Basic Steward Training

Course Description:

This course will cover the basic duties and responsibilities of a Shop Steward. Building your skills by emphasizing strategic planning for local unions, member mobilization, recording documentation, and the grievance process. Students will participate in case studies to develop and enhance problem-solving techniques to navigate through daily issues swiftly and professionally. Students will also build more effective skills to communicate between trades as well as with their members, foreman, supervisors, and/or business managers. To make the course more meaningful, students should bring their own ideas for discussion. It is recommended but not a requirement.

Instructor Bio:

Tom Breslin has been involved in Labor Education since the mid-1980s while a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, where he was an adjunct instructor in the Labor Education Service. In addition, he served as the Labor Studies Coordinator in the St. Paul, MN public schools teaching Labor History and Labor topics to junior and senior high school students. He has been a Labor Educator at both the Minnesota Nurses Association as well as the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Following his retirement from the MNA, he began teaching at the Labor Guild.