Strengthen your bargaining skills at the 2025 Collective Bargaining and Organizing Conference
The Collective Bargaining and Organizing Conference will be held on Jan. 24-25, 2025, in Bloomington. Every two years, this conference brings together organizers, negotiators and advocates to learn best practices for bargaining and contract negotiations, including how to build unity across locals and incorporate more open and inclusive practices in bargaining.
At the 2023 CBOC, Education Minnesota encouraged members to “bargain boldly” through effective community organizing and transparency during the bargaining process. This approach proved effective in the 2023 negotiation cycle: locals that practiced open negotiations and demonstrated transparency about the bargaining process with members and the community often ended up with stronger contracts than we had seen previously.
The 2025 CBOC will continue to build on open bargaining tactics with workshops designed to help both brand-new negotiators and those who have been through this process before.
The conference will begin on Friday with a welcome and keynote, followed by a session for all participants that goes over tactics for dealing with some of what we saw at the bargaining table during the 2023 cycle.
After the general session, classes will follow two main tracks: negotiation mechanics, which builds skills necessary for bargaining team members to successfully prepare and work on negotiations; and power-building, which covers skills related to organizing, mobilizing the community and stakeholders, and why escalation plans are necessary.
Certain classes in each track will have both introductory and advanced levels, based on attendees’ bargaining experience. Additionally, the conference will include the Certified Negotiator Program for ESPs and teachers.
This conference is open to active members of Education Minnesota. You do not need to be a current member of your local’s bargaining team to attend. Registration opened in mid-November and this year’s registration fee is $100.
Equity commitment at CBOC
Bargaining is most successful when there are a range of perspectives at the negotiating table, which is why Education Minnesota is working to make CBOC as accessible as possible for members that experience significant barriers to participation in union events. The CBOC will have a dedicated pathway for members of color to become leaders in their locals and at the bargaining table. We also want to ensure that all educator voices are recognized at the table—not just classroom teachers.
To accomplish these goals, we have established the following supports for the CBOC:
- All ESP members who wish to attend will have their conference fee waived and we will cover the cost of one hotel room for that member.
- Anyone who identifies as a member of color/BIPOC will have their conference fee waived and we will cover the cost of one hotel room for that member.
- The conference will have ESP-only classes and strands as part of the conference schedule.
Members from the same local may be asked to share a room.
This year, the CBOC will include a pathway designed to allow members with similar experiences to connect. This strand, “Negotiating and Organizing for BIPOC members,” will provide a series of four sessions on Saturday during the conference and is open to BIPOC attendees. Our goal is to provide an honest discussion from BIPOC members of Education Minnesota locals about the risks and rewards of serving as a negotiator. Classes will include introductions to negotiations and organizing, a specific focus on language promoting equity at the table and a panel of BIPOC members.
- ESP members who wish to participate in a full conference strand with other ESPs will have two options:
- The Certified Negotiator Program for ESPs, which runs the entire length of the conference.
The organizing pathway, “Organizing fundamentals for ESPs.”
Creating spaces for our non-licensed staff to connect, engage, and learn from each other reflects our union’s commitment to supporting educators in whatever role they play in our schools.
Case study: Anoka Hennepin Education Minnesota
Anoka Hennepin Education Minnesota represents one of the largest school districts in the state, extending 172 square miles and covering parts of 13 counties. “Because we are so large, we have a wide and very diverse range of concerns among our members and our district is very polarized,” said John Wolhaupter, AHEM lead negotiator. “This extends into a lot of our conversations, and since our community members fit all of the demographics, agreement can be hard to come to.”
The best way they’ve found to navigate such a large and diverse district is to build strong connections with members across the district through organizing. Attending CBOC not only showed them new ways to connect with members, it also introduced them to tools and resources to help them do so more effectively. One approach they took is to create authentic channels through which to engage with members about bargaining and negotiations.
“Each building has a building leader, a local contract action team member, a strike captain and a communications plan,” said Valerie Holthus, president of AHEM. “Because of our structure, we remain connected to each part of our district.”
Establishing this infrastructure allowed them to successfully practice open negotiations—because the infrastructure was built, they were easily able to communicate with members about the negotiation process.
CBOC also taught AHEM attendees new ways to discuss member priorities for bargaining. “We’ve really started to use more online tools,” Wolhaupter said. “Instead of sifting through a long list of comments on a survey, we can [set up a virtual meeting and] facilitate that back-and-forth conversation to get into more details on what our members are asking for.”
“CBOC is a great way to expand your toolbox as a negotiator or an organizer,” said negotiation team member Mark Corcoran. “You get different perspectives from other places and other locals, but also learn about new topics you might want to pursue or different approaches you might not have thought about otherwise.”
Using what they learned at CBOC, AHEM was able to negotiate some substantial wins in their contract, such as pay increases of 5% in the first year and 3% in the second, changing the early childhood and family education salary schedule to one that aligns with the K-12 teachers’ salary schedule and a 10% increase in the district’s insurance contribution.
AHEM negotiators said that CBOC not only helped them learn how to connect and engage with their members, it also allowed them to connect with colleagues in other districts. “It helps you learn who to talk to. You feel more involved, you feel more like part of the family. It helps remind you that we’re all part of the union and that we aren’t the only ones going through these struggles,” Corcoran said.
Register for the 2025 Collective Bargaining and Organizing Conference on our website at educationminnesota.org/members-only/bargaining/trainings.
