CLEVELAND, July 14 — The BLET Education & Training Department is seeking participants for an advanced Local Chairman Workshop scheduled for August 15-20, 2010, at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md.
The advanced workshop will start the evening of Sunday, August 15, and will run all day Monday through Friday, concluding with a banquet on Friday night, August 20. Check out is on Saturday, August 21.
This workshop is one day longer than the regular Local Chairman’s workshop and will go into greater detail on writing, claims handling, and investigations. Among other assignments, the students will be given a topic to research and report back to the class; there will be a session on Duty of Fair Representation (DFR); the Railway Labor Act (RLA); and several appeal letters will have to be written on cases passed out in class. Again, a highlight of the workshop is when attendees participate in a simulated disciplinary hearing.
To attend this workshop you must be a current Local Chairman or member of the Local Committee of adjustment and have completed the first five-day Local Chairman’s workshop. Attendance at a Local Chairman Workshop at a regional meeting does not qualify. BLET members who are interested in registering for the workshop may do so online at:
https://www.ble-t.org/lcadvance
Upon successful completion of the course, everyone will qualify for a $116 per day stipend from the North American Railway Foundation. The stipends will be paid directly to the Secretary-Treasurer of the respective divisions.
NARF is a non-profit operating foundation formed by the Brotherhood’s Relief and Compensation Fund (BR&CF) to support rail history, education, safety and technology in the United States and Canada. With initial funding and continued Board of Directors stewardship coming from the BR&CF, NARF has supported many non-political projects throughout the United States and Canada over the past 10 years. The primary focus of these efforts has been in support of organized rail labor — giving back to all of the men and women of the railroad community across North America.
The BLET Education & Training Department is presenting the workshop in conjunction with the staff of the National Labor College.
Workshop instructors will include: BLET National Secretary-Treasurer William C. Walpert; BLET Vice-President & Arbitration Director Marcus J. Ruef; Special Representative and Coordinator of Education & Training Ken Kroeger and Assistant Director of the BLET Arbitration Department Doug Davidson.
The BLET pays the costs of books, equipment, tuition, and a Friday evening graduation banquet. BLET members who attend are responsible for their transportation costs as well as the cost of room and board.
Registration for the Advanced Local Chairman workshop is on a first-come, first-served basis with class size limited to the first 10 who register through the BLET website. For more information, please contact Ken Kroeger, Coordinator of the BLET Education & Training Dept., at (216) 272-0986 or kroeger@ble-t.org.