Teamsters Education Department Involved in Collective Bargaining Education Grant Project

The Teamsters Education Department is in partnership with the AFL-CIO's Community Services Agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council in a collective bargaining education grant project. In early 2004, the council received a grant from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) to promote the “Workplace Issues and Collective Bargaining in the Classroom” curriculum–including six lesson plans related to labor-management conflict resolution cases–developed by Los Angeles, California teachers Lynda Tubach and Patty Litwin.

The grant project’s principal goals are, “to raise student understanding of the meaning of work in our society, from both an historical and contemporary perspective, and to directly assist high school teachers of social studies, economics, U.S. government, and U.S. history by providing innovative curriculum materials for use in their classrooms.”

The project is overseen by the Collective Bargaining Education Committee (CBEC), a labor-management committee, consisting of members of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO’s Future Force Program, and representatives from various labor unions and employers in the area. This committee meets bi-monthly to plan, promote and implement project activities in the District of Columbia, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and the City of Alexandria school districts.

To date, two successful “train-the-trainer” seminars have been held to teach teachers and labor-management leaders how to use these lesson-plans in classrooms and to train others to teach students through the use of Workplace Issues and Collective Bargaining in the Classroom curriculum materials. This curriculum is designed to help teachers of social studies incorporate labor education into their units of study. Other planned activities of the project include the participation of area high school students in collective bargaining simulations after receiving coaching from labor educators and leaders.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Education Department is very much a part of this worthwhile project, having been involved at all stages of its planning and execution. Its Director Mary G. Hardiman, Associate Director Michael B. Filler, and members of its youth outreach staff have been, and still are, very active in promoting the project. The Department produced a Seventh Lesson plan, Duel of the Titans: Case Study of the 1997 Teamsters’ UPS Strike, as an addition to the 6-lesson curriculum referenced above.

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