Our Affiliates
The Metal Trades Department has 17 affiliated national and international unions.
International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers
HFIAW is affiliated with the AFL–CIO and the Canadian Labour Congress and represents nearly 30,000 craftsmen in a series of construction trades. Today’s union insulator is skilled in the installation of mechanical insulation, fire stopping, asbestos and lead mitigation or abatement, sound attenuation and specialty fabrications required in custom mechanical insulation installations for commercial, industrial, medical, bio-technical, governmental and educational facilities among other customer types. This work is installed by our professional mechanical insulators that have achieved journeyman status in the union through a multi-year classroom and 1,600 hour per year on-the-job training program second to none in North America.
The International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers has persevered since 1903, a testament to our founders’ commitment to the dignity, skills and well-being of our membership. For over 100 years our union has endured, through good times and bad, in peacetime and at war, through economic depression and prosperity, in favor and out of favor with governments and politicians. Through it all we not only have survived; we have flourished.
Headquarters
International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers
9602 M. L. King Jr. Hwy.
Lanham, MD 20706
Phone: (301) 731-9101
FAX: (301) 731-5058
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
With nearly 700,000 active and retired members, the IAM is one of the largest and most diverse labor unions in North America. From Boeing and Lockheed Martin to United Airlines and Harley-Davidson, you will find IAM members across all walks of life. IAM members demand respect and dignity in the workplace. Together, we have been able to bargain for increased job security, higher wages and improved benefits.
Headquarters
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
9000 Machinists Place
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
Phone: (301) 967-4500
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers is a diverse union representing workers throughout the United States and Canada. Our members are employed in heavy industry, shipbuilding, manufacturing, railroads, cement, mining, and related industries. We construct and repair electric power plants, refineries, pulp and paper mills, and steel mills. We build naval ships and commercial tankers, repair locomotives, make cement, and mine coal, gypsum, and talc. We forge tools for industry and make consumer goods.
Our union grew out of the Industrial Revolution and the demand for steam power. Organized in 1880, we are one of the oldest unions in the United States. We are headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas (since 1893) and service more than 200 local lodges across North America.
Our highly-skilled members have built nuclear, gas-fired, and advanced coal-fired power plants, as well as military ships, including various classes of submarines. Boilermakers helped construct the U.S.S. New York amphibious transport dock (launched in late 2009), which includes steel from the Twin Towers. We also helped build the world’s first nuclear submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus. Boilermakers from Pennsylvania crafted the structural sections of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis (which includes 900 tons of stainless steel—more than any other project in the world at the time it was built). And it was our members who manufactured the aluminum-based fuel for the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket boosters.
The Boilermakers have played a key role in history. We built machinery to construct the Panama Canal and thousands of ships to help win two world wars.
We are a progressive, forward-thinking union that has established national funds for pensions, health and welfare, and an annuity trust. We boast one of the best apprentice programs in America and partner in an award-winning alliance with construction industry contractors and owners that has resulted in numerous union/management innovations for improved safety, manpower availability, training, and cost savings.
The Boilermakers union has long been politically active, with a permanent presence in Washington, D.C. We aggressively promote and defend the rights of our members and indeed those of all workers.
Headquarters
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
753 State Avenue
Kansas City KS 66101
Phone: (913) 371-2640
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
The IBEW represents approximately 750,000 active members and retirees who work in a wide variety of fields, including utilities, construction, telecommunications, broadcasting, manufacturing, railroads and government. The IBEW has members in both the United States and Canada and stands out among the American unions in the AFL-CIO because it is among the largest and has members in so many skilled occupations.
As union members, we bargain collectively with our employers over wages, benefits, and rights.
Most of us have very limited bargaining power as one person, but as a group, we are strong. And, with a good negotiated contract, we have legal protections we would not have otherwise.
Headquarters
900 Seventh Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 833-7000
International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers
The International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Union, AFL-CIO, is a proud trade association whose beginnings go back to the 1890s. We currently represent 120,000 members in North America. Members of our union have worked on nearly every major construction project you can think of – the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sears Tower, the St. Louis Arch, and the Oil Sands Plant Expansion in Alberta, the World Trade Center, and now Freedom Tower. We represent ironworkers who work on bridges, structural steel, ornamental, architectural, and miscellaneous metals, rebar, and in shops. Across North America, we build.
And we build safely and skillfully, getting the job done right and on time.
We provide many benefits and support for our members. These benefits include the advantage of working under a collective bargaining agreement that brings bigger paychecks, better health and retirement benefits, more secure jobs, and safe working conditions.
Headquarters
International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Union
1750 New York Avenue NW Suite 400
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202 383-4800
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), AFL-CIO & CLC, is a diverse labor union advocating on behalf of more than 80,000 women and men in professional, technical, administrative and associated occupations in the United States and Canada. Our members are employed by federal, public and private employers. We balance the broad range of our members’ interests by adhering to democratic processes and consensus decision-making. Unique in representing highly educated and skilled women and men, IFPTE combines the collective bargaining strength of a union with the autonomy and specialization of a professional association.
Headquarters
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
501 3rd Street, NW
Suite 701
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202.239.4880
The Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics & Allied Workers (GMP) International Union
The Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics & Allied Workers (GMP) International Union is one of the oldest labor unions in America, with its origins dating back to 1842. Several mergers have since taken place and this growing union is now known as the GMP International Union.
The GMP represents thousands of workers in the glass, molders, plastics, pottery, cast metals, fiberglass, defense, fine china, glass and plastic containers, insulation and sanitary-ware industries as well as workers in government, healthcare and a variety of other industries.
The GMP currently has well over 250 local unions throughout the United States and Canada. Members of these locals enjoy some of the best possible wages, benefits, workplace safety protections and retirement in their industries and their workplaces.
The officers and staff of the GMP come from the industries they service and are highly skilled in all aspects of labor issues.
The GMP Organizing Department constantly conducts organizing probes and campaigns throughout the US and Canada, helping workers in every segment of employment gain a voice in the workplace, with better wages and working conditions.
The GMP and its officers also work closely with the rest of the Labor Movement, forging partnerships that bring about valuable resources and experience to better serve the members of the GMP.
Headquarters
GMP International Union
608 East Baltimore Pike
Media, PA 19063-0607
Phone: (610) 565-5051
Office and Professional Employees International Union
Office and Professional Employees International Union was chartered in 1945 and with more than 104,000 members (representing 110,000 employees) strong, we’re one of the larger unions of the AFL-CIO. OPEIU has locals in every state, Puerto Rico and Canada. You are not alone when you join OPEIU. Click here to find an OPEIU Local Union where you live.
OPEIU represents employees and independent contractors in credit unions, hospitals and medical clinics, insurance, higher education, transportation, shipping, utilities, hotels, administrative offices and more.
Headquarters
80 Eighth Avenue
(entrance at 265 West 14th Street)
20th Floor
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (800) 346-7348
International Union of Operating Engineers
The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) is a progressive, diversified trade union that primarily represents operating engineers, who work as heavy equipment operators, mechanics, and surveyors in the construction industry, and stationary engineers, who work in operations and maintenance in building and industrial complexes, and in the service industries. IUOE also represents nurses and other health industry workers, a significant number of public employees engaged in a wide variety of occupations, as well as a number of job classifications in the petrochemical industry.
This representation is the core of IUOE’s mission. From ensuring protections of prevailing wages on public projects, to alleviating healthcare costs through coalition building, to improving our contractors’ competitiveness, IUOE has and will continue to be tirelessly dedicated to the common interests of its members.
Founded in 1896, IUOE today has approximately 400,000 members in 123 local unions throughout the United States and Canada. IUOE is the 10th largest union in the AFL-CIO. Over 100 state-of-the-art training and apprenticeship programs ensure that IUOE members are the safest, most productive, and highly skilled craft workers.
Operative Plasterers' and Cement Masons' International Association
Organized 1864
For over 150 years the OPCMIA has represented and trained plasterers and cement masons for the purpose of protecting and promoting the quality of our industry and the livelihood of our members. Plaster and concrete are ageless building materials that will not fall out of favor as long as there is a sufficient amount of workers who are skilled in the arts of installation and finishing. These materials are as unforgiving as they are durable and beautiful. Skilled hands and competent management must work together to achieve the desired result and to promote and protect this vital construction resource. We dedicate ourselves to the promotion of these materials, the recruitment and training of skilled craftsmen to meet the demand of our industry, and hold ourselves responsible to this commitment for the future of our industry and the welfare of all those who earn their living in it.
International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers
SMART, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, is one of North America’s most dynamic and diverse unions with 216,000 members. SMART’s members ensure the quality of the air we breathe, promote energy efficiency, produce and provide the vital services that move products to market and passengers to their destinations. We are sheet metal workers, service technicians, bus operators, engineers, conductors, sign workers, welders, production employees and more. With members in scores of different occupations, we advocate for fairness in the workplace, excellence at work and opportunity for all working families.
Headquarters
International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART)
1750 New York Avenue, NW,
6th Floor Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-662-0800
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States, Canada (UA), affiliated with the national building trades, represents approximately 340,000 plumbers, pipefitters, sprinkler fitters, service technicians and welders in local unions across North America. We also honor a federation agreement with both the Australian Plumbing Trades Employees Union (PTEU) and Irish Technical, Engineering Electrical Union (TEEU).
The UA has been training qualified pipe tradesmen and women longer than anyone else in the industry. We provide the premier training programs available in the industry today, including five-year apprenticeship programs, extensive journeyman training, a comprehensive, five-year instructor training program, and numerous certification programs. We help our signatory contractors grow their market share by identifying new opportunities, providing support and connecting them to the safest, most skilled and most highly trained workforce in the industry.
Headquarters
United Association
Three Park Place
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Phone: (410) 269-2000
Laborers’ International Union of North America
The men and women of LIUNA do the hard, dangerous and sometimes dirty work of building our countries.
LIUNA—the Laborers’ International Union of North America—is the most progressive, aggressive and fastest-growing union of construction workers, and one of the most diverse and effective unions representing public service employees.
LIUNA members are on the forefront of the construction industry – a sector that is a powerhouse of 12 million workers producing 5 percent of our countries’ economic output.
A half-million strong, we are united through collective bargaining agreements which help us earn family-supporting pay, good benefits and the opportunity for advancement and better lives.
Headquarters
Laborers’ International Union of North America
905 16th Street, Northwest
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 202-737-8320
International Chemical Workers Union
International Chemical Workers Union–We are a reputable workers union located in Akron, Ohio. With more than 70 years of experience in the industry, our labor union prides itself on helping employees have a voice in the workplace. We employ highly trained professionals to help you in every aspect of your journey. Enjoy better benefits, a safer workplace, and job security with the help of the I.C.W. Union Council.
Headquarters
International Chemical Workers Union
1655 W. Market St.,
6th Floor, Akron, OH., 44313
Phone: (330) 926-1444
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades represents a growing force of men and women in the United States and Canada who work in the Finishing Trades – Industrial & Commercial Painting, Drywall Finishing, Glazing & Glass Work, Sign & Display and Floor Covering Installation, and many more successful careers in the construction industry and public sector.
Headquarters
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
7234 Parkway Drive
Hanover, MD 21076
Phone: 410-564-5900
Service Employees International Union
We are the Service Employees International Union, an organization of 2-million members united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide and dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society.
Headquarters
Service Employees International Union
1800 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-730-7000
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
International Brotherhood of Teamsters–Founded in 1903, the Teamsters mission is to organize and educate workers towards a higher standard of living.
There are currently 1.4 million members under 21 Industrial Divisions that include virtually every occupation imaginable, both professional and non professional, private sector and public sector.
Headquarters
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001