Second-year Sheet Metal Workers Local 24 apprentices recently completed COMET training to help them better understand the role organizing plays in helping grow our union.
Construction Organizing Membership Education Training (COMET) was created in the mid-90s by what was then known as the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), now called North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU). The BCTD noticed an alarming trend as the number of building trades unions and affiliated members were both in rapid decline.
Second-year Southpoint SMW Local 24 apprentices successfully completed COMET Class.
In order to combat this decline, COMET was created to change member’s attitudes toward organizing non-union members while also addressing the need to educate new and existing members about how unions benefit their members.
Since its inception, COMET has been used by many local unions in nearly all the building trades, including SMART.
In February, Local 24 Organizers Doug Wiener and Dean Lacey taught COMET to second-year apprentices. The training helped educate the apprentices about organizing non-union members for the good and welfare of the union. They learned that through organizing, SMW Local 24 can continue to grow and stay strong.
SMW Local 24 congratulates our second-year apprentices for completing the COMET program and urge all members to act as organizers by speaking to non-union Sheet Metal Workers about the benefits of joining our union.