SMART's Sellers to retire

Joseph Sellers Jr., general president of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), announced he will retire May 31.

Sellers is a second-generation sheet metal worker who has dedicated more than 40 years to SMART, union officials said in a press release. He began his apprenticeship in 1980 at Local 19 in Philadelphia and became a journeyperson in 1984. A decade later, he was elected to the local union's executive board and appointed training coordinator in 1996. Sellers became the Local 19's president and business manager in 2002 after serving as a business representative for two years.

Sellers was elected to international leadership as 11th general vice president in 2009. Two years later, the SMART General Executive Council elected him to serve as the union's general secretary-treasurer, for which he was unanimously reelected in 2014, SMART officials said.

Sellers has served as SMART's general president since May 2015 and was reelected in August 2019.

Michael Coleman, current assistant to the general president, will succeed Sellers on June 1. He's been a member since 1985, having served as president and business manager of Local 33 in northern Ohio, as ninth general vice president and as director of business and management relations, in addition to his current role.