Michael Harris

Michael Harris is a 37-year member of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers, or SMART, union. He started working in a sheet metal shop as a summer job at age 16. After spending a year in college, he began working full-time as a sheet metal worker at the Tarpenning & LaFollette Co., a custom metal fabrication shop where his father worked. A few years after starting the sheet metal trade, he entered the Sheet Metal Workers Local No. 20 apprenticeship program in Indianapolis, IN. He began teaching night school during his apprenticeship and has been involved with the educational side of the industry for 30 years, where he held various positions throughout the years, as a JATC instructor and Director of Training, an ITI Field Representative, ITI Program Administrator in charge of curriculum development and his current position as the Administrator of the International Training Institute for the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Industry.