Welcome to the Southern States Millwrights' Industry Partner E-News. Through these quarterly newsletters, we hope to keep our current and prospective industry partners up to date on developments in our organization and in the labor industry in general, and on ways we can work together to meet mutual goals.

Ford Motor Company announced in September that it will build the largest auto-production complex in its 118-year history in Stanton, Tennessee, near Memphis. Called BlueOval City, the $5.6 billion complex will produce electric F-Series pickups and advanced batteries. The 3,600-acre campus will cover nearly 6 square miles and will include a supplier park. Ford and its partner SK Innovation also will build twin battery plants in central Kentucky.

Site-preparation work is currently taking place in Tennessee. Millwright work is expected to begin there in fall of 2023 or early 2024. The SSMRC and our parent organization, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, is gearing up to provide the millwright labor needed for this massive project, said Steve Williams, business agent for Millwright Local 1554.

Learn more about the project here. Walbridge, Ford's general contractor for building construction, is announcing subcontractor events and future bid packages here. To learn more about the equipment-installation bid process, contact Steve Williams at swilliams@ssmrc4070.org.

An Atlanta-based company’s plans to build a $2.5 billion, high-tech aluminum mill in Bay Minette, Alabama, will provide a wealth of opportunities for SSMRC partnering contractors and millwrights to install robotics and other equipment at a 3,000-acre site. Read more here. If you would like to be notified of bid requests for this project, please contact Jeff Smith, SSMRC Central Region director, at jsmith@ssmrc4070.org.

W&W|AFCO Steel, the United States' largest steel fabricator, announced April 20 it will invest $18.7 to transform the former LM Wind Power building at the Port of Little Rock in Arkansas into a steel-fabrication facility. The company, which makes steel for bridges and commercial and industrial facilities, has 18 production facilities in 11 states. Four existing locations are in Arkansas.

Read more about the Port of Arkansas project here. If you would like to be notified of bid requests for this project, please contact James Rowland, SSMRC Western Region director, at jrowland@ssmrc4070.org.

Hyundai Motor Group announced in May that it will invest $5.54 billion in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in Bryan County, Georgia. The site will be the company's first to focus exclusively on electric vehicles, and it will have an annual capacity of 300,000 units. Ground is set to be broken on the vehicle plant in early 2023. Production is slated to start in 2025. Learn more about the project here. For more information about opportunities related to this project, contact Logan Brown, SSMRC Eastern Region director, at lbrown@ssmrc4070.org.

A new training center that is part of the Military Veterans Program run by our parent organization, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, began training its first class of applicants earlier this month. The Clarksville, Tennessee, center is serving soldiers transitioning out of the U.S. Army at nearby Fort Campbell.

“It is an immense privilege to work with vets, the people who have served our country,” said Esther Freeman, who was hired to serve as an MVP instructor in Clarksville. “They have the discipline and diligence to see things through. I have a lot of respect for them.” Read more here.

Classroom instruction is underway at the 30,000-square-foot Arkansas training center and the offices are open! The exterior is done, as is interior work on offices, classrooms, restrooms, and break-room areas. Next step: populate the training floor with several mockups and training areas for both carpenters and millwrights. New photos are added regularly to this photo album.

The new address is 340 North Shamrock Boulevard, Russellville, Arkansas, 72802. For more information or to schedule a tour, contact Training Director Bryan Spradley at bspradley@aokcat.org or call the office at 479-967-4240.

Brickwork is underway at the new 25,000-square-foot facility near Nashville, Tennessee. The facility will include two robot stations and a conveyor prop for training on floor conveyor and power and free monorail systems used in many manufacturing processes. Learn more about the Nashville center and keep up with its construction here. A 24/7 camera feed of the site is also available.

Regional councils and locals that make up the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, our parent organization, participated in more than 200 events and initiatives across the United States and Canada during construction-industry Tax Fraud Days of Action. See a recap here.

Construction-industry tax fraud harms law-abiding contractors, including our business partners, by forcing you to compete against companies that use illegal business practices to lower their labor costs.

In April, the Southern States Millwright Regional Council ran a geofence campaign, sent letters to attorneys general and political leaders, and implemented a member-education campaign. Learn more about why we're standing up to tax fraud and about our 2022 campaign here.

The Western Region of the SSMRC is looking at expanded growth in both the power-generation and conveyor/distribution markets over and above the 2022 spring season growth. Multiple new construction and maintenance outages have been added to our work scope, including several airport expansions. The automotive work outlook is still strong, with major projects ongoing in central Texas that should be releasing work to millwright subcontractors in the near future. The renewables and clean-energy markets also are looking at growth. Read more.

Through our partnerships with contractors, we identify upcoming projects and inform our business partners of bid opportunities for those projects. We identify these opportunities as much as two years in advance and provide the information filtered by the months when projects will come up for bid and complete with contact information for the projects and plant owners. I’d like to share some information about projects on the horizon. Read more.

The first half of 2022 has been very busy. This is a great time to be a millwright as well as a contractor partner of the SSMRC. We greatly appreciate your communication on callouts as well as the flexibility you have shown in allowing us to staff your projects. I have seen a tremendous improvement in our collaboration, which has allowed us to improve our success rate. Read more.

The busy spring nuclear outage season presented a few challenges. With 12 turbine outages from February through April and a total call for just over 725 millwrights, we knew it would be a logistics hurdle. Click here to read how we collaborated with our partners to make the season a success.

The SSMRC thanks all of our partnering contractors who attended the 2022 United Brotherhood of Carpenters Southern District Labor-Management Conference. More than 250 UBC business partners were in Orlando for the May event.

The primary message from the conference was that the construction industry is steadily rebounding from the pandemic. For the Southern District's millwrights, carpenters, and pile drivers – and their employers – work opportunities are diverse and plentiful. Union contractors are winning work and getting reliable labor from the District’s four regional councils, including the SSMRC. Training programs are hosting full classes and piloting innovative programs to keep pace with – and anticipate the needs of – employers and project owners. Learn more about the event here.

On National Forklift Safety Day – June 14 – please consider taking time to encourage safe practices in relation to these machines. Supervisors and crew leaders could hold brief jobsite meetings to review safety training or talk about common mistakes and ways to avoid them. You also can join other employers, industry leaders, workers, and manufacturers at an event being held online and in person. See the speaker lineup, read questions/answers from previous Forklift Safety Day events, and register for the 2022 event here.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has extended until June 30 the comment period on a rule that would amend its record-keeping regulation to require certain employers to electronically submit injury and illness information they are already required to keep. OSHA extended the deadline by 30 days at the request of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Learn more and submit a comment here.

OSHA offers a no-cost, on-site program in which consultants from state agencies or universities help small- and medium-sized contractors identify jobsite hazards, comply with OSHA standards, and establish or improve safety and health programs. These services do not result in citations or penalties. Learn more about the program and find an office in your state to schedule a consultation.