Members Attend Union Leadership Institutes

Members from all three councils of Local 434 have been working hard this month! We’ve spent our weekends attending trainings for collective bargaining, the grievance process, and union leadership bootcamp!

Ashley Mims, Chelsea Kilzer, Tanya McGraw, Crystal Paulik attended Effective Grievance Administration
Nickie Pelch and Donna Bauman attended Bootcamp for Union Leaders
Ashley Mims, Jeff West, Shelley Watts, and Tiffany Stellhorn attended Intro to Collective Bargaining

Read below for a glimpse into one of the trainings!

Effective Grievance Administration Training: Mike Day and Ray Roskos, two IFT field service directors, led our training on essential grievance procedures for union leaders. Their expertise in contractual language, legal protections, past practices, and just cause—enhanced by real-life examples from other local unions—provided us with a comprehensive, step-by-step understanding of the entire process.

From Ashley Mims: The most impactful part of the training for me was the simulation of going through a grievance process. The trainers told us we would need to stay until four o’clock, one hour the contract time we agreed to, and the only way out was to file a grievance and win. (I love escape rooms!) Our team of 6 had to work together, following the steps in our collective bargaining agreement, and go through the entire grievance process—informal meeting, step one, step two, and arbitration. We had to fill out the forms correctly and present our case in the back-and-forth, all while both trainers played the role of a condescending, patronizing, intimidating administrator. (Whew! Hope we don’t ever have to experience that in real life.) Even though I know and respect both trainers, my body still had a visceral reaction to the way they spoke to us, but I had to put emotions aside and think strategically to win the grievance, which we did!

​From Tanya McGrew: Being newish to the way unions work, I take as many opportunities as I can to learn.  Mike and Ray did a great job.  I learned the steps for submitting a grievance and looked deeper into our contract’s steps as well.  While we focused on the actual Grievance process, we also discussed when it isn’t a grievance.  We also touched on some things that may not be mentioned in our contract that are actually covered under law.  Being put through a mock grievance process was very eye opening.  It immediately caused me to use what I had learned and delve deeper into what I may have missed in order to ask questions.  I feel more prepared to support my fellow union members after attending the ULI.