Journeyman sheet metal workers under SMART Local 68 in Dallas & Fort Worth, TX earn $36.18/hr in base wages, or $48.85/hr as a total package with fringe benefits, effective Jun 2024.
SMART Local 68 runs its own dispatch and out-of-work list — call the hall to confirm hours, books and what to bring. Gulfstream is a private recruiter and does not control hall referral.
The Local 68 pay scale is $36.18 per hour for journeymen in Dallas & Fort Worth, TX, or about $72,360 a year at 2,080 hours. The total package, including employer-paid fringe benefits, is $48.85 per hour. That is the rate in force, effective 6/7/24.
| Local 68 journeyman hourly wage | $36.18 / hour |
|---|---|
| Total package (wage + fringe benefits) | $48.85 / hour |
| Annualized at 2,080 hours (base wage) | $72,360 / year |
| First-period apprentice (≈45–50% of scale) | $16.28–$18.09 / hour |
| Wage sheet effective | 6/7/24 |
A Local 68 apprentice in Dallas & Fort Worth, TX starts at roughly $16.28 an hour — about 45% of the $36.18 journeyman scale — and steps up each period, reaching around $27.13 an hour by the fourth year and full scale on turning out. These are the standard percentage steps of scale, not a wage sheet Local 68 has published; confirm the exact schedule with the JATC.
| 1st period (year 1) | 45% of scale | $16.28 / hour | $32,562 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd period (year 2) | 55% of scale | $19.90 / hour | $39,798 |
| 3rd period (year 3) | 65% of scale | $23.52 / hour | $47,034 |
| 4th period (year 4) | 75% of scale | $27.13 / hour | $54,270 |
| 5th period (year 5) | 85% of scale | $30.75 / hour | $61,506 |
| Journeyman (turned out) | 100% of scale | $36.18 / hour | $72,360 |
SMART Local 68 runs its own referral procedure and books are signed at the hall — call (817) 267-9213 to confirm dispatch hours, required documents (union card, certifications, ID) and current list standing before traveling in. Contact details are imported from the UA, SMART and IBEW public directories. Gulfstream is a private recruiting firm, is not affiliated with the local, and does not control hall dispatch.
SMART Local 68 represents the skilled sheet metal workforce across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and the broader North Texas region. As a charter of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, this local manages the labor supply for high-precision fabrication and installation. The market is defined by a massive surge in commercial office space, data center infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing facilities that require sophisticated air handling systems. Local 68 members provide the technical expertise for everything from architectural metal cladding to complex industrial ventilation, ensuring that large-scale mechanical projects meet the rigorous standards of the North Texas construction environment.
The North Texas market is one of the most competitive construction hubs in the United States, placing a premium on certified sheet metal journeyworkers. Local 68 serves as the primary pipeline for skilled labor, offering contractors a stable workforce trained in the latest CAD/BIM technologies and automated fabrication methods. For the tradesperson, this local provides a structured career path with standardized protections and benefits that are often absent in the non-union residential sector. Because of the density of healthcare systems and corporate headquarters in Dallas and Tarrant Counties, the demand for high-velocity ductwork and specialty metal fabrication remains a consistent driver for the local's dispatch office.
As of June 7, 2024, the journeyman hourly rate for SMART Local 68 is set at $36.18, contributing to a total package of $48.85 when including fringe benefits. This $12.67 difference covers critical employer-paid contributions to health, pension, and training funds. Apprentices enter the program at a percentage of the journeyman rate, typically starting around 40-50% and receiving incremental raises every six to twelve months as they complete required classroom hours and on-the-job training milestones. By the final year of the five-year apprenticeship, workers earn significantly closer to the full scale. These mandated increases provide a transparent ladder for career growth, ensuring that as a worker's proficiency in fabrication and field installation increases, their compensation reflects their heightened value to the signatory contractor.
The jurisdiction of SMART Local 68 covers a vast territory centered on the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and extending across North Texas. This territory encompasses major urban hubs and the surrounding industrial corridors where heavy commercial and industrial development is concentrated. The charter gives Local 68 members exclusive rights to the fabrication, assembly, and installation of all sheet metal work within these boundaries. This includes HVAC ductwork, architectural metal, and industrial blowpipe systems. Members dispatched to jobsites within this region operate under a unified collective bargaining agreement, which standardizes overtime rules, travel pay for distant projects, and shift differentials, providing a level playing field for both the workforce and the signatory employers competing for regional contracts.
The contractor landscape for SMART Local 68 is composed of diverse signatory employers ranging from specialized architectural metal shops to massive multi-state mechanical primes. These firms handle the heavy lifting for the region's largest infrastructure projects, including airport expansions, hospital towers, and semiconductor fabrication plants. While some contractors focus exclusively on shop-based fabrication using CNC plasma cutters and automated coil lines, others are field-heavy, specializing in the installation of complex air distribution systems and exterior metal building envelopes. The strength of the local lies in its ability to supply man-power to these firms, allowing them to scale quickly for peak manning requirements on multi-million dollar contracts across North Texas.
The check rate ($36.18) is the gross hourly pay you see on your paycheck before taxes. The total package ($48.85) includes an additional $12.67 per hour that the contractor pays directly into your benefits. These fringes cover your health insurance and retirement funds, meaning they are not deducted from your $36.18 hourly wage, providing a higher net value than a comparable non-union rate.
Yes, through the JATC, members can obtain certifications in welding (AWS), Testing, Adjusting, and Balancing (TABB), Fire Life Safety, and BIM/Detailing. These certifications are essential for working on high-spec projects like hospitals or laboratories. Maintaining these credentials often makes a member more eligible for steady work with major signatory mechanical primes who require specialized skill sets for specific contract obligations.
Local 68 utilizes a hiring hall referral system. When signatory contractors need labor, they contact the union to request workers. Members on the out-of-work list are dispatched based on their skills and their position on the list. This system ensures fair access to job opportunities across the North Texas jurisdiction, allowing workers to move between different contractors as projects start and finish without losing their benefits.
Travelers and members looking to transfer must contact the Local 68 Financial Secretary-Treasurer. You must be in good standing with your home local. The process typically involves presenting your travel card and potentially meeting specific residency or work-hour requirements before a full transfer is granted. Acceptance of travelers depends heavily on the current manning needs and the volume of work available in the DFW market.
SMART Local 68 is seated in Dallas & Fort Worth, Texas (TX). We hold published wage sheets for 20 locals across Texas — compare nearby scales before you take a call.
We are a mechanical, plumbing and electrical construction recruiting firm serving Dallas & Fort Worth and the rest of Texas, including contractors signatory to SMART Local 68. Our office is in South Corona, California and we place union-scale tradespeople and field leadership nationwide.
Gulfstream Strategic Placements, 4160 Temescal Canyon Road, Suite 401, Corona, CA 92883. Phone (951) 208-7780. Email hello@gulfstreamsp.com. Monday–Friday, 7:00 AM–5:00 PM Pacific.View our verified Google Business Profile
Journeyman scales as last published by each local. Rates change every contract cycle — confirm with the hall.
The Local 68 pay scale is $36.18 per hour for journeymen in Dallas & Fort Worth, TX, or about $72,360 a year at 2,080 hours. The total package, including employer-paid fringe benefits, is $48.85 per hour. That is the rate in force, effective 6/7/24.
Journeyman sheet metal workers under the SMART Local 68 agreement make $36.18 an hour in base wages, or $48.85 an hour counting the fringe package, per the wage sheet effective 6/7/24. Overtime, shift premiums, and travel or subsistence pay are added on top under the local's CBA.
$36.18 per hour base wage and $48.85 per hour total package for a journeyman in Dallas & Fort Worth, TX, effective 6/7/24. Annualized at 2,080 hours that is roughly $72,360 before overtime.
A Local 68 apprentice in Dallas & Fort Worth, TX starts at roughly $16.28 an hour — about 45% of the $36.18 journeyman scale — and steps up each period, reaching around $27.13 an hour by the fourth year and full scale on turning out. These are the standard percentage steps of scale, not a wage sheet Local 68 has published; confirm the exact schedule with the JATC.
About $16.28 an hour, or roughly $32,562 a year at 2,080 hours, based on the standard 45% first-period step of the $36.18 journeyman rate effective 6/7/24. Apprentices also earn benefit contributions and paid classroom progression; the JATC sets the exact percentage.
Around $23.52 an hour at the standard 65% third-period step, moving to about $27.13 an hour in the fourth period and $36.18 an hour at full journeyman scale. Confirm the published step schedule with the Local 68 training center.
The current SMART Local 68 journeyman rate is $36.18/hour, with a total package of $48.85/hour including fringe benefits, effective 6/7/24. At 2,080 hours that works out to roughly $72,360 per year in base wages before overtime. Rates change with each CBA cycle — confirm with the Local 68 business office before relying on the figure.
The $36.18/hour figure is the base journeyman wage that lands on the paycheck. The $48.85/hour total package adds employer-paid fringes — health and welfare, pension, annuity, apprenticeship training, and industry funds. Contractors bid work off the total package, so that is the number that matters when comparing sheet metal workers labor costs across locals.
Apprentices under the SMART Local 68 agreement are paid a graduated percentage of the journeyman rate, typically starting near 40–50% in the first period and stepping up each six-month or annual period until reaching 100% at turnout. Against the current $36.18/hour journeyman rate, a first-period apprentice would be in the $16.28–$18.09/hour range. The exact percentage schedule is set by the local's JATC.
SMART Local 68 is headquartered in Dallas & Fort Worth, TX and dispatches sheet metal workers manpower throughout its chartered jurisdiction. Work performed inside that territory falls under the local's collective bargaining agreement and wage schedule, even when the contractor is based elsewhere and travels in.
Most locals require applicants to be at least 18, legally able to work in the U.S., hold a high school diploma or GED, pass a basic math/aptitude assessment and a drug screen, and be physically able to perform sheet metal workers work. Some Local 68 programs give preference to applicants inside the jurisdiction or to veterans. Eligibility rules are set by the local's Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (JATC), so confirm the current criteria with the hall before applying.
Apprenticeship applications go through the SMART Local 68 JATC, not through a contractor or a recruiter. Applications typically open in defined intake windows each year: you submit the application with proof of age, education, and residency, sit for an aptitude test, and then interview. Ranked applicants are placed on an eligibility list and indentured as signatory contractors call for apprentices. Gulfstream Strategic Placements does not process apprenticeship applications — contact the Local 68 training center directly.
Sheet Metal Workers apprenticeships generally run four to five years — roughly 8,000–10,000 hours of on-the-job training plus several hundred classroom hours per year. Apprentices earn a paycheck the entire time, stepping up through the wage periods until they turn out as journeymen at 100% of scale.
Signatory contractors hire through the local's hiring hall, so working under the SMART Local 68 agreement generally means being a member or being organized in through the local's process. Journeymen from other locals can travel in by signing the out-of-work book, subject to the local's referral rules and manpower needs. Non-union sheet metal workers professionals are usually placed with open-shop contractors instead — we recruit for both.
Rates move with the collective bargaining agreement, typically on a fixed anniversary date each year of a three- to five-year contract, with negotiated increases split between the base wage and the fringe package. The figures on this page reflect the 6/7/24 schedule; check with the Local 68 business office for any increase that has taken effect since.
Wage rates vary widely by local and market. Use the Union Pay Scale Explorer to sort every UA and SMART local by hourly wage, total package, and annualized pay so you can benchmark Local 68 against neighboring jurisdictions and other sheet metal workers markets.
The SMART Local 68 hall is at 1020 South Industrial Blvd Euless TX 76040, serving Dallas & Fort Worth, TX and the surrounding jurisdiction. Hall phone: (817) 267-9213.
SMART Local 68 runs its own referral procedure and books are signed at the hall. Call the hall at (817) 267-9213 to confirm dispatch hours, required documents (union card, certifications, ID) and current list standing before traveling in — Gulfstream does not control hall dispatch.
SMART Local 68 can be reached at (817) 267-9213. Contact details are imported from the union's public directory listing — confirm hours with the hall.