CLEVELAND, August 1 — The BLET Education & Training Department is seeking participants for an Advanced Local Chairman Workshop scheduled for September 30-October 5, 2012.
The advanced workshop will start the evening of Sunday, September 30, and will run all day Monday through Friday, concluding with a banquet on Friday evening, October 5. Check out and travel home is on Saturday, October 6.
This workshop will go into greater detail than the regular Local Chairman training class, focusing on claim handling, writing, and investigations. Among other assignments, members will be given a topic to research and report their findings back to the class. There will also be a session on Duty of Fair Representation (DFR) and the Railway Labor Act (RLA). Also, members will be required to write several appeal letters on cases handed out in class. As with past workshops, a highlight of the class is when attendees participate in a simulated disciplinary hearing.
To attend this workshop, you must be a current Local Chairman or a member of the Local Committee of Adjustment, and have completed the first five-day Local Chairman 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.
The workshop will take place at the Conference Center of the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights, Md. It is approximately five minutes away from the Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Airport, and a complimentary shuttle service is provided to and from the airport.
Workshop instructors will include: BLET National Secretary-Treasurer William C. Walpert; BLET Vice President Marcus J. Ruef; Special Representative and Coordinator of Education & Training Ken Kroeger; and Assistant Director of Arbitration 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 own transportation costs as well as the cost of room and board.
Upon successful completion of the course, attendees will qualify for a $123 per day stipend from the North American Railway Foundation (www.narfoundation.org). The stipends will be paid directly to the Secretary-Treasurer of the respective divisions.
NARF is a non-profit 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 15 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.
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 Department, at (216) 272-0986 or kroeger@ble-t.org.