Education and Training Calendar

Collective Bargaining Institutes Basic Class
Madison, Wisconsin

Course topics include administering the labor agreement, labor history and the Boilermakers’ history, collective bargaining, workers and the global economy, safety and health, listening skills, strategic communication, and structure and services of the Boilermakers union.

Collective Bargaining Institutes Advanced Class
Madison, Wisconsin

Covers advanced topics such as legislative issues, letter writing tips, problem solving and grievance handling, common sense economics, health care bargaining, and building the union.

Union Skills Courses
Silver Spring, Maryland

During the academic year, NLC offers more than seventy week-long labor education classes in areas such as arbitration, organizing, negotiations, safety & health, union building and leadership development. Specialized certificates are available.

A complete list of classes is available at the National Labor College website.

Grievance Arbitration
Madison, Wisconsin

This course is designed for union members, stewards, officers and staff who want to learn more about the grievance arbitration process. In virtually all collective bargaining agreements the grievance procedure ends with an arbitration step. Understanding the arbitration process generally and the arbitration provision in your contract is critical for any union official from steward to staff representative. The course begins with a review of the grievance process, considerations for when to go to arbitration and the differences in handling contract language disputes versus discipline cases. The remainder of the course consists of classroom exercises and discussions that focus on various aspects of the arbitration process. Participants will work in teams to prepare and present a mock arbitration case to an actual arbitrator.

Topics covered include the scope of arbitration, authority of arbitrators and how to select them, preparing and presenting a case in arbitration including developing a "theory" of the case, gathering relevant facts and researching prior arbitration decisions, and proving the case using witnesses and exhibits. We will discuss standards that arbitrators use to decide cases, rules of evidence rules, and the law of arbitration including arbitrability, remedies and the limited bases for reversing arbitration decisions.

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Steward Training (LB408)
Online

This on-line tools-building workshop emphasizes the rights of stewards/committee persons in resolving disputes in the workplace. The right to information, the duty of fair representation, and members right to representation their Weingarten rights will be covered. Participants will learn how to protect the grievance process, the equality principle, the seven tests of just cause, and how to simplify grievance writing. Participants need to check the website at least 3 times per week for three weeks. Total time expectation for three week online workshops is 10 hours.

Key Topics:

• Basics of labor law
• Sound grievance procedures
• The investigation
• Writing the grievance

View more information and register online or contact Alice M. Torres at amb27@cornell.edu or call 585-262-4440.

Winning Grievances & Arbitrations

This three day comprehensive program will highlight the considerations that you need to make before you take a grievance to arbitration. Have you exhausted all other options for a settlement to be made? Or is this a business or principled decision that requires the award of an arbitrator? Have you used the grievance process to fact find? Have you considered both mitigating and aggravating factors? In this program, you will learn how to use the grievance process to your advantage and to prepare for arbitration if necessary.
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