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Growing up in a house with a father who was a politically active Teamster, Local 277 member Nate Henry got involved with politics early. He participated in labor door-knocking during campaigns and attended fundraising dinners.

As a third-year apprentice, he recently joined the local’s political action committee and was happy to be asked to attend the UBC’s GOTV conference.

“I want to help make a change that helps our local. Our local is growing and we’re expanding our training center because of the Micron project. That’s a direct result of political action. It’s important to have politicians who pass legislation to get more work on the books.”

Micron has begun building a $120 billion 20-year chip manufacturing facility near Syracuse that will generate hundreds of thousands of work hours for union carpenters. Key to the deal was funding and incentives from both the Biden Administration’s Chips and Science Act and the State of New York.

Henry was asked to speak at the conference about the Micron project at the conference and his experience attending a recent visit to the area by President Joe Biden.

Among the workshops members attended, Henry found two particularly valuable to him. One was about meeting with elected officials and the other focused on political discussions on the jobsite.

“The union has members that are liberals and Democrats but also Republicans and conservatives. Often the union supports Democratic candidates and that makes sense when those Democrats help us secure work. But in the field I’ve caught a lot of heat for being a Democrat.”

“This workshop helped us think about ways to talk to people about politics when we may not agree. How we can focus on carpenters issues and talk without starting an argument with someone who may get defensive or aggressive. It’s important that we do that if we want to be successful as union carpenters.”