By Susan Zachem

Graphic Communicator photos by Susan Zachem

Addressing new local officers is Pres. James J. Norton, standing. Seated from left are Rep. Thomas E. Hennigan, Secy.-Treas. Gerald H. Deneau, and Rep. Bertram Haft.

Training in the fundamentals of running a local union and involving members in local programs and activities were the keys to success emphasized at the New Local Union Officers' Institute.

The biennial GCIU training program provided new local leaders with two-days of group discussions on problem-solving and recommendations from experienced International officers and staff on ways to improve local programs and structures.

International Pres. James J. Norton opened the new officers' meeting by warning participants that they were going to be bombarded with information and sent home with a satchel-full of reference material.

But if the job seems overwhelming, Norton said, "reach out at any time to other officers of locals . . . or contact a representative or one of the officers at the International union for counsel and get some advice. Don't be shy about that."

If not for that exchange of ideas, Norton said, GCIU leaders "would get boxed into a rut that would be inescapable" while the industry and the labor movement grows and changes around them.

Chattanooga 197M Pres. Robert Kelly, left, talks with GCIU Safety and Health Director Brian J. Bobal and Richmond 40N Pres. Valerie Irvin.

"Nothing is stagnant in the labor business. Fifteen years ago, we did things differently in the plant than we did 15 years before that," he said.

Norton said the job of a local union leader "is not without headaches, but with headaches comes the fulfillment and the satisfaction of overcoming obstacles, of solving problems, of reaching out and giving your solution to another local union officer. . . . You're GCIU family now."

Norton also urged local union leaders to ease some of their burdens and get members more involved by naming committees to develop ideas and programs in specific areas.

Among these local substructures recommended by Norton were:

• An organizing coordinator to develop an organizing committee, organizing program, targets, and coordinate with GCIU Vice Pres. Garry D. Foreman, who heads the General Board Organizing Committee. The International can help with "train the trainer" and housecalling programs to get the local started, Norton said.

• A legislative/political action coordinator to work with GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez, who heads the General Board's legislative efforts, and with AFL-CIO political action field personnel, state federations, and central labor councils. This committee can help develop programs to get local members registered to vote and to educate members on working family issues.

• A safety and health coordinator to work with GCIU Safety and Health Director Brian J. Bobal and to develop a local safety and health committee.

"If you follow this and accept reports from individuals coming back to you [from these committees] then you have more time to work on other areas," Norton said.

International Secy.-Treas. Gerald H. Deneau also stressed the importance of delegating tasks for local leaders. He said the International developed the new officers training course after talking to leaders who left office citing the stress of fulfilling mountains of paperwork requirements, legal regulations, and other technical aspects of their jobs.

One of the ways to lessen this stress, Deneau suggested, is to try to keep members informed and educated. "Many members know what is going on only within the four walls of the plant," he said. "They don't see all the new technology and how it works together and the competition from other companies. They know layoffs but don't fully understand why they occur."

Washington 713S Pres. Jesse W. Bennett and Secy.-Treas. Karen Jackson discuss labor law issues with attorney Tom Allison, right, during the New Local Officers' Institute.

It works best if this education process is on-going, not just before bargaining, Deneau said. "You can have the best argument at the bargaining table, you can have all the data you want in the world, but if the employer has a sense that your members aren't with you, you can talk until you're blue in the face," he said. "The power is in the people. You have to talk to them, educate them, and bring them along."

Panel member and attorney Tom Allison of Allison Slutsky & Kennedy agreed and advised the local leaders to use the preparation process for collective bargaining "as an organizing tool to vaccinate members" against employer propaganda. Help members to understand what the union is and what it does and involve them in the process, he urged. Allison also reviewed the labor-management forms required by the Labor Department from local unions and employers.

Victor Ciuccio, Contract, Research and Education director, displays the CD containing GCIU manuals for new local officers.

Leading the group through the GCIU's collective bargaining manual, Victor Ciuccio, director of the Contract, Research and Education Department who facilitated the new officers' training sessions, said knowing contract-related law is painful but necessary. "You must know the laws because if you get in a bad situation you sometimes need to be a jailhouse lawyer and be able to cite the law to employers," he said.

Ciuccio led a panel discussion on getting bargaining-related information from employers. He suggested that locals ask employers for complex data to be relayed with open database connectivity (ODC), which can be plugged into most database software for analysis.

GCIU Data Processing Director Bonnie Lindsley helped local leaders through the GCIU secretary-treasurer's manual that provides information on all aspects of that job. She said the International can help locals with initial computerization by providing first-time load files for databases. The International can also help with address changes for members, which often come directly from the post office to the Graphic Communicator, and with retiree lists.

Bonnie Lindsley, GCIU Data Processing director, helps new officers to understand the many union reporting requirements and other information in the secretary-treasurer's manual.

Lindsley updated participants on the International's new Year 2000-ready computer system and how it will be adapted for local software use.

GCIU Organizer Bert Haft provided local leaders with a taste of the Membership Education and Mobilization for Organizing (MEMO) program. He reviewed how new databases from the AFL-CIO can help locals select organizing targets and why organizing is crucial to improving working families' standard of living through good contracts.

Haft noted that member education programs and housecalling are a very effective way to organize non-members in GCIU shops. He described how a Machinists local in a right-to-work state used housecalling on new employees to educate them about the union. The result: in a plant of 1,500 people in that R-T-W state, only six were not members.

Topeka 49C Pres. Marguerite Underhill said her local experienced a similar phenomenon. The local signed up 40 new members in about a month just by approaching non-members about the union. She said those new members told her that no one from the union had contacted them and they didn't know who to contact about joining. "Shame on us that we're not more aggressive," she said.

Other ideas shared by the local leaders on getting new employees and non-members involved in the bargaining unit ranged from a simple introduction by a shop steward or officer of the union to a new employee with an offer of available assistance to orientation programs to educate new employees that their wages, benefits and working conditions are a result of the union contract.

Also assisting in panel discussions were Bobal, Hennigan, Shannon, and David Hale of the Contract, Research and Education Department. Among the other topics covered were how to: cost out a contract, select a negotiating committee, find out what members want from bargaining, win on jurisdiction issues, enforce GCIU label rules, and file required bargaining-related notices on time.