WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joseph Sellers Jr. general president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, or SMART, will retire on May 31. Sellers announced his retirement in January, but the union publicized the news in a Tuesday press release.
Sellers will be succeeded by current Assistant to the General President Michael Coleman.
Sellers became general president on May 1, 2015 and was reelected in 2019. He first joined union leadership as a member of the executive board of Local 19 in Philadelphia in 1994, becoming the local’s president and business manager in 2002. He joined the international leadership when he was elected 11th general vice president in August 2009, became general secretary-treasurer in July 2011, and was reelected to that position in August 2014.
“It will always be the greatest honor to have represented the women and men who embody the highest level of professionalism and expertise in our industries,” Sellers said. “Their selfless dedication was on display when our countries needed them most: They are the essential workers who carried our nations through the global pandemic.”
