On Wednesday August 26th, Union Local and General Committee leaders from the Los Angeles area met at the GO-875 offices in Irwindale to attend a training session on communication, negotiation and mediation techniques. The training was designed to refresh, improve and sharpen the skills that union representatives will need to better represent the union members in their dealings with management, arbitrations and contract negotiations.

The training was led by Rhonda Hilyer from Agreement Dynamics. Rhonda is an international speaker, negotiator and mediator with over 25 years of experience. The list of clients that have taken this same training include groups from organized labor, government agencies and fortune 500 companies.

International Representative Victor Baffoni and Assistant to the President Tony Iaonne were also in attendance to witness how those who attended, responded to the training.

"I believe that training like this is the way of the future," said Baffoni. "We need more of this type of training so that we can be up to date on the latest and greatest negotiation tools and techniques. Our members deserve the greatest representation they can get and classes like this help us to give that to them."

General Committee 875 members found the training to be extremely helpful and were excited to take the skills and tools learned back to their locals in order to train their officers as well.

This was the first of many such trainings GO-875 will host as they continue to improve their skills to represent the members and prepare for negotiations.