In Oklahoma, we are still working at Green County Power and Chouteau in Pryor. We are wrapping up projects at FedEx and Cascades Tissues. We have ongoing work at Georgia Pacific in Muskogee and Kimberly Clark in Jenks. We are working with a new contractor to sign an agreement for a project at the Oklahoma City airport as well.

In Arkansas, we have work kicking off at Plum Point Power Plant and Evergreen Packaging. The outage at Arkansas Nuclear One will begin mid-month. We have projects wrapping up at Independence Power and ongoing work at White Bluff and Nucor Hickman in Blytheville.

Local 729 has upcoming turbine projects in Westlake. There have been several small petrochem projects in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas that have kicked off as well. We also have started a long term maintenance project in Lake Charles.

Local 1421 has several ongoing and upcoming turbine projects. Sim-Gideon just kicked off, and we have upcoming work at Suez Energy and Black Hawk Station. We also have a job at FedEx that should begin mid-month. We have ongoing work at Tesla with the possibility of adding more millwrights once the city of Austin approves additional permitting.

Local 2232 has multiple turbine outages ongoing across the Gulf Coast and the San Antonio area. We also have work kicking off at Kuraray Bayport and Ascend Chocolate Bayou. We have ongoing petrochem projects at Valero Port Arthur, Exxon Baytown, and Toyota San Antonio.

Millwrights are in high demand. If you are available, please reach out to your business agent and put yourself on the out-of-work list. If you are traveling outside of your home local jurisdiction for work, check in with the local that has jurisdiction where you are procuring work. Please take advantage of all opportunities to enhance your skill sets (for example: forklift, welding, aerial lift, rigging) through the training department.

Workers at the Vogtle 3&4 site can make an appointment to receive the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which only requires one shot. On-site appointments will be available from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., on April 14 and 15.

Appointments are scheduled on a first-come-first-serve basis, and the deadline to register is Tuesday, April 13. Learn more and register here. If you have trouble signing up on your phone or at home, see your steward to sign up on an iPad in Building 130.

The last three outages of the spring 2021 outage season started early this month. Although this was a moderate outage season with 10 outages, there were challenges. The biggest challenge for the SSMRC was trying to schedule two outages for as many members as possible. This involved lots of coordination: from outage to outage, utility to utility, and contractor to contractor, with hurdles including short windows between outages, weather delays, and COVID-19 testing. It was not a task easily accomplished. However, and as always, the members of the SSMRC were patient and understanding. Thank you.

Our employers also are deserving of thanks. The willingness of supervisors and resource coordinators to schedule layoffs, delay report dates, assist with in-processing, and communicate with site management played a key role in this effort. We should always remember these are not just our employers, but our partners in business. Their success is our success; thus, our success is their success. We should carry a team mentally onto each jobsite. We are one team!

Again, I thank every person for their efforts in making this spring outage season a success for the SSMRC.

Millwright Local 1554 will accept officer nominations and hold elections at four locations across Tennessee in May and June.

Officer positions up for nomination and election are: president/financial secretary, vice president, recording secretary, treasurer, conductor, warden, trustee (three positions), and delegate (four positions) to the Southern States Millwright Regional Council.

Local 1554 needs to form an election committee at each location and is asking for volunteers. Please reach out to William Condon at wcondon@ssmrc4070.org or Steve Williams at swilliams@ssmrc4070.org if you can help.

Nominations will be held in the month of May, and elections will be held in the month of June, per the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Constitution.

Elections will follow in June at the same locations and times:

March 31, 2021, was the professional stopping point for a stalwart of Millwrights Local 1263 in Kennesaw, Georgia. James B. West officially retired on that date.

West has been a face, voice, office manager, dispatcher, recording secretary, friend, and lover of all things Georgia Bulldog in Local 1263’s offices for 30-plus years. He has been a loyal member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, our parent organization, for more than 43 years. The knowledge, friendliness, and personality West brought to work with him daily will be missed.

Local 1263's executive board purchased a 20-gauge over/under shotgun for West as a retirement gift. It was presented to him by longtime friend and colleague, Local 1263 Business Agent Mike Hamilton. West recently purchased a 2020 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail Custom and plans to do as much riding as possible during his retirement.

Jim… From those of us with Local 1263 and the SSMRC: THANK YOU for your unwavering dedication, loyalty, and service to the members of Local 1263, the Southern States Millwright Regional Council, and The United Brotherhood Carpenters and Joiners of America. Enjoy your retirement our brother; you have surely earned it.

–Charles Smith, Local 1263 business agent

The U.S. economy gained 916,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate fell to 6% from 6.2% in February. Widespread job growth was led by gains in construction, leisure and hospitality, and public and private education.

The federal infrastructure proposal announced yesterday at a carpenters union training center would provide funding for roads, bridges, power-generation projects, schools, high-speed Internet, and more. Called the American Jobs Plan, the proposal has been hailed by Labor Department secretary and union member Marty Walsh as "a historic investment in the working people of America." Read more about what's in the plan. Read Walsh's statement.

The SSMRC is set to capitalize on wind-turbine projects the plan would fund. A new training center under construction in Arkansas will be the hub for the wind-turbine-maintenance initiative in the Southern District. By the end of this year, we anticipate having a significant number of millwrights working full time in the wind-turbine-maintenance industry.