August 27, 2008

Local 572 in Carson, California recently sponsored a series of training events for their business agents and stewards on July 25-27. More than 100 stewards and 12 business agents attended the seminar which covered a variety of topics and were designed to be very interactive.

Rick Middleton, Local 572 Secretary-Treasurer, is a staunch advocate of training. 

“I think today, more than ever, we have a responsibility to keep our members educated about the issues affecting their workplaces,” Middleton said. “It’s no longer just the grievance procedure and the laws governing labor relations that need to be taught. Now, business agents and stewards must understand the complicated nature of politics and economics.”

Dennis Watson, President of Local 572, welcomed the participants to the program and got them in the thinking mode right away by asking them to review the definition of the term “steward.” 

“If you look up the word 'steward' in the dictionary, it says 'a guardian enlisted to protect something by others,'" Watson said. “We have been given a huge responsibility and we must be prepared to act in a professional manner.”

“This was a very interactive program. The business agents and stewards were involved in role-playing to test skills they had learned,” said Sally Payne, Associate Director of the Teamsters Training and Development Department, who conducted the program. "The program was designed around running effective meetings and included a skills training on Alternative Dispute Settlement.”

Chris Walsh from the Teamsters Department of Field Action gave a very informative session on D.R.I.V.E. and the political elements facing the labor movement.

Adriana Salazar, the LEARN coordinator for Local 572, assisted with the training. Salazar is also a business agent for Local 572.

“Building the confidence of members and stewards through training is an extremely important task in the labor movement,” Salazar said. “The LEARN program is a great tool to accomplish that task.”   

“This gave me another tool to help fellow members to solve an issue without company intervention,” said David Phillips. “That will be a great tool in the workplace.”

“This was a very complete seminar,” said Raul Preza. “There was a lot of good discussion, and many important issues were examined. I gained a lot from the program.”