Insulators are an especially tight group. With only 600 members, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 16 covers all of Northern California and Northwestern Nevada, with an 85 percent unionization rate for commercial and industrial construction.
Their work is critical and highly skilled. Insulators Local 16 members work on projects ranging from nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, oil refineries, and food processing plants, to high-rise office buildings, power plants, hospitals, and schools. And because of changing environmental codes, a large portion of their current workload is in the abatement field, removing the hazardous material they previously installed.
The highly skilled nature of their work, along with a cooperative labor-management culture ...
