of young Union Leaders at Local 46, which include Training Director Tim Ventress, 53, who will be sworn in as Local 46’s President in July, and Business Agent Jonathan Perna, 42, who was the first to discover the heating/cooling training unit and make the Union’s Apprenticeship Training Department aware of it.

“It’s ‘exciting getting this new technology.’ ‘Not a lot of Locals teach this,’” Ventress said. “‘It gives everyone a better understanding of how’ the unit works. ‘It looks simple, but it’s complex.’ It provides an Apprentice with ‘the difference between seeing and understanding.’ It ‘also brings more people over to talk to us (which allows the Union to introduce) people with a career path.’”

Added Perna: “It’s ‘been a big draw’ (at job fairs and career day events). It ‘generates more interest’ (in what Local 46 offers). ‘It’s an easy show and tell - and it’s a great way to show how it all works.’  ‘You can see all the activity happening because the sides are open.’ ‘Everything is digital, and you can run the temperatures and pressure through Bluetooth.’  In fact, the kids say: ‘HVAC, that’s fire.’”

Local 46 was able to secure New York State Workforce Development Training grant that nearly paid for the two devices (a total of around $20,000) last year.

The Local got them in late October from the manufacturer, a woman-owned business located in Western New York: North Park Innovations Group, Inc. of Ellicottville (in Cattaraugus County).

“‘Christmas came early last year,’” Local 46 Officials said.

Always on the search for the next level of technology for its Apprenticeship Program, Local 46 dove right into the opportunity.

The all-in-one, 100% safe, rectangular 30-by-18-by-18-inch portable heating, cooling and air conditioning system weighs only 73 pounds and can easily fit on top of a cart so it can be wheeled around in a classroom or at a special event. 

The unit, which can be plugged into an electrical outlet, blows out either hot or cold air.

There is clear piping that allows one to watch the refrigeration process as liquid becomes gas via the transfer of refrigerant that can be sped up or slowed down, all via an iPad during training and demonstrations.

“You’re ‘able to see the through the glass tube and we’re able to manipulate turning the gas into liquid,’” the Local 46 Officials explained. “There are (U.S.) Environmental Protection Agency regulations for refrigerants for ‘more low-global warming potential - and we’ve never had this advanced technology before, as well as showcase it.’ ‘Now we’re getting ahead of everything.’  ‘One-hundred-percent - it was money well spent.’”

For more than 125 years, Local 46 has been providing the highest quality Craftsmen to its contractors - with its Members being Fabricators and Installers of: Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Systems; Installation, service and repair of all types of commercial, Industrial and Residential HVAC Systems; Green Building Technologies, LEEDS and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ); Testing, Adjusting, Balancing (TAB) and measuring of all types of fluids, processes and Mechanical Systems; Direct digital controls and Building Automation Systems; Architectural metal work - including metal roofing and all forms of interior and exterior metal systems; and Kitchen equipment, lockers, partitions, industrial ventilation and material handling systems.

The Building Trades Union recently upgraded its logo to include HVAC/R(efrigeration) Techs in order to reflect and recognize the many areas of expertise Local 46 offers its affiliated contractors and the local community.

The Union currently has 15 Training Instructors on staff with 120 Apprentices in its program, and that number is expected to increase to 130 by September, Ventress said, after being at 108 just several months ago. 

“It’s ‘just been going up,’” he added. “Those in their first year of Apprenticeship are in their early twenties and we keep telling them ‘its tools over tuition.’”

The Local represents 450 Members (a total of 672 if you count Retirees) and currently has everyone employed - that’s zero Members on the bench, so to speak.

A Journeyman can make as much as $145,000 a year - with those who work in the Commercial Sector - after five years of training, pulling in $43.01 an hour (Apprentices make about $19.89 an hour). Those who work in the residential sector after five years of training make $29.61 an hour (Apprentices $20.20).

“The ‘great thing is an eighteen-year-old with a driver’s license and a reliable vehicle in five very fast years can make ($145,000 a year).’ ‘Who makes that type of money without incurring debt (unlike those who attend college)?’ ‘I know more people who went through college who won’t take as much money as our Members,'” said Ventress - who added he was “so honored” to be Local 46’s Training Director.

“And ‘every year you’re getting a raise,’” Valenti added.

Said Perna: “‘Where else are you going to get that type of guarantee if you do everything that is asked of you?’”

Valenti said SMART’s International calls Local 46’s “a hidden gem” for all that it is doing for its Rochester area Membership.

“We’re ‘always asking each other how we make things better and here’s some of the proof,’” he said, pointing to the heating/cooling training units. “‘You won’t see this in Buffalo, Syracuse, Elmira or Albany.’ ‘We’re proving our worth through our training and our Instructors that we are more than capable.’ ‘We have so many people telling us they didn’t know our Local did this.’”

Valenti, Ventress and Perna have all “worked out in the field” since they themselves were Apprentices, “so ‘we know what our Members are going through.’”

“‘That’s why we’re injecting fresh blood into our Union and making things new.’ ‘We want what’s good for the entire Local,’” Valenti said.

But what it is really all about, he says, is “‘growing and strengthening our Union, offering people career opportunities, supporting our Members so they can be the best!’”

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