Jackie Judy, AD/ISO, left, and Tara LaGree, AS/IST, conduct an audit workshop for lodge trustees at the first annual Industrial Sector conference in Kansas City last year.
Second annual gathering will include dozens of speakers, sessions
THE BOILERMAKERS’ Industrial Sector will hold its second annual conference at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas Aug. 16-20. The event will draw delegates from across Canada and the United States for three days of learning, workshops, and networking, with many sessions devoted to specific industries as well as “how to” instruction for local lodge officers.
“We learned a lot from our first conference last year in Kansas City,” said ISO Executive Director Jim Pressley, “and one of the things delegates told us was that while the conference itself was excellent, the facilities just weren’t large enough to accommodate a group of our size.” Some 200 delegates attended the 2009 event — many more than were expected — and delegates, speakers, vendors, and International staff were spread out in three different hotels.
“We were able to negotiate some excellent rates with Caesar’s Palace for the 2010 event,” Pressley reported. “Everybody will be in the same hotel. Plus our meeting area has ample space for all of our plenary and breakout sessions as well as space for vendors. This will be much more efficient than last year. Caesar’s is set up ideally for our needs.”
The conference will include the most popular topics from 2009 and will feature many new presenters. The keynote speaker will be Elaine Bernard, executive director for the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, which conducts labor research and provides education through the Harvard Trade Union Program. Bernard is known for her frank presentation style. She has written and spoken widely about labor issues. Also addressing the plenary session will be Phee Jung-sun, Materials Sector sectional officer for the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers Union (ICEM). ICEM includes over 460 industrial trade unions which collectively represent more than 20 million workers in 132 countries. Jung-sun will discuss the importance of global union involvement in dealing with multinational corporations.
The conference will feature several half-day workshops. Robert Schwarz, author of The FMLA Handbook, will provide in-depth information about the Family and Medical Leave Act. Schwartz’s handbook is the most widely-used publication of its kind for labor unions.
Don Taylor, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin’s School for Workers, will lead a workshop on building union power. Taylor brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in such areas as mobilization, leadership development, union communications, and contract campaign planning. Boilermakers attending the annual Summer Institute in Madison, Wis., give Taylor high marks for his enthusiasm and teaching methods.
Delegates will be able to choose from dozens of one-hour sessions on topics such as the duty of fair representation, the NLRB, the FMCS, safety, in-plant organizing, legislative issues, and topics related to specific industries. In addition, sessions for secretary-treasurers will be provided, including the Brotherhood’s invoicing system, local lodge bookkeeping, and LM reports. A special workshop for trustees in how to conduct an audit will also be offered.
Canadian delegates will find sessions geared specifically to their needs, including the Canadian Boilermaker pension, health and safety, duty of fair representation, arbitration, and grievance handling.
“We expect this year’s conference will be even better than the one last year,” said Pressley. “We received very positive feedback from the first conference, and we made adjustments where they were needed. I urge all Industrial Sector lodges that are able to do so to send delegates. Knowledge is the key to representing the membership to the best of our abilities — and that is the focus of this conference.”
Warren Fairley, International Vice President – Industrial Sector Operations, said the conference offers not only opportunities for learning from presenters, “but also an environment where lodge leaders can share real life experiences with each other and ways of handling challenges that arise. I think delegates who attended last year understood the value of networking and building relationships.”
Information packets, including registration forms, will be sent to all Industrial Sector local lodge leaders in February.
