No contract issue was off limits at the workshop
MARQUETTE -- We frequently report on laborers and managers butting heads over wages and benefits. Tuesday in Marquette, a group of students got a little practice in the contractual conversing in a mock collective bargaining workshop.
Absenteeism, the company pension plan, random drug testing--no contract issue was off limits at the workshop.
"They'll get down and they'll exchange ideas and they'll go back and forth and they'll agree on some and they'll withdraw some, and hopefully at the end of the day, they'll have a collective bargained agreement signed and ratified," says Paul Kitti of the U.P. Labor Management Council.
The event is a collaboration between the U.P. Labor Management Council, the Marquette Alger Regional Educational Service Agency (MARESA), and Marquette and Alger County schools, which together brought 36 students to the workshop.
"They have been practicing, they have been looking over the materials so that when they come today, they're prepared to actively bargain," says Sandy Meyskens of MARESA.
It's the 20th year for the program, and organizers say that even if participants are never involved in collective bargaining, the workshop is a great communication tool. Students agree.
"We're all probably going to be at this stage in our life at one point or another, and giving us a chance to learn how to do this is really important," says Tanner Delpier, Marquette Senior High School student.
"We're out there to promote harmonious labor management relations, and we think it's important in the workplace, and when you have labor and management together and they work together, they can achieve great results," Kitti says.
Good news...the mock collective bargaining did not result in a mock strike.
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