SMART Education Department holds organizing training in Portland

During the first week of May, the SMART Department of Education held an in-person basic organizing training session in Portland, Oregon — part of the vital work the department performs in order to keep our union strong and geared towards growth. 

Participants from across the region immersed themselves in study and conducted role play exercises to prepare for circumstantial and situational topics that are important for building a basic organizing foundation for local unions. 

Topics included, but were not limited to:

1. Organizing under the National Labor Relations Act in both construction and production settings;
2. Basic “street law” rules for in-field activity;
3. Initiating and perpetuating value-based representation communications with nonunion workers;
4. Initiating and perpetuating value-based, top-down conversations with employers;
5. Investigating and outlining basic organizing strategies; and more.

Participants were also given a presentation on the SMART indoor air quality (IAQ) initiative. Instructors broke down the complexities of the initiative’s sequences, answered questions and discussed with participants how the IAQ initiative could be utilized as a tool for organizing, growing market share and increasing density within their local unions. 

In addition to in-person sessions, participants had the opportunity to engage in the training via remote conferencing with both SMART Director of Organizing Darrell Roberts and SMART Director of National Campaigns James White, both of whom gave presentations about their departments and answered questions.