Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local Union 40
100-A Old Forge Road
Rocky Hill, CT 06057

Local 40 celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2000. It is one of two locals of the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association in Connecticut, covering the largest area. It incorporates not only New Haven County, but also Hartford, Tolland, Middlesex, Windham, and New London Counties. Organizer Frank Pannone states that the most significant event in the Local’s history was the purchase of its own building in 1993. Its greatest achievement was “becoming a licensed trade for the first time.” In 2002, Connecticut became the first state in the United States where sheet metal workers were licensed. The Local’s greatest concerns at the present time are three-fold: 1. Declining membership (Pannone cites problems with the economy as a reason); 2. large scale unemployment (he says 30% of the Local is unemployed); 3. lack of affordable health care (the cost has increased by 12% in five years.

Local Union 40’s Office and Training facility is located in Rocky Hill, Ct., in a spacious building which houses the administrative offices of the Local itself, with files maintained by several different officers; the Apprenticeship program, which includes the records of the program’s administrator, who maintains his own records, as well as a metal shop used by trainees. And a computer lab; and the Fund Benefit office, which is also separately administered. The staff at the administrative office includes Frank Pannone, the Organizer; Sam Giglio, Business Manager; John McBrearty, the Business Representative; Phil Benoit, Financial Secretary; and Pat MacNeal and Austin Adams, the office secretaries.

The outer office maintains files, by name, about all active members (retired or otherwise), which remain active until seven years after the person’s death. At that point, they are moved to “inactive record files” which are maintained in a side room. This office also keeps files of signed contracts dating back into the 1950s, which are maintained as long as the contracts are active, and then destroyed. In addition to the specific member files, Pam MacNeal maintains files of work assessments on members, which are moved to inactive files after seven years, and destroyed after 20. Active files (1997-2002) about officers including correspondence sent out under each person’s name) are kept in the outer office. Inactive files, including minutes and correspondence from the international office (which are retired to “the safe” in the lunch room after about five years) are stored in the side room. These records appear to go back only into the early 1990s. Minutes of executive board and membership meetings have also been kept on disk and on the hard drives of the outer office PCs for the past two years. Records of the previous Organizer and previous Business Manager are unavailable.

Chris Beal administers the Apprenticeship program, and says that he keeps 90% of his records on the computer. The electronic records date back to 1989. Mr. Beal destroyed most of his predecessor’s paper records. Today, records about apprentices and terminated apprentices are kept both on paper and in the database; the paper records are kept for seven years and then destroyed; the electronic records are never deleted. The computer classroom and the shop both have locked filing cabinets which hold teachers’ files containing tests, class lists, class attendance, and syllabi. All of these records are confidential, and, thus, not available to researchers. The Fund Benefit Office is an entity to itself, with its own records management standards and practices. Most of the records in its six offices are confidential. There are five different funds, and records are kept from their inception through the present: the Supplemental Retirement Fund (1982-) ; the Health Fund (1949-); the Pension Fund (1956-); the Apprentice and Training Fund; and the National Pension Fund (1971-), although the latter is administered through the International Office in Washington, D.C., and members can access their information through a web site.

The Local’s “historical” records seem to be spread out among members. But the office has a locked safe in its kitchen, which holds books of minutes of meetings that were hand written (later typed) from 1957 until the present, as well as call books recording phone messages on a daily basis from 1962 until 1992.

CONTACT: Frank Pannone, Organizer, or Sam Giglio, Business Manager, 860-529-2616

WEB LINK: www.smwlu40.com