Bargaining and Organizing Conference in January to focus on member empowerment
Education Minnesota’s 2023 Collective Bargaining and Organizing Conference looks to give members the tools they need to fight for what their students and themselves need.
The conference will be held Jan. 20-21 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. Every two years, negotiators, organizers and advocates come together at this event to learn critical organizing skills, build powerful local plans to unify our members to demand what our students and educators need from the Legislature, and prepare to bargain for those resources in our locals.
The conference will kick off with a keynote featuring a panel of leaders from Education Minnesota locals talking about how their members have fought for their real worth and did not settle for less then they deserve.
Attendees will all attend an important session on getting more members involved in the bargaining process called “open bargaining.” Opening up bargaining to your members and even the public can feel risky, but it can bring great rewards through increased member engagement, leadership development, and more powerful contract campaigns. In this session, participants will talk about why this is an important tactic and how to move toward more open bargaining successfully.
Another highlighted session is on contract campaigns and escalation. This session will focus on building and implementing the components of a successful contract campaign. Participants will work through creating an escalation plan where actions increase in visibility and risk and puts added pressure on decision-makers for educators to win on issues members care about.
Other sessions that have been popular in previous years include settlement costing, school finance, digital organizing, bargaining research and more.
The CBOC is open to all active Education Minnesota members. You do not need to be a current member of your local bargaining team or organizing committee to participate.
The registration fee is $90 per member. Two members from every local may attend the conference at no charge. In addition to the two initial members, Education Minnesota will waive the fee for up to two more members if they identify as BIPOC or LGBTQ+ or if they are within the first five years of their education career. Financial assistance is available for those locals who request it.
Learn more about the conference and register at www.educationminnesota.org/members-only/bargaining/trainings.
There are also course offerings on bargaining and organizing on Education Minnesota’s online learning platform MEA Online for members to complete at their own pace.
