Class participants toured the BLET National Division headquarters during the Local Chairman workshop.
The BLET Education & Training Department recently conducted a comprehensive training class for Local Chairmen at BLET National Division Headquarters in Independence, Ohio. It was offered in a hybrid format, with members attending in person and participating remotely via Zoom.
BLET National Secretary-Treasurer David Estes, head of the Education & Training Department, said about half the participants in the Local Chairman class were new Local Chairmen or Vice Local Chairmen who would soon be moving into the Local Chairman position.
“We were in the right place at the right time to offer important training to these new, up-and-coming officers,” Estes said. “The job of our Education & Training Department is to provide them with the tools they need to best represent our BLET members.”
National President Mark Wallace and First Vice President Gary Best addressed class participants via Zoom. President Wallace provided a brief state of the union update before he and First Vice President Best engaged participants in an extended discussion regarding BLET’s ongoing efforts to oppose the UP-NS merger. Best, who has been assigned by President Wallace to lead BLET’s work on the proposed merger, provided additional insight into the union’s progress on the issue. Wallace and Best also spent considerable time answering questions from class participants.
Participants were asked to provide feedback through exit interviews at the conclusion of the classes.
James Everett, a Wheeling & Lake Erie locomotive engineer, has been a Vice Local Chairman of Division 292 (Brewster, Ohio) for three years. “The class gave me a strong introduction to the role of Local Chairman and what it entails, and provided a lot of information on the investigation and appeals process,” he said. “I like that the class went into detail on how to formulate your questions, how to formulate your objections, the importance of documenting everything, and getting everything into the record.”
Check out the Local Chairman class photo gallery.