Even though Local 170 has suffered significant losses with dues deduction being ruled illegal, we have had weekly meetings with members and national staff to come up with plans to re-sign up members. We have also started going into locations to sign up new members, and have had several Zoom steward trainings and an in-person steward and officer training.
We have started plans for our state convention in October. Our theme is centered around survival. One of our members is going to teach us basic first aid and survival skills. We also have several other trainings — and a lot of fun — planned.
Local 170 is planning a blitz at some point later in the year. We are researching future locations. We send out Mailchimp email notifications to keep members up to date with what is happening with our legislators and the bills that affect state employees. We also sent out a survey using Survey Monkey to ask our members, “what we can do to continue making our union stronger?”
We have fought many grievances and won jobs back and settlement agreements. We are glad to have staff Samantha Crockett back. And we have enjoyed getting to know and working with Micheal Hanson in Samantha's absence.