John Candioto was returned as business manager of Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 in union officer elections held June 26 to 28, outpolling challenger Dennis Boyd 84 to 16 percent. Candioto has been business manager since his Dec. 1, 2011, appointment by Local 16’s Executive Board. He succeeded Len Phillips, who retired.
Local 16 represents 1,938 sheet metal workers in construction and manufacturing in Oregon and Southwest Washington — including about 400 retirees.
Members also elected four full-time business representatives and 16 officers.
Incumbent business representative Willy Myers won with 68 percent of the vote against challenger Robert Brewer, and incumbent business rep Russ Benton, who was appointed to replace Candioto in December, won with 64 percent of the vote against challenger Robert Riehl. Business representatives Dennis Dover and Del Brown were elected unopposed. Brown represents production employees, while the others represent members in construction.
Charles Johnson, Seth Kerner, and James Ramos were the top vote-getters for Executive Board for the local’s construction members. All other officers were elected unopposed. Those were: president, Ric Olander; vice president, Art Himm; recording secretary, Matt O’Neill; Executive Board for production, Darrell Alcorn, Devin Hoskins, and William Willman; Executive Board for Southwest Oregon, Joel Hutchinson; trustees, Ed Dawes, Tom Harding, and James Philley; and warden, Ron Hergenrader.
All terms are three years, and officers will be sworn in July 11.
Candioto, 55, has been in the sheet metal trade since he went to work as an apprentice in 1976 in Local 242 (which is now Local 55) in Walla Walla, Washington. A 1975 graduate of Cleveland High School in Portland, his first union work was pouring concrete at Hanford Nuclear Reservation as a member of Laborers Local 348. He moved to Portland in 1988, became a member of Local 16, and was elected to the Local 16 Executive Board in 2003, and business agent in 2006.
On the building trades side, work has picked up in the last couple years, at Intel and projects around Portland, as well as at Facebook’s Prineville data center; just under 12 percent are currently out of work. Construction sheet metal workers install heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and ductwork, as well as architectural and structural and decorative sheet metal, including metal roofs and siding. In Portland, the union-affiliated HVAC & Metals Institute is where the career path starts; wage and benefit package totals $54.42 an hour.
