ATU ACTIVIST AND OFFICER TRAINING PROGRAMS Amalgamated Transit Union 5025 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016-4139 202-537-1645 Fax 202-244-1726 Office of the International President To all Officers and activists attending Chicago training: We are happy to provide you with a course description for all the ATU trainings for the rest of 2014. As you know our goal is to train 10% of our members. In order to do this we need the highest level of commitment from our officers to fill these rooms with as many knowledge hungry members as possible. We are making every effort to help you make sure that there are 30 or more people attending each training session. We have already sent flyers and sign-up sheets along with a step by step instruction sheet on “How to Fill up the Room” to your Local. You will find additional copies of these instructions at the training table near the ATU registration table. At that table you will also find a form to fill out to schedule a training day at your Local. Making arrangements for trainings with the ATU International Union is the responsibility of Local Presidents. Please review these courses and decide which is best for your Local. If your president is not attending this conference you may take the sheet back to her/him and they can fax it to the number listed on the sheet, only. With every best wish, I remain. In solidarity, Lawrence J. Hanley International President Affiliated with American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations and Canadian Labour Congress PRINTED ON UNION PAPER ATU COURSES LEADERSHIP Allies at Every Stop: Organizing Passengers and What It Takes to Be an Effective Union Member Building Power in a Hostile Labor Environment The essential training for understanding what is at stake for A program for union members and leaders to demystify the power our union, learning how to mobilize our members and riders, process of collective activity. This workshop is a motivational and learning how to mount campaigns to save our jobs and the encounter with a master organizer who guides the participants transit systems that our communities depend on. through the tools and techniques of what they need to know to build local union power and effectiveness both within the Grievances and Arbitration/The Advocate’s Prayer union itself and the greater community where the members live Grant Me The Ability to Win My Grievance: How do you and work. do that? This training will address the six parts to the theory of the case, the three types of evidence, effective time-line Advanced Communications Skills for Union management, and the burden of proof in discipline and Leaders and Members contract interpretation grievances A workshop that contains all of the elements necessary to The New Health Care Law help participants identify, understand, and correct their communications shortcomings to become first rate, one-on- Negotiating under the “Affordable Health Care Act” one communicators and conflict resolvers. This program (Obamacare) Key questions and issues facing our locals in addresses listening skills, feedback skills, and consensus 2014 and beyond; bargaining strategies and ATU resources decision making. will be discussed. Parliamentary Procedures Developing Strategic Bargaining Campaigns The essentials for running a better meeting; and handling A workshop designed to prepare union negotiating teams motions, amendments, challenges to the chair, points of for upcoming contract talks. This program explores all order, reconsideration, voting, and appeals. the critical elements needed to level the playing field when dealing with management by learning how to create leverage Politics That Build Union Power in 2014 and 2016 by maximizing advantages and minimizing disadvantages. How to build and sustain political power: Defining objectives, This program is bargaining strategy development at its best organizing members, targeting, effective lobbying, fundraising, presented by a master negotiations strategist. grassroots operations, building lasting relationships. Strategies for Stewards: Create Advantages and Be Successful A unique, steward centric, interactive program that embodies the pro-active organizing model of representation as opposed to the re-active service model. This workshop engages the participants in activities that take away the mystery of advocating for justice in the workplace. Participants leave this program with greater assuredness in their own abilities and with new skills and techniques to back them up. ATU ACTIVIST AND OFFICER TRAINING PROGRAMS HEALTH AND SAFETY Health Protection and Promotion Transit employees, and bus operators in particular, have Operator Assaults high rates of diabetes, stroke, musculoskeletal disorders, This workshop module is designed to educate and activate digestive problems, fatigue and sleep disorders, compared union members about workplace violence, its causes and to other workers. Most of the health problems are affected prevention. It reviews strategies for control, including new by a combination of factors, including workplace and technologies, collective bargaining language, training, and environmental conditions. Local Unions often face workplace and community policies. The information and management health programs that focus on individual activities covered will prepare participants to meet with behavior but exclude work. This workshop reviews how health employers and safety agencies, and reach out to the public, can be improved through changes in the work environment, the media, and elected officials to make our concerns known. in how work is organized and in support for workers with health problems. The innovative practices for protecting and promoting worker health will provide participants with concrete ideas for taking control of health in the workplace. Workplace and Health Hazard Mapping These workshops demonstrate practical tools to help transit workers identify hazards they face at work, plan controls and corrections, and track success. The workplace mapping module can be applied to the entire workplace, or a location or issue of special concern. The body or health mapping module is a productive way both to open up a free discussion of workplace health and safety and to analyze and document what the current problems are. Ergonomics Restroom Access Working too hard, too long, in awkward positions and without moving leads to pain and strain. In this workshop, This workshop module is designed to educate and activate body mapping techniques are applied to the problems active union members about the health impact and other problems and sedentary workers face. Tactics will be explored for related to limited restroom access. It reviews strategies for avoiding and correcting work conditions that lead to muscle control, including collective bargaining language, training, strain, back pain and nerve compression problems that are and workplace and community policies. The information common across transit titles. The focus is on finding out what and activities covered will prepare participants to meet with factors in the work environment cause these problems, and employers and safety agencies, and reach out to the public, what needs to be done to eliminate them. the media, and elected officials for support in solving this common problem. Chemical Hazards Chemicals affect transit workers in operations and maintenance, on the road, in the garages and in offices. Diesel exhaust, asbestos, cleaners and degreasers are just a few of the concerns. This module reviews routes of exposure, control methods, and how to get and use chemical information. Applying the skills covered more extensively on the workplace mapping module, participants will return to their workplaces with tools for indentifying and fixing chemical hazards. ATU ACTIVIST AND OFFICER TRAINING PROGRAMS LABOR NOTES STAND-ALONE WORKSHOPS (Pick 2 per day) BIG PICTURE ECONOMIC AND CONTRACT CAMPAIGNS, POLITICAL TOPICS BARGAINING, AND STRIKES The War on Pensions Building an Effective Contract Campaign Employers from the Fortune 500 to City Hall are looking to Learn how to build a comprehensive contract campaign that dump traditional pensions and retiree benefits. Learn how can tip the odds in your favor. This workshop will review unions are successfully fighting back to defend their pensions, how to bring members in early, mobilize, and turn up the what information you’ll need to extract from management in heat. We’ll discuss campaign escalation, creative tactics, bargaining in order to hang on to what you’ve got, and how and other building blocks of a good campaign, including recent changes in the law may affect your retirement. We’ll also working with community allies and taking the fight directly review the distinct issues facing employees in public pension to management. programs, those in the private sector participating in single- employer pension plans, and those in multi-employer plans. Roots of the Public Sector Budget Crisis States are swimming in red ink, and politicians across the spectrum are putting public services on the chopping block. From Wisconsin to West Virginia, unionized teachers, bus drivers, and librarians have become Public Enemy Number One. This workshop will explain how state and local budgets got to be such a mess, why politicians are slashing and burning public services instead of reversing a generation of tax cuts, and what public sector unions need to do to get out of this bind. Fighting Privatization and Outsourcing This workshop will explain