This paragraph is the only place you’ll read the phrase “COVID-19” in the entire issue of the June 2021 SNIPS Magazine. And that’s intentional. For more than a year, the pandemic has dominated conversations in the sheet metal industry and beyond. And in that chorus, we’ve left several stories fly under the radar.

Sheet metal instructor Chris Coatsworth, of Sheet metal Workers’ Local 104, shares how previous instructors have helped his success and why he hopes to do the same with his students. 

The presidential candidate leaves a message for sheet metal workers saying that the industry has "always been essential."

After the market crash of 2008, Local 28 journeyperson Kandice Rogers traded in her plans to be an architect for a career in HVAC construction.

A 9-week strike is over for unionized sheet metal workers in Ontario, Canada, after the Sheet Metal Workers’ and Roofers’ Conference announced its members had ratified a tentative deal with the Ontario Sheet Metal Contractors’ Association.

After 40 years in the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 80 — from an apprentice to foremen, business agent then business manager — Mark Saba has paid his dues as a leader in the industry. From his experience on shop floors, he naturally carries the point of view of a journeyman. But now as executive director of SMACNA Detroit, Saba is tasked with advancing the interests of the contractor.

Over 40 years, Gentlemen Sheet Metal Ltd. in Brooklyn, New York, has built a reputation as a small but mighty sheet metal shop that values great work first. The shop’s focus on renovations has mostly kept it from having to swim in the big, new construction pool and protected it from labor shortages and rising material costs. But the tide is already turning.

I’ve been thinking about the issue lately, as the “#MeToo” movement has enveloped politics and popular culture. From corporate boardrooms to Hollywood movie sets, sexual harassment in the workplace has become a topic of discussion and debate.