The SMART Education Department and Production Workers Department held the third annual Production Institute in Indianapolis, Ind., during the week of August 25, 2025 — bringing together union officials from across North America, including rank-and-file stewards, to train on how to effectively represent SMART production members.
The Production Institute is a three-year, progressive-format class, with attendees from last year advancing to the second round of courses. A new first-year class attended in 2025, along with the returning 2023 and 2024 groups. The first years studied the basics of labo(u)r history, steward training and collective bargaining. The second-year class was focused on a more in-depth investigation of organizing, steward training and collective bargaining. Finally, the third-year class prepared for and role-played a mock grievance arbitration and collective bargaining sessions.
“Each day, all three classes were brought together to talk about subjects like right to work and knowing your rights for the U.S. participants, while the Canadians discussed top-down organizing strategies in the production sector,” said SMART Director of Education Eli Baccus. “Congratulations to the third-year class for being the first-ever students to graduate from the Production Institute!”
SMART union leaders often need to communicate important information to a wide variety of people — politicians, business owners, fellow workers and reporters, to name a few — when fighting to better the lives of SMART members. That’s why the SMART Education Department held its Effective Communication II class in Pittsburgh, Pa., during the week of June 3, 2025, bringing together participants from across North America to enhance their skill sets.
The class focused on improving communication skills by dissecting branding and messaging techniques, practicing lobbying tactics, creating pitches for news stories, framing and reframing talking points, and making spontaneous arguments through debate. On each of the three days of the class, participants honed their lobbying skills with exercises that asked attendees to role play as random organizations that sometimes challenged their beliefs, helping local leaders understand the other side of the argument. Groups were mixed for every exercise, and a point system was in place.
“Congratulations to Christina Bayaniyan (first place) and Jon Davis (second place) for being recognized by their peers as the top two participants in the class!” said SMART Director of Education Eli Baccus.
SMART union leaders often need to communicate important information to a wide variety of parties — politicians, business owners, fellow workers and reporters, to name a few — when fighting to better the lives of SMART members. That’s why the SMART Education Department held its Effective Communication II class in Pittsburgh, Pa., during the week of June 3, 2025, bringing together participants from across North America to enhance their skill sets.
The class focused on improving communication skills by dissecting branding and messaging techniques, practicing lobbying tactics, creating pitches for news stories, framing and reframing talking points, and making spontaneous arguments through debate. On each of the three days of the class, participants honed their lobbying skills with exercises that asked attendees to role play as random organizations that sometimes challenged their beliefs, helping local leaders understand the other side of the argument. Groups were mixed for every exercise, and a point system was in place.
“Congratulations to Christina Bayaniyan (first place) and Jon Davis (second place) for being recognized by their peers as the top two participants in the class!” said SMART Director of Education Eli Baccus.
As industry, politics and economic landscapes shift, SMART representatives are constantly called upon to adapt accordingly, ensuring union members are represented to the best of their abilities. It’s a daunting task — but thanks to the SMART Education Department, local union officers across our union have access to an always-evolving lineup of courses designed to strengthen their representation.
That includes the department’s New Representatives II course, held in Rosemont, Ill., during the week of April 14th, 2025.
New Representatives II, which was completely redesigned for 2025 and delivered in-person instead of online, focused on improving representational and leadership skills beyond the day-to-day tasks that a representative would face. Participants worked in groups in several role-playing exercises throughout the week that covered topics such as time management, identifying leaders in local union memberships, building strategic relationships, lobbying, pre-jobs and conflict resolution. This class also marked the first time the Education Department implemented its new peer-based scoring system.
“Congratulations to Michael Thomas, Wayne Petty and James May for finishing as the top three participants in the class!” the department wrote.
As 2025 gets fully underway, bringing with it a new set of challenges across the United States and Canada, the SMART Education Department continues to offer classes to SMART members and officers — helping local unions better represent members, and strengthening our union.
Effective Communication attendees
The Education Department held its Effective Communication I class in Phoenix, Arizona, during the week of January 13, 2025. Effective Communication I is focused on improving and applying public speaking skills by giving participants the opportunity to write, research and deliver speeches in front of the class. Participants worked individually and in groups to build informational and persuasive speeches on topics picked at random.
Effective communication is vital for activists of all kinds in our union — whether speaking at a union meeting, testifying to the importance of project labor agreements in front of a city council or speaking to organizing workers coming off the shop floor, communicating impactfully and persuasively can concretely benefit SMART members.
“Over the course of the class, the participants made noticeable improvements in their public speaking comfort level and delivery,” SMART International Instructor Richard Mangelsdorf reported.
Organizing I participants
SMART members traveled to Dallas, Texas, approximately one month later to attend the Education Department’s Organizing I class during the week of February 10. The class, completely redesigned for 2025, focused on developing practical competency in the skills and process required to successfully facilitate “bottom-up” organizing campaigns: equipping organizers with the ability to help workers unionize their workplaces and join SMART.
Throughout the week, participants worked in small “local” teams in a comprehensive enactment that mimicked a bottom-up campaign. Each group worked as an organizing team and role-played the workers at two fictional companies — Alpha and Beta Sheet Metal — based on character backgrounds provided for the simulation.
Organizing will be crucial to our union in the months and years ahead, and attendees approached the class with an appropriate level of intensity.
“Participants were genuinely engaged in the simulation and were observed organizing each other after hours, on their own time,” Mangelsdorf remarked. “Everyone did a fantastic job working with their groups and playing their parts.”
Education Dept. hosts second annual Production Institute
The SMART Education Department held its second annual Production Institute in Indianapolis, Ind., during the week of September 9th — bringing SMART production members and leaders together to build knowledge, skills and camaraderie, and to strategize for the years ahead.
The Production Institute is a three-year, progressive-format class, with attendees from last year advancing to the second round of courses. A new first-year class attended this year, along with the returning 2023 group.
All classes included production-focused content in the core areas of collective bargaining, steward training, organizing and labor history. Attendees also learned about more timely issues in daily breakout sessions on topics such as labor/labour law updates, the open shop agenda and Project 2025, a MEMO focus group, bias and belonging, and the production salting program. Through interactive exercises, attendees were able to apply their knowledge and develop their skills while also getting to know their peers from across North America.
First-year classReturning second-year class
New Representatives class helps latest crop of SMART leaders develop skills
Newly elected and appointed SMART representatives traveled to Linthicum Heights, Md., during the week of September 16th, 2024, to build bonds and learn from one another in the SMART Education Department’s New Representatives I class. The new representatives worked in different groups on activities associated with topics like member misconduct, jurisdictional disputes, contract administration, pre-job meetings and crafting local union meeting reports. In addition, participants built a leadership growth plan to identify areas they would like to develop more as leaders and created specific goals around each item to help them grow throughout their careers.
Education Department hosts class on so-called “right to work” to boost member engagement, organizing
The SMART Education Department held its new “Right to Work and Member Retention” class in Detroit, Mich., during the week of September 30th. The class focused on the open shop movement, the impact of so-called right to work, strategies for improving membership retention, and the critical role that union leaders play in maintaining local union power.
Twenty-three participants from across our union worked together to problem solve and create action plans for their respective locals. The class also took time to celebrate the repeal of Michigan’s right-to-work law and the role that Michigan Locals 7 (Lansing), 80 and 292 (both Detroit) played in that process.
“Everyone’s hard work will help strengthen our union!” said SMART International Instructor Richard Mangelsdorf.
The SMART Education Department held its New Business Managers class in St. Louis, Mo., during the week of November 18, 2024. The new business and regional managers built comradery throughout the week as they worked on different group exercises focused on managing their local unions.
As part of the course, participants created strategic action plans that prioritized improvements in the areas of personal leadership, union representation, growth, resources, trust funds and community relationships. New business and regional managers also created a strategic action plan for their local and presented it to the class.
“The class will meet online in six months to see how everyone is proceeding with their plans,” said International Instructor Richard Mangelsdorf. “Well done, everyone!”
The SMART Education Department held its new “Right to Work and Member Retention” class in Detroit, Mich., during the week of September 30th. The class focused on the open shop movement, the impact of so-called right to work, strategies for improving membership retention, and the critical role that union leaders play in maintaining local union power.
Twenty-three participants from across our union worked together to problem solve and create action plans for their respective locals. The class also took time to celebrate the repeal of Michigan’s right-to-work law and the role that Michigan Locals 7 (Lansing), 80 and 292 (both Detroit) played in that process.
“Everyone’s hard work will help strengthen our union!” said SMART International Instructor Richard Mangelsdorf.
The SMART Education Department held its new “Right to Work and Member Retention” class in Atlanta, Ga., during the week of April 8th. The three-day class introduced topics such as the evolution of the open-shop movement and so-called right to work, right-to-work messaging, the impact of right to work, union loyalty, internal organizing, and representation and implicit bias. Participants worked together to problem solve and to create their own action plans. Each of the 31 attendees completed exercises focused on how to improve member retention at their own locals. Great work, all!
The SMART Education Department held its Organizing II class in Chicago, Ill., during the week of May 13th. Organizing II focuses on strategic research and application and dives deeper into the strategies and tactics learned in Organizing I, such as salting, voluntary/internal organizing committees, and top-down, bottom-up and pressure campaigns.
Throughout the department’s three-class organizing sequence, participants develop, revise and initiate an organizing plan in consultation with their business managers. In Chicago, participants worked together to research their companies and began putting together detailed organizing plans focused specifically on their selected companies. Each of the 26 attendees presented the research they found on their companies and the organizing strategies they plan to implement. They were also the first group to receive the new Herrmann Whole Brain assessment and training to help them understand how the way people think can impact their success as organizers.
“A special thank you to the SMART Strategic Campaigns Department for supplying research materials for each participant for their selected companies,” said SMART International Instructor Richard Mangelsdorf.
Attendees will continue their work in December in Organizing III, where they will explore the final component for their organizing plans: how to effectively impact their selected companies through partnerships with community, political and economic organizations.
