Michael Coleman is an American labor union leader. Coleman was a

sheet metal worker Sheet or Sheets may refer to: * Bed sheet, a rectangular piece of cloth used as bedding * Sheet of paper, a flat, very thin piece of paper * Sheet metal, a flat thin piece of metal * Sheet (sailing), a line, cable or chain used to control the cle ...

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, and joined the

Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association The Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (SMWIA) was a trade union of skilled sheet metal workers. Such workers perform architectural sheet metal work, fabricate and install heating and air conditioning work, shipbuilding, appliance cons ...

in 1985. He held various positions in his local union, before becoming its president and business manager in 2012. By this point, the union had merged into the

International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) is a North American labor union headquartered in Washington, DC, which was chartered by the AFL–CIO in 2013. The product of a merger between the Sheet ...

(SMART). As leader of the local union, he became known for innovative methods of organizing workers, providing more flexibility to them, and restructuring pension and benefit packages. In 2019, Coleman was appointed as SMART's director of business and management relations, then he became assistant to the general president. In 2023, he succeeded as president of the union. In 2025, Coleman advocated for SMART member

Kilmar Abrego Garcia Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran man who was illegally Deportation, deported from the United States on March 15, 2025, in what the Second Trump administration, Trump administration called "an administrative error". He was Indefinit ...

, who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to a prison El Salvador. Coleman stated, "Since last week, our demand has been a simple one — one that echoed the calls of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s family, community and allies: Bring Kilmar home and give him the due process that is his right."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Michael Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American trade union leaders Activists from Cleveland Trade unionists from Ohio Vice presidents of the AFL-CIO