My name is Brenda Robinson and I am a steward at Lake Superior Community Health Center. I am from Local 9460 District 11 of the United Steel Workers.
I recently attended the Health Care Workers Conference that was held in Lexington, Kentucky on April 24-25. The conference was called “To Engage and Unify USW Health Care Workers”. Each day had an agenda. Classes were held from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Classes were 2-2 ½ hours long.
Day one I chose to attend “Workplace Violence, Building a Union Identity, and New Hire Orientation”.
Day two classes were, “Union Approach to Solving Health & Safety Issues and Problems in the Workplace”, “How to talk to Elected Officials About Issues That Matter”, and “Best Practices for Facilitating a Meeting”.
Day three was a half day and the classes that I went to were, “Representing Our Members”, “Knowing Your Rights”, and “Employer Research: Get the dirt and Use it Strategically”.
The classes were all amazing, but there was a lot of information that they gave us in such a short amount of time. There was not enough time for them to finish because they only had 2 hours. The topics were very interesting and the presenters really knew what they were talking about. I feel that the classes could have had more paper handouts so that I could reread them at home/share with co-workers. I do wish that the conference had longer classes so that the speakers did not feel rushed. It would have been great if the conference was all week.
The class “Union Approach to Solving Health & Safety issues and Problems in the Workplace” really caught my attention because I got to hear other health care workers that were stressed and short staffed and that their safety was such a major issue. I guess I felt like that was only happening in my city, but it is happening all over the world. So many people from all over attended the conference. They were all so nice and welcoming. Many interesting conversations were happening and the atmosphere was so uplifting.
I am truly blessed to be in such an amazing organization. Being a member of the USW has been a huge eye opener to me. I have met so many inspiring people. Members from Local 9460 have been so open armed. The members have taught me so much about our union. I am excited about many more that are up and coming and I hope that I can be a part of it.