Jeff Saliba, business manager of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 6 in Boston, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast on behalf of Pete Ielmini and the Mechanical Insulators LMCT to discuss the state of the trade in New England and the broader challenges facing union workers today.
Saliba addressed a Commonwealth Beacon investigation, which found that many Boston hospitals consume four times as much energy as other city buildings, and explained why properly installed mechanical insulation is the most straightforward tool available to reduce that consumption and the associated carbon footprint.
Saliba also discussed Local 6's apprenticeship program, which now has approximately 80 members training in a newly purchased and renovated building, funded in part by nearly $700,000 in state grants. He also described the Local's recovery program, built around an EAP called Modern Assistance Programs, which he runs with a personal commitment rooted in more than 20 years of sobriety.
Finally, Saliba addressed what he described as the central challenge facing many unions right now: the cultural drift toward individualism that makes collective action harder to sustain. He believes this is being deliberately engineered to divide workers from each other and from the political power they can wield when they act together.
- Properly installed mechanical insulation is the most cost-effective tool available for reducing energy waste in large buildings like hospitals, and Local 6 members perform approximately 95 percent of the mechanical insulation work at Boston-area hospitals. Saliba said properly installed insulation — not just any covering around a pipe — allows equipment to function at its designed efficiency. It can also extend equipment life, reduce fuel consumption and reduce carbon footprint. He expressed frustration that hospitals pursuing net-zero goals often overlook insulation entirely despite its proven impact.
- Local 6's recovery program is built around an EAP called Modern Assistance Programs. Saliba's commitment to Local 6 members and the program is rooted in his own sobriety for more than 20 years and his Massachusetts license in alcohol and drug addiction counseling. Any apprentice caught with substances in their system is sent to MAP, he said, and they must sign a last chance agreement and adhere to the full program for the remainder of their apprenticeship. Those who come forward voluntarily before a violation occurs are not required to sign the last-chance agreement but must still comply with MAP's program. Workers who are dropped from the program can petition to return after 10 to 12 months, provided they receive a favorable report from MAP. EAP services through MAP are available to members for life, regardless of their standing.
- Saliba described the tension between individualism and collective thinking as the most significant internal challenge facing unions today. He cited an example in which a member wanted to take a 45-cent annuity allocation as a wage increase so he could invest in the stock market, without considering the 599 other members in the Local who may not have that capacity. The individualist culture has been deliberately cultivated since the 1950s and accelerated since President Reagan, Saliba said. It shows up when workers support a candidate based on a single issue, rather than considering that candidate's ability to impact union wages, benefits, retirement security and family economic stability. This member ends up voting against their own interests.
A Union Family, Asbestos Work and the Path to Local 6
Jeff Saliba grew up in a union household. His mother was a correctional officer and later a court guard for the state. His father worked for Boston Edison, now Eversource. All five of his siblings were union members. Union life was the conversation at the dinner table. He joined Laborers Local 223 in Boston before moving into asbestos removal work, which his father essentially directed him toward, and it paid better. He did asbestos abatement for four years before transitioning into the mechanical insulation program at Local 6, where he has spent his career until serving as business manager.
He explained how asbestos removal work requires full protective gear, proper decontamination procedures and the discipline to keep the protective equipment on at all times. Saliba was candid that the discipline was not always perfect. But the training is serious, he said, and the protocols are clear. Now, he brings the same seriousness about hazardous work to his approach to running the Local.
The Boston Hospital Report and What It Means for Local 6
The Commonwealth Beacon investigation, which found that many Boston hospitals consumed approximately four times as much energy as other buildings in the city, was not a surprise to Saliba. His members work in those buildings regularly — in the steam tunnels and on the pipes, doing maintenance and contract work. He said Local 6 performs approximately 95 percent of the mechanical insulation work at Boston-area hospital facilities. He himself spent years working in the steam tunnels at Brigham and Women's Hospital and described the maze of piping there as something most people would find hard to believe.
His frustration with the report is not that it was wrong, but that the solution keeps getting overlooked. Properly installed mechanical insulation — not just any material wrapped around a pipe, but insulation installed with the skill and precision that trained journeymen provide — allows equipment to run at its designed efficiency. It also extends the operating life of that equipment and directly reduces fuel consumption and carbon output. For hospitals that run primarily on gas and are pursuing net-zero goals on ambitious timelines, insulation should be the first step. Saliba said the engineers he talks to at these facilities regularly seem to forget that.
The Apprenticeship Program: 80 Members, a New Building and $700,000 in Grants
Local 6's apprenticeship program currently has approximately 80 members in training. After a 14-year stretch of unprecedented demand — with up to 140 traveling workers in the area to cover commercial work — Saliba said the market has slowed somewhat with the closure of regional power plants. But the Local has not slowed its investment in training.
The Local recently purchased the building next door to its Union Hall for more than $3 million. It was renovated and now hosts classes. The state provided nearly $700,000 in grant funding for upgrades, including sewing machines for pad-making classes and other equipment for the mechanics training program. The Local pays apprentices their wages during training. Saliba said he is always looking for people who understand the opportunity in front of them and who will protect it, and he has made a deliberate effort to remove apprentices who treat the program as an entitlement rather than an earned path.
Recovery: Tough Love With a Clear Door Back
Saliba has been sober for more than 20 years. He holds a Massachusetts license in alcohol and drug addiction counseling. Recovery is personal, and he brings that personal commitment to how Local 6 handles substance use among its apprentices.
The Local works with an EAP called Modern Assistance Programs (MAP). Apprentices who test positive for substances are referred to MAP and must sign a last chance agreement. That requires full compliance with MAP's program for the remainder of their apprenticeship, drug testing, counseling if needed, and regular check-ins. Any deviation from the program results in dismissal. Apprentices who come forward voluntarily before a violation occurs are not required to sign the last-chance agreement, but must still comply with whatever MAP prescribes.
Workers who are dropped from the program can petition the Joint Apprenticeship Committee to return after 10 to 12 months, provided they receive a favorable report from MAP. Saliba said approximately 60 percent of those petitioners succeed — a strong number by any measure in addiction recovery work, and one that reflects the value of clear structure combined with a genuine path back. EAP services through MAP are available to members for the rest of their lives, regardless of their standing in the apprenticeship program.
He also noted the Massachusetts Building Trades Recovery Council, which holds its annual Wellness Walk in September. The group is doing important and effective work across the state, Saliba said.
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Individualism Versus the Collective: The Fight Inside the Fight
The sharpest part of Saliba's conversation was his analysis of what he sees as the central internal challenge for most unions right now. He described it as the drift toward individualism — a cultural shift going back decades that accelerated through the Reagan era and is amplified today through media fragmentation and deliberate political strategy.
He discussed an instance to illustrate his belief. The Local was allocating a 45-cent raise and decided to direct it into the annuity. One member raised his hand and wanted the 45 cents in his paycheck because he invests in the stock market and thought he could manage it better himself. Saliba told the member that he might be right about his ability to invest. But he did not once consider the other 599 members in the Local who may lack that capacity and depend on the collective annuity for their retirement security. The member was thinking like an individual. The Local has to think like a collective group of 600 people.
Saliba also connected that dynamic to political behavior. Workers who vote on wedge issues — guns, abortion, immigration, religion — rather than on wages, benefits, pension security and family economic stability are, in his view, voting against their own interests. Without the union, doing non-union insulation work would likely mean he would qualify for Medicaid and food stamps. The union is what stands between his family and poverty in an economy that is stacked against workers without formal education.
Saliba also believes the division is manufactured by the same billionaires who own the media companies that present two incompatible versions of reality and by political forces that understand that an individualized workforce cannot organize, bargain or vote as a bloc. Saliba said these organizations believe that workers who think in terms of “we” are dangerous, whereas a worker thinking in terms of “me” is manageable.
His answer to members is practical. He writes letters. He talks. He explains. He asks members for one specific thing: when the union calls and asks you to phone your legislator in support of a bill, make the call. State your name, your address and your position. That is the floor of collective action, and it costs nothing.
Labor Day at 132: A Political Organization, Not a Social Club
Saliba offered a reminder to union members for his Labor Day message. A union is a political organization, he said. It exists to fight for wages and benefits that allow members to feed, clothe, insure, educate and house their families. That fight requires collective action and requires members to show up — at the polls, on the phone, and in the conversations they have with each other. The 132nd anniversary of Labor Day is a reminder of why that fight started and why it is not finished.
More information on Heat and Frost Insulators Local 6 is available at insulators6.org. For updates from the Mechanical Insulators LMCT, visit them at mechanicalinsulatorslmct.com.
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