UA Organizer Bryan Smith
"I'm not anyone special."
Bryan Smith was the first Helmets to Hardhats candidate placed in an apprenticeship in America.
He completed dangerous missions in Africa and the Middle East with the Marine Corps for eight
years. He became an organizer as an apprentice and was quickly hired to do the job full time when
he turned out and became a journeyman. If you sat down to have a beer with UA Local 364 organizer
Bryan Smith, he wouldn't tell you any of this. All Bryan Smith would tell you is, "I'm not anyone
special."
Sergeant Bryan Smith credits the Marine Corps for his training, self-reliance, and
professionalism. After eight years of duty and many deployments, he felt it was time to settle in
with his wife and five children. Smith bought a home and began his job hunt. "I was out of work on
terminal leave pay. I was working on the house, sending out resumes, going on interviews. Then you
see that pond sort of start to dry up."
Two hundred resumes later, Smith still didn't have a job. He started digging ditches for ten
dollars an hour and considered rejoining the Corps until he got a phone call from
Helmets to Hardhats. At first, forgetting he signed
up on the website, he thought it was a sales call. Helmets to Hardhats linked him up with Charlie
Hazzard, Director of Organizing for District Council 16 and Richard Edwards, now Business Manager
of Local 364, and he began his apprenticeship as a pipe fitter.
Richard Edwards noticed that Smith was a "can do guy" when he had Smith as a student in his
class. Soon after, when Edwards became the Business Manager of
Local 364, he followed the lead of the
Sheet Metal Workers, who use apprentices for organizing a younger demographic, and appointed Bryan
Smith as an organizer. Smith's job was to focus on veterans. With Camp Pendleton and Twentynine
Palms Marine bases as well as Air Force and Navy installations all within Local 364's boundaries,
Smith had plenty to do. Smith showed leadership and responsibility. Smith prefers to recognize
Edwards, his mentor and a father figure, for his appointment as an organizer.
Edwards says, "Bryan can really relate to the younger workers that we want to pull in. He's
young. He works hard. I just tell him to do something and he does it." When Smith became a
journeyman six months later, Charlie Hazzard asked him to become one of 15 UA organizers in the
Southern California region.
An organizer's day is a busy one. Smith says, "It depends on the day, but basically I'm
trying to recruit contractors and people to grow the market share of our organization." These days,
Smith has been talking to company owners.
Smith explains that contractors experience a new sense of fluidity in their business when
they use union workers. They don't have to worry about direct hires off the street who may or may
not have the training and experience to do the work. Companies can call the union for one journey
worker or fifty and the numbers can change from week to week depending on the needs of the
employer. With union workers, they are assured a high level of training and safety knowledge.
Bryan also goes to job sites to explain what union membership can mean to workers. Smith
points to stability of work, wages and benefits as the main selling point for workers. When he is
not organizing directly, Smith does outreach traveling to military bases, vocational schools and
high schools to educate people about the trades and the union.
Smith has run into his share of court cases, picket lines, and challenges. Edwards says, "To
be a good organizer, you don't just grab somebody. You have to have internal fortitude and courage.
You can't let it faze you. There are a lot of really charged situations you end up in. If you show
strength and fortitude you impress the people who challenge you. Bryan is that sort of guy. He
brings confidence and calm."
Smith stresses that the military attitude helps vets get apprenticeships in the union. Says
Smith, "I'm talking to these guys daily as they are exiting [the military] and... they're
respectful, they're professional, they want to get something done."
Edwards agrees, "We teach you what you need to know, but attitude you can't teach.
Responsibility, you can't teach," He counsels new veterans to be honest and straight forward, dress
responsibly and keep their military demeanor. "We don't like excuses, and what if's and why not's.
We want a can do guy." A guy like Bryan Smith.
Smith has no problem recommending a life in the building trades to his two sons and three
daughters. "If you're here, and you do a good job, and you're intelligent, and you put that to work
you're going to do well. There is no downside to that."
