🗞️ Tin Snips vs. Tar Paper: NLRB Rules Nevada Sheet Metal Workers Can Hold Their Own Union Vote

A federal labor board has cleared the path for a union election among a select group of workers at a Nevada roofing company, in a decision that turns on a deceptively practical question: does the skill required to cut, bend, and fasten sheet metal make a worker meaningfully different from the colleague laying down single-ply membrane on the other side of the same roof?

The National Labor Relations Board's Region 32 concluded that it does. In a decision issued May 18, 2026, Regional Director Christy J. Kwon ruled that sheet metal workers employed by Kodiak Roofing & Waterproofing, LLC, a commercial and residential contractor based in Sparks, Nevada, constitute a legally distinct "craft unit" entitled to hold their own union election. The ruling clears Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 26 to proceed with a mail-ballot election scheduled for late June, covering approximately 15 workers classified as Assistant Roofers and Journeymen who perform primarily sheet metal work.

Kodiak had argued that the only appropriate vote would be one that included all 72 of its Nevada employees, spanning Journeyman Roofers, Assistant Roofers, Service Technician Is, and Service Technician IIs, on the grounds that workers are cross-trained and regularly move between tasks depending on project needs. The Regional Director was not persuaded.

At the heart of the ruling is the NLRB's "craft unit" doctrine, a long-standing legal framework that permits a distinct group of skilled tradespeople to seek union representation independent of an employer's broader workforce, provided they primarily perform tasks requiring specialized skills and tools not shared by other employees. The standard, rooted in the Board's 1994 decision in Burns & Roe, asks whether workers are "primarily engaged in the performance of tasks which are not performed by other employees and which require the use of substantial craft skills and specialized tools and equipment."

The evidence presented at the hearing documented two largely parallel workforces operating under the same company banner. Certified payroll records from three public prevailing wage projects, a middle school, a health clinic, and a health laboratory at a state university, showed a consistent division of labor over the course of roughly a year. Employee Ralph Keith logged 46 weeks under the sheet metal classification and 3 under the roofer code; Jason Tom worked 40 weeks under sheet metal and none under the roofer designation. On the other side of the ledger, employee Ramiro Ramos logged 3 weeks under the sheet metal code and 51 weeks as a roofer; Eric Avila worked exclusively under the roofer code for all 26 weeks he appeared in the records.

The distinction carries real financial weight. Under Nevada's prevailing wage law, which governs publicly funded construction projects, sheet metal workers must be compensated at a rate more than twice that of journeyman roofers performing conventional tasks such as installing single-ply membranes, shingles, or tile. The Regional Director cited that wage differential as evidence of the meaningful distinction the state of Nevada has long recognized between the two classifications.

Kodiak's operations manager, Mike Nash, testified that the company cross-trains employees and assigns them based on project needs and worker availability rather than on craft or jurisdictional lines. The record, however, did not bear out that workers routinely performed skilled tasks outside their primary classification. Nash acknowledged that a number of employees lack the training to install aluminum composite panels, one of the principal sheet metal competencies at the company, and the employer presented no testimony from a current non-managerial employee and no evidence of non-sheet metal workers regularly performing skilled sheet metal work. Witnesses for the union included Jacob Rose, a former Kodiak employee who now works for the petitioning union, and Andres de la Rosa, a sheet metal apprentice who worked on two of Kodiak's prevailing wage projects through the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee, a program run jointly by the sheet metal union and signatory contractors. Both described working on crews composed entirely of sheet metal workers, under supervision kept separate from non-metal roofing crews.

Where the decision parts from closely analogous precedent, most notably the Board's 1997 ruling in Schaus Roofing, is on the question of formal apprenticeship. In Schaus, an employer-run apprenticeship program was a meaningful factor in favor of craft unit status. Kodiak does not operate one. The Regional Director acknowledged the distinction but found it non-dispositive, noting that Nevada law independently requires a sheet metal apprentice on prevailing wage projects and that the skills of Kodiak's sheet metal workers are acquired through on-the-job training and the external apprenticeship program. Counterbalancing the absence of a formal program, the record here showed something Schaus did not: sheet metal workers at Kodiak work in crews composed exclusively of other sheet metal workers, under supervision kept largely separate from other roofing employees, a factor the Board in Schaus had counted against craft unit status.

The decision also addressed Kodiak's Service Technicians, workers who repair leaks and damaged materials at existing buildings, finding that they operate in a functionally separate department with distinct qualifications, separate supervisors, and day-to-day work that rarely intersects with new construction crews. They were excluded from the unit.

On the question of how the election should be conducted, the union and employer took opposing positions. The union sought an in-person, manual election; Kodiak advocated for a mail ballot. The Regional Director agreed with the employer on that point. Kodiak's counsel represented, without objection from the union, that employees report directly to scattered construction sites across northern Nevada rather than to the company's Sparks facility, with some job sites located as far as 200 miles away. Given that employees are never present at a common location at common times, the Regional Director found a mail-ballot election to be the more practical and equitable approach.

Ballots are scheduled to be mailed June 2, 2026, with all returned ballots to be counted at the NLRB's Region 32 office in Oakland, California, on June 24, 2026.

Key Points

• The NLRB's Region 32 found that Kodiak's sheet metal workers constitute a legally distinct "craft unit," permitting them to hold a union representation election separately from the company's broader workforce.

• Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 26 filed its petition on April 1, 2026, seeking to represent approximately 15 Assistant Roofers and Journeymen performing primarily sheet metal work at the company's Sparks, Nevada facility.

• Kodiak argued that the only appropriate unit must include all 72 employees at its Sparks facility across four job classifications; the Regional Director rejected that position, finding the employer did not meet its burden of showing an "overwhelming community of interest" requiring broader inclusion.

• Certified payroll records from three prevailing wage public projects spanning approximately one year showed that employees worked almost exclusively under either the sheet metal or the roofer classification code, with minimal crossover in either direction.

• Under Nevada's prevailing wage law, sheet metal workers on public projects must be paid at a rate more than double that of journeyman roofers; the Regional Director cited that differential as corroborating the meaningful distinction between the two groups.

• Service Technicians, who perform maintenance and repair work at existing buildings, were excluded from the bargaining unit as their roles, qualifications, and supervision were found to be functionally distinct from those of new construction crews.

• A mail-ballot election was ordered after the employer, without objection from the union, represented that employees report to scattered job sites across northern Nevada, some up to 200 miles from the Sparks facility; ballots are to be mailed June 2 and counted June 24, 2026.

Primary Source Author: Christy J. Kwon, Regional Director, NLRB Region 32

Primary Source: Decision and Direction of Election, Kodiak Roofing & Waterproofing, LLC, Case 32-RC-383994 (May 18, 2026)

Primary Source Link: NLRB Case 32-RC-383994

Supplemental References

• NLRB: How the Representation Election Process Works
• NLRB Press Release: Board Modifies Appropriate Bargaining Unit Standard (American Steel Construction, 2022)
• Nevada Prevailing Wage Laws, NRS 338.020 through 338.090
• Nevada Labor Commissioner: 2025-2026 Prevailing Wage Rates, Northern Nevada
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook, Sheet Metal Workers