LEARNING LEADERSHIP — Trainer Eddie Kaye of the Transport Workers Union (photo left) tells Region 10 PEF leaders how to energize their members during the Region’s annual conference in Suffern. — Photo by Ken Dischell PEF trains local leaders at regional conferences PEF leaders in Regions 7 and 10 took time recently to sharpen their skills as union activists at annual leadership training conferences. Approximately 70 Region 10 members and guests from other regions gathered in Suffern in June for their conference. “Our theme, this year, was Trials and Tribulations Facing Labor in the 21st Century,” says PEF Region 10 Coordinator Jennifer Faucher. Eddie Kaye, training director for Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union in New York City, was keynote speaker and conducted a workshop on how to revitalize local unions. “Eddie is a former vice president of 1199 in New York City and teaches at the Cornell University School of Industrial Relations,” Faucher says. “He taught a course that I took, and I wanted our members to hear what he had to say. The Region 10 conference also premiered a new course in knowing and using the PS&T contract, which was conducted by PEF’s director of field services in western New York, Tom Privitere, and PEF education specialist Kim Loccisano. The Region 7 Leadership Conference was held in Lake Placid, where approximately 30 division leaders and activists gathered to hone their skills. Mobilizing was the dominant topic at this event, according to Region 7 Coordinator Bill Crotty. Loccisano and PEF field representative Frank Greco teamed up to teach the leaders how to identify and select labor-management issues that make good subjects for local mobilizing efforts with members. This was followed by more advanced mobilizing training conducted by PEF Member Mobilizing Committee members, including Faucher and Region 9 Coordinator Neila Cardus and Region 5 Coordinator Mary Twitchell. The committee also conducted a similar workshop at the Region 10 event. Both Crotty and Faucher said their members seemed to appreciate the speakers and workshops that were offered. Faucher says she was delighted when “Ron Goldstein told me this was the best Region 10 Conference he has attended.” — Sherry Halbrook The Communicator Home Page