Sheet Metal Workers' International Association
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| Full name | Sheet Metal Workers' International Association |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1888 |
| Date dissolved | August 11, 2014 |
| Merged into | International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers |
| Members | 150,000 |
| Head union | Joseph J. Nigro (General President) |
| Affiliation | AFL-CIO, CLC |
| Office location | Washington, D.C. |
| Country | United States, Canada |
| Website | smart-union.org |
The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association was a trade union of skilled metal workers who perform architectural sheet metal work, fabricate and install heating and air conditioning work, shipbuilding, appliance construction, heater and boiler construction, precision and specialty parts manufacture, and a variety of other jobs involving sheet metal. On August 11, 2014, it merged with the United Transportation Union (UTU) to form the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, known by the acronym, SMART.
The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association represented about 150,000 members in 185 local unions in the United States and Canada.
In 1887, Robert Kellerstrass, secretary of the Tin and Cornice Makers Association of Peoria, Illinois—a local sheet metal workers' union—began agitating for the formation of a national sheet metal workers' union. Contacting as many tinsmiths' locals as he could, Kellerstrass arranged for a founding convention to be held in January 1888. Eleven delegates from Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Tennessee met for four days. The union was founded on January 25, 1888 in Toledo, Ohio, as the Tin, Sheet Iron and Cornice Workers' International Association.
In five years the organization grew to include 108 locals in the United States. The first local in Canada was chartered in 1896 as well, in Toronto. A second Canadian local formed in Montreal in 1900, and a Vancouver local in 1902.
The union joined the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1889. The Panic of 1893 weakened the union significantly, however, and the union's finances collapsed. The AFL revoked the Tin, Sheet Iron and Cornice Workers' charter in 1896, even though many locals continued to exist.
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