Union Millwrights recently completed a multi-year project installing a baggage handling system at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. This high-tech system is the first of its kind in the United States.
United Airlines opted to invest in the same technology used in airports in Dubai and South Korea. It improves bag-scan accuracy by 25%, can reroute bags without manual intervention, and significantly increases system speed, making luggage retrieval faster for travelers. If you are ever arriving in terminals C or E, make sure to check a bag, so you can check it out for yourself.
“The old system lost or missed scans on more than 20% of the bags,” said Monte Thompson, Business Representative for Millwright Local 2232. “After four months, the system handled over 250,000 bags and had an accuracy rate of over 99%. It only lost four bags.”
Millwrights from the Central South Carpenters Regional Council were on site when the first phase of the $190-million project kicked off in May 2019, and they worked on the project through September 2023. Contractor Jordim International Inc. regularly employed 55 union millwrights who installed more than 6 miles of Siemens conveyor equipment as part of the new baggage handling system. Conveyors can run at speeds of up to 340 feet per minute, allowing the system to process 10,000 bags per hour.
Millwright Work Scope
As part of phases one and two, Millwrights demolished the previous baggage-handling systems in Terminals E and C, respectively, then laid out and installed the new, faster sortation system and conveyors.
“It’s a great big undertaking,” said Mike Ibberson, a Millwright jobsite steward and member of Local 2232. Phase one took up space that was half the size of a football field, and phase two was the size of a football field.
“The whole reason we’re here is to install the latest technology,” said Shawn McKee, site manager for Jordim and a member of Local 1421 who has served as president and business agent for the local. “Then they can speed the bags up, so everything happens faster. So, instead of waiting 45 minutes to get your suitcase, now it can get there in 20 minutes.”
During phase three of the project, Millwrights installed conveyor systems outdoors, at all four corners of Terminal C. These systems transport luggage from planes into the building. This system eliminates the need for airport workers to drive luggage carts indoors and manually unload them, McKee said. The new system was even designed with a canopy-style roof protecting the outdoor conveyor systems.
“We’re in the process of building eight long conveyors that come in from outside, down these tunnels, and then tie into the sortation system,” McKee said during the project.
In addition, Millwrights built conveyors that move bags to and from a new storage area that can accommodate up to 3,300 bags.
Our members also helped move equipment into a new, computer-filled control room, the brain of the entire system, that moves luggage from ticket counters, to X-ray machines, then to the sortation system, where devices scan tags and cameras photograph bags before diverters kick each piece of luggage to the correct conveyor based on its destination.
“One advantage of the new system is that operators can increase and decrease conveyor speed as needed via computers instead of manually at various points,” Ibberson said. Because physically changing speed took time, bags could pile up in some areas before the needed adjustment was made. With the new system, conveyor speed ranges from half a mile per hour to three miles per hour.
The new conveyor system is improving baggage handling in more conventional ways. The old system was built in the 1990s and parts of it included tilt trays that were prone to errors. “If the bags didn’t fall on that tilt tray just right, they would fall off,” Ibberson said. “They had nets everywhere to catch the bags. Those bags were falling off left and right. This system is all contained and moving in one direction and a whole lot more reliable.”
Technology and pandemic hurdles
While the mechanics of the new conveyor system are virtually the same as those of older systems, the electric motors and controls are different. Millwrights installed the gearboxes and motors, which were mounted differently on the new system.
Representatives from SEW-EURODRIVE, the German manufacturer of the motors, taught classes for the Millwrights on how to install motors.
COVID-19 related material shortages and delivery delays plagued the project, but Millwrights helped keep it on schedule. “We had to do some innovative stuff to get there,” McKee said.
That included working in one area until materials ran out, then moving to another area and doing as much as possible there. “Sometimes we’d have to do that three or four times before the material showed up for the original area,” McKee said. “It’s a lot of skipping around, and that’s not efficient. Normally we start at point A and we go to point B.”
Implementing COVID safety protocols took time as well. The protocols included handwashing, spreading out seating in the break room, sanitizing tables, and requiring doctors’ releases and negative COVID tests before those who had been sick could return to work.
Other project hiccups were typical of conveyor layout and installation. Millwrights had to modify equipment layouts and installations occasionally to account for obstacles engineers missed. For instance, Ibberson said, Millwrights had to work around a spot where the ceiling was 18 inches lower than the engineering drawings showed.
Learning opportunity
Because the petrochemical industry is the dominant employer of Millwrights in the Texas Gulf Coast Region, a large conveyor project presented both challenges and opportunities for area Millwrights.
Ibberson, for example, is a seasoned journeyman but had spent only three days on a conveyor job before starting work at the George Bush International Airport in July 2019. When he learned about the project at the airport, which is only a 15-to-20-minute drive from his home, Ibberson said he thought, “This is going to be one heck of an opportunity to pick up another skill set.” He knew that once the airport project was over, he would be able to use his skills at a nearby Budweiser plant that periodically needs Millwrights.
It turned out the learning curve wasn’t that steep for Ibberson. “It’s all just basic mechanic work – making sure you put everything exactly where it’s supposed to be,” he said. “The art of being a Millwright is putting hundreds of tons of stuff within a 1,000th of an inch of where it needs to be.”
Apprentices benefited tremendously from the job, both Ibberson and McKee said, because it gave them the opportunity to practice many different Millwright skills.
“This was almost an ideal job for a brand-new apprentice,” Ibberson said. “It got them acquainted with different hand tools, different standards, learning how to read a simple set of prints, sometimes more complicated prints, trying to figure out what the engineer is looking for.”
About 25 percent of the Millwrights on site were apprentices, and McKee paired two or three apprentices with four or five journey-level Millwrights on each crew. Siemens, the manufacturer of the conveyor equipment Millwrights installed, donated used conveyor pieces that McKee delivered to the local training center, which is using them in conveyor classes. “My selling point to Siemens to get the equipment was if they learned anything at the school, they would be one step ahead when they come out here,” McKee said.
Many apprentices who trained on the Siemens-donated equipment transitioned to the airport jobsite. Being able to install conveyor systems that are the first of their kind to be used in the United States also is an advantage to all Millwrights working on the project, McKee said. “When we start that project at DFW, I’ll already know what kind of stuff we’re installing because it’ll be the same exact equipment,” he said. “It definitely helps being on the bottom floor.
Contractor Relationship
As the conveyor-equipment manufacturer, Siemens has a direct contract with United Airlines. Jordim, an all-union company that mainly employs Millwrights, is contracting with Siemens to install the equipment. Based in Miami, Jordim has conducted work across the United States, in the Caribbean, and in South and Central America. The company specializes in installation and maintenance of baggage-handling systems, passenger boarding bridges, and parcel-sortation systems.
Our Millwright Locals have worked with Jordim since the company’s launch in 1993.
McKee said Jordim’s owners have a great relationship with the locals. Ibberson, who had not worked for Jordim before the George Bush Airport project, said he would like to work for the contractor again.
The next opportunity to work for Jordim will be at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport project that McKee mentioned. That project is slated to begin in 2024, and a similar number of Millwrights will be needed.
If you or someone you know are interested in joining the Union, please contact your local representative, or stop by your local union office. Visit https://www.centralsouthcarpenters.org/Locals for Local Union contact information.