SMART leaders attend NABTU Legislative Conference to secure a better deal for members, workers

In April 2026, SMART members and workers across the United States experienced the kind of month that can define entire lives. Foreign policy decisions and chaos at the national level sent gas and diesel prices spiking. Conflict abroad affected the construction industry. And in the backdrop, Election Day 2026 marched steadily closer, bringing with it the usual ads, commercials and mailers.

In the middle of all that activity, SMART leaders and fellow building trades officers gathered in Washington, DC, April 19-22, for the annual North America’s Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference: attending plenary sessions, breakout workshops and meeting with elected leaders on Capitol Hill.

The conference theme, “A Deal’s A Deal,” reflected core principles of our nation and our movement.

First, the building trades will always provide a path forward for working people nationwide; that’s the deal we make for our communities and members.

Second, the workers who build the United States deserve to be supported by the people elected to represent them: no more broken promises, canceled projects and ripped-up contracts.

That’s the deal SMART members are owed, and the one that union leaders work tirelessly to secure.

SMART leaders hear from politicians, build knowledge in workshops

NABTU President Sean McGarvey, a longtime ally of SMART members across North America, spoke about the stakes of that deal in his keynote address on Tuesday, April 21. McGarvey minced no words talking about the crisis American workers face today: contracts and commitments getting walked back, uncertainty, shifting goalposts. In other words, deals getting broken.

“At a time when too many forget their own signature, the building trades are here to remind America: A deal is a deal,” McGarvey said.

Canceled construction projects — from Flint, Michigan, to ports nationwide— are attacks on the jobs and livelihoods of SMART members and fellow working Americans. They undermine communities, and they slow our nation’s progress. But despite these challenges, McGarvey said, the building trades continue to look forward. Whether expanding pre-apprenticeship programs, aggressively recruiting veterans into our trades, using mechanisms like the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust to fund union-built affordable housing developments, or working overtime to reduce overdose and suicide deaths in the construction industry, SMART and fellow building trades unions are fighting tirelessly to support members and communities nationwide.

“This is what unity and solidarity looks like,” McGarvey said, after telling attendees that overdose deaths in the construction industry dropped nearly 30% in one year. “This is what the building trades do … when we all come together, we make each other’s lives better.”

There is no use sugarcoating the challenges we face. Decisions made at the federal level have thrown the construction industry into disarray, sent prices skyrocketing and squeezed working Americans. That’s why organized labor is more important than ever, McGarvey concluded.

“Our movement has seen moments like this before … and every single time, the building trades rose to the occasion,” he said, adding: “We built this nation before, and we’ll build it again.”

Along with McGarvey, union leaders also heard from Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, who focused her remarks on the growing presence of artificial intelligence and advanced technology in our work, our industries and our personal lives. Union members don’t want to be constantly surveilled by AI programs, or have their jobs threatened by technology. We also don’t want to stop forward progress for our country.

What we want, she said, is for working people to build the economy of the future.

We want technology to help working-class Americans, not force them into unemployment. We want data centers built with project labor agreements and community benefit agreements in place — creating good, union jobs and ensuring that communities aren’t subsidizing corporate profits at the expense of the places they call home.  

“We are at the most important fork in the road our economy has faced in 100 years,” Shuler said. “Are we going to put workers in the driver’s seat to decide our future?”

She concluded: “Labor is going to lead again.”

SMART leaders advocate tirelessly in the halls of power, bringing members’ voices to politicians regardless of political party. On Tuesday, elected leaders returned the favor: NABTU attendees heard from New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Greg Casar of Texas.

Holding a range of positions and representing vastly different geographic areas, the political speakers talked about different topics in their remarks. But there were consistent throughlines. First, recognizing the failures of both political parties to truly support workers by creating jobs, lowering prices and building housing, among other examples. Second, the importance of keeping the promises our country and its leaders have made to working people: making sure deals are followed through, not abandoned on the campaign trail.

“Workers are getting screwed every single day, so we need to fight back with everything we have — and win,” said Senator Schatz. “The best way to support the building trades is to actually build things.”

Representative Casar agreed.

“If you make this country run, you should have a union wage and the ability to retire and take care of your kids,” he said in his remarks.

“In Washington, every single day, rich and powerful people wake up like it’s their job to pit working people against each other. They do it because they want to rob us blind,” Casar added. “That’s our money created by our labor.”

While the plenary session offered the opportunity to hear directly from elected members of Congress, afternoon workshops were just as valuable.

SMART leaders and fellow attendees attended breakout sessions on data center construction and the importance of winning the work; updates on White House, agency, and congressional initiatives affecting multiemployer pension and health plans; investing in union-built affordable housing through the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust; and much more. Whether workshops focused on artificial intelligence training, peer mental health support, benefits for veterans or any of the other topics available, there was one common theme: working proactively and innovatively to secure the future for union building trades workers.

Wednesday speakers demonstrate bipartisan support

As SMART General President Michael Coleman has said repeatedly, our union’s issues aren’t Red or Blue — they are about improving the lives of SMART members and their families. During the final day of the NABTU Legislative Conference, that principle was put on display, with elected officials and candidates from across the political spectrum speaking to attendees about the issues that matter to building trades workers. Union leaders heard from Congressmen Seth Magaziner, Mike Lawler and Brian Fizpatrick, as well as United States Senate candidate Graham Platner.

Republican Rep. Fitzpatrick has been a longtime friend of the union building trades, oftentimes bucking his party leadership in order to support SMART members and working families. Fitzpatrick helped draft one of several pro-worker laws passed under the Biden administration, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to help put SMART members to work building our country.

“Infrastructure is not separate from American strength. Infrastructure is American strength,” he emphasized.

On the morning of his NABTU remarks, Fitzpatrick introduced a bill to revive Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, which would create jobs for SMART members.

Fitzpatrick was joined at NABTU by fellow Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who has also prioritized several pro-worker votes despite the majority of his party doing the opposite — including the Protect America’s Workforce Act to restore collective bargaining for federal workers. The presence of Lawler and Fitzpatrick alongside Rhode Island’s Rep. Magaziner, a Democrat, demonstrated that our union will work with any leader, regardless of party, on behalf of SMART members.

“Thank God that in our free country, workers can join together and achieve power. Organized labor built this country, and organized labor will save this country,” Magaziner said. “We need to build again.”

Across the country, labor unions and working people are making their voices heard loud and clear, saying in one voice: The status quo is not good enough. Nowhere is that more true than in Maine, where oysterman Graham Platner is running as a proud working-class candidate for U.S. Senate. Platner joined NABTU to talk about the purpose of his campaign: “to win back the Senate for working Mainers.”

Platner has run a bold campaign focused on the needs of everyday people. That means investing in our jobs, our industries and our unions; for example, making sure every single dollar of federal money spent on construction includes a project labor agreement. But it also means policymaking that is intended to provide working people with more than just a paycheck. It means writing and passing bills designed to give SMART members and families a full and fulfilling life: a life where we have free time to pursue our passions, fall in love and spend time with our families — and do all those things with dignity.

In order to achieve those goals, Platner told NABTU, we need leaders in office who don’t make empty promises, and who don’t just do the bare minimum on SMART members’ behalf.

“For far too long, politicians in this country have waged a war on organized labor,” he said. “Our political system has kneecapped labor. It has done so for the benefit of bosses and corporations.”

“We need a new era in our politics,” he added later. “One where representatives see strengthening labor as the core of their job.”

The plenary session ended in fitting fashion: with a spotlight on building trades brothers and sisters who have stepped up to serve working people in elected office (or who are currently running for office). Attendees heard from Maryland State Delegate Melissa Wells, former Alaska State Senator and current candidate for governor Click Bishop, Canton, Ohio, Mayor William Sherer, Oak Creek Mayor and Wisconsin Assembly candidate Dan Bukiewicz, and Jason Shedlock, president of the Maine Building Trades and candidate for Maine House.

All of these leaders are proud union members, working to bring the voice of building trades workers to the halls of power.

“If we don’t start treating the halls of power like the rat jobsites that they are, nothing will ever change for us,” Shedlock bellowed.

SMART reception honors top PAL locals, welcomes candidates

Each year, SMART holds a reception during the NABTU Legislative Conference to honor the top 31 local unions with the highest donations, per capita, to the Political Action League (PAL). During the 2026 reception, SMART also heard from candidates seeking office: Illinois candidate for Congress Donna Miller, House of Representatives candidate Shannon Taylor of Virginia and Senate candidate Platner.

SMART engages with officeholders and candidates early and often for one reason: to ensure their support for our members and their families. During their remarks to SMART leaders, Miller, Taylor and Platner all pledged to do exactly that.

“I know you are all in this fight,” Platner told SMART members. “I could not be prouder to be fighting arm in arm, in solidarity with SMART, with all your union brothers and sisters, and with working people everywhere.”

The top 31 PAL locals:

1. Local 434 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
2. Local 27 (Southern New Jersey)
3. Local 66 (Seattle, Wash.)
4. Local 71 (Buffalo, New York)
5. Local 265 (DuPage County, Illinois)
6. Local 112 (Elmira, New York)
7. Local 17 (Eastern Mass.)
8. Local 22 (Union, Morris, Somerset, Sussex Counties, N.J.)
9. Local 36 (St. Louis, Mo.)
10. Local 49 (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
11. Local 435 (Jacksonville, Florida)
12. Local 137 (New York, N.Y.)
13. Local 25 (Northern New Jersey)
14. Local 40 (Hartford, Conn.)
15. Local 44 (Northeastern Pa.)
16. Local 80 (Detroit, Mich.)
17. Local 88 (Las Vegas, Nevada)
18. Local 20 (Indianapolis, Ind.)
19. Local 256 (Chicago, Ill.)
20. Local 110 (Louisville, Ky.)
21. Local 293 (Honolulu, Hawaii)
22. Local 206 (San Diego, Calif.)
23. Local 441 (Mobile, Alabama)
24. Local 33 (Northern Ohio)
25. Local 15 (Central Florida)
26. Local 218 (Springfield, Ill.
27. Local 12 (Southwestern Pa.)
28. Local 105 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
29. Local 104 (San Francisco, Calif.)
30. Local 100 (Washington, DC area)
31. Local 38 (Westchester and Rockland Cos., N.Y.)