Two-day training prepares member-leaders for upcoming contract campaigns
December 19, 2024
More than 100 Teamsters Local 2010 member-leaders from across the state came together at our Oakland Union hall on Nov. 14 and 15 for our 2024 Leadership Training and Conference. Together, members and staff organized, strategized, and began the planning necessary to ensure our Union keeps winning for workers in 2025!
Contracts representing more than 90% of Teamsters 2010 workers will open for negotiations next year, including our UC CX and CSU Skilled Trades statewide contracts. The UC and CSU will likely claim they lack the money to treat workers right, but we know better. We’re ready to not just defend the wages and benefits guaranteed in our current contracts, but to build on our achievements and keep winning for some of the hardest workers in California higher education–the members of Teamsters 2010!
Members learned about the powerful history of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters through a presentation by Karin Jones, historian with the IBT Strategic Initiatives Department in Washington, D.C.
Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz showed how Local 2010 has transformed from a small local with 29% membership to a powerful union of 20,000 workers with 75% full membership! Rabinowitz’s presentations showed that we have built this power through active and involved members, constant communication, making our Union a presence in our workplaces, and by taking action together on workplace issues, actions such as stickering up, rallying and picketing, circulating and signing petitions, speaking at UC Board of Regents and CSU Board of Trustees meetings, gaining support of patients, students, faculty and legislators and more.
Members also learned the basics of strategic campaigns and tactics, setting campaign priorities and defining a campaign theme.
Thank you to every member leader who joined us in Oakland. From campaign priorities to targets to slogans, members worked hard brainstorming the foundations for next year’s campaigns. Our unity is our power, and our solidarity is our strength!
“We have built a powerful local union whose members are united and ready to fight for strong contracts with the pay and benefits that we deserve,” Rabinowitz says. “Our successful conference was a great first step in our campaign, which will be the focus of our Union for the coming period. Thanks to all our great member-leaders who participated!”
