Unionized Sheet Metal Workers in Albuquerque Celebrate Opening of New Labs

The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation workers Local 49 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, celebrated the opening of two labs at its training center — a pharmaceutical lab and variable refrigerant flow lab. The labs, at 2,000 square feet each, will help train apprentices and journeypersons at Local 49 on testing, adjusting and balancing, fire life safety, ventilation, clean room, indoor air quality and much more.

The lab allows apprentices and journeypersons to learn, problem solve and run scenarios they will see on the job site. Rooms are created through pressure gradients, where a positive room is a sterile environment and a negative room is for containment.

The labs fall in line with the reconfiguration of Local 49’s apprenticeship program, which, beginning in the fall, will include two years of general sheet metal knowledge with the third year as an exploratory year to investigate all sheet metal specialties. In their fourth year, apprentices will focus on the specialty of their choice.

The labs also align with jobs that will be made available through various federal funding opportunities, such as ventilation verification, indoor air quality and energy efficiency. Federal funding sources are pushing for heat pump systems, which is another way Local 49 is getting ahead of the game, said Isaiah Zemke, current Local 49 business manager.

Through partnerships with manufacturers Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US and Trane, equipment in the VRF lab will be updated accordingly, with the training center providing space and installation of equipment and controls as part of the learning environment. Screens also allow those in the pharmaceutical lab to view activities in the VRF lab so that simultaneous scenarios can be run in both labs.

Now that the labs are open, the next step is for them to become certified testing facilities by the Testing, Adjusting and Balancing Bureau.