TNT Trains Local Trainers

TNT Trains Local Trainers

December 26, 2004

About 20 months after they voted to join the Teamsters, workers at Allied Waste/BFI in Huntington, West Virginia voted December 18 to ratify their first contract.

From December 13-15, 20 local union instructors and training program administrators from around the country attended a “train-the-trainer” course at Local 251 in Providence, Rhode Island. The class included representatives from Local 36 in California, Local 120 in Minnesota, Local 179 in Illinois, Local 251, Local 671 in Connecticut, Local 776 in Pennsylvania, Local 957 in Ohio and Local 959 in Alaska.

This is the first of these programs to be held through Teamsters National Training (TNT), a new Teamsters’ initiative to increase the amount of training provided to members.

“We must broaden and standardize training efforts for our current and future members,” said Mark Johnson, TNT Director. “This will help the union become an even more successful, powerful force in the future.”

The class, “Training Adult Learners,” enhanced the instructors’ skills and will help standardize the way training is administered to Teamster members. The course included segments on handling matters relating to classroom harassment, religious accommodations, situations related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and fiduciary responsibility for training and apprenticeship programs.

The instructors included

• Ted Cocco, a nationally recognized adult education instructor, trainer for the Providence Fire Department, and a member of Local 799 of the International Association of Firefighters;

• Terese M. Connerton, counsel to the Teamsters National Education & Training Fund and Teamsters National Pipeline Training Fund, who focused on ADA and harassment issues; and

• Johnson, who presented the segment on fiduciary responsibility.

“I thought we had a very good thing going in Rhode Island,” said Ben Wiechmann, an instructor from Local 179 who teaches in the Chicagoland area. “I liked what I heard and learned a lot.”

The next program is tentatively set for the Central Region Construction meeting at the end of January, and will focus on apprenticeship programs. After that, TNT plans to hold a training on computer-based training, adaptive learning systems and simulation at the Teamsters Unity Conference in May.