Bargaining collectively is one of the pillars of our union — the reason SMART members win stellar pay, family-supporting benefits and protections on the job. That’s why local leaders attended the SMART Education Department’s newly revised Collective Bargaining class from October 20 – 24 in Houston, Texas.
“This class focuses on helping a local’s negotiations committee work together better through understanding how to divide up the workload based on their individual personality styles, and then utilizing their individual strengths collectively to get a better outcome,” said SMART Education Director Eli Baccus.
The content of the class was developed in collaboration with the SMART Jurisdiction, Production Workers and Canadian Affairs Departments. Topics include bargaining power, good-faith bargaining, contract costing, proposal development, tactics to avoid impasse, utilizing the National Joint Adjustment Board and more. In addition, International Organizer Frank Greer facilitated the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument Assessment to help participants and groups better understand their own strengths and weaknesses on the negotiation committees.
The class included participant feedback and evaluation, with attendees grouped in fictional local unions and scored by their classmates based on their performance.
“Congratulations to ‘Local 2’ — Anthony Silvestri (Local 292), Bryan Johnson (Local 66), Dave Angelo (Local 80), Dave Hartsuck (Local 80) and Wayne Petty (Local 66) — for being recognized by their peers as the top team in the class,” Baccus said.
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