International Conducts 15th Annual New Officer Training

Toll collectors from the Port Authority, aircraft mechanics from Tulsa, flight dispatchers from Dallas, and railroad carmen from Harrisburg all joined together to share the same learning experience at the 15th annual TWU New Officers Training seminar held in January.  Twenty-seven TWU officers came to the National Labor College to learn how they could do their jobs better.

Starting from the first night when TWU’s Education and Research Director Bob Wechsler taught a class on history called “TWU: Who we are and how we got here,” participants began to understand how the TWU functions and why their leadership role is so important.  They viewed a 1961 debate between founding President Mike Quill and Congressman Fred Hartley, the author of the restrictive Taft-Hartley Act. 

The curriculum is designed to provide a hands-on learning experience so that much of the time in class is spent on practicing the skills that are taught.  In the communications class, for example, one officer spoke before a simulated executive board to persuade the board to appropriate funds for a new members’ orientation to improve outreach to new employees.

As each officer sat through classes on leadership, planning, communications, and building membership involvement, he or she also worked on a project that will be brought back to the local union for possible implementation. This project was presented to the group as a whole and to the instructors for comment. 

Adding to the instruction and solidarity was the cooperation between all divisions in a 100 percent union setting, the AFL-CIO’s training center in Silver Spring, Maryland. David Alexander and Gene Morrill, from the College staff, taught sections of the program.  On hand from TWU were Railroad Division Director Gary Maslanka, Assistant Air Transport Division Director Robert Gless, International Representative Gary Shults, Legislative and Political Affairs Director Portia Reddick White, and Administrative Vice President Susan Resch, director of the Transit Division.  Education and Research Director Bob Wechsler put the program together. 

Summarizing the impact of the week’s activities, a newly-elected officer said, “ This has been a week of my life I will never forget. Thank you.”

Class participants included Reggie McCray (Local 200); Rhonda Keitt and Greg Banks (Local 1400); Jerry Lorraine (Local 2001), Brian Kelly and Peter Petrovich (Local   Admin.VP Susan Resch (left) chats with Melanie Matway of Local 542.  2016); Farrior Braswell (Local 2055); Donny Tyndall and Steve Marr (Local 502); Robert Todd (Local 505), Albert Hart (Local 507), Scott Capener and Chris Gibson (Local 514), Michael Young (Local 521), Earl Smith (Local 541), Melanie Matway and John Matthews (Local 542), Mike Connor and Terry Pendergass (Local 550), Ralph Darnell and Juan Cordova (Local 555), Audrey Stone (Local 556), Russ Dittmer (Local 563), Bill Houseman (Local 564), Gary Schaible and Jerry Mishak (Local 565), and Andrew Rangolan (Local 570).