RECAP: 2025 Contract Enforcement Boot Camp

“Meeting all the people from other locals, I feel a sense of unity and solidarity. You have to come here for the sense of the experience…the sense of one. We are all together and everybody is sharing the same issues and same concerns.”

Felicia Turner-SuarauRegion 4 - Local 2320

“Vengan! Tomen la oportunidad. Es una muy bonita oportunidad. Es algo que pienso que van a recordar por mucho tiempo. Van a conocer muchas personas. Es una muy buena experiencia.”

_{“Come on! Take the opportunity. It’s a really nice opportunity. It’s something I think you’ll remember for a long time. You’ll meet lots of people. It’s a really good experience.”}

Juan PlasceniaRegion 6 - Local 509

“I have learned so much! I can’t wait to take it back and get to work!”

Yuel NealRegion 8 - Local 276

“Black Lake has been a wonderful, empowering, educational experience!”

Ayanna DixonRegion 4 - Local 551

ONAWAY, MI – Last week, 176 members assembled in northern Michigan at the Walter and May Reuther UAW Family Education Center for the 2025 Contract Enforcement Boot Camp. Delegates came to this institute to sharpen their skills as grievance handlers. What they experienced was so much more.

The weeklong intensive training started with an impactful presentation from UAW Region 9 Assistant Director Ray Jensen, who updated us on the fight our members working at Mack Truck are in to stop the company from outsourcing their work to Mexico. You can join the fight and sign the petition here: https://ow.ly/piNn50WJwLO

Our boot camp’s core workshops provided delegates training on grievance investigations, effective interviewing and notetaking skills, proper techniques for writing a grievance, and how to successfully present a grievance. Their core training continued with learning the legal rights of a union steward, a deep-dive into Weingarten Rights, their duty of fair representation, and how to handle member-on-member and sexual harassment issues that our members encounter.

Returning delegates attended a select series of workshops that included training on grievance settlements, participation in mock grievance meetings, and roleplay exercises to better understand how to defend a member’s Weingarten Rights.

Contract enforcement is more than just writing a grievance. So next, our delegates learned ways to mobilize the membership by planning a powerful direct action to strengthen our fight.

Delegates then chose from a wide selection of workshops to hone specific skills. These breakouts included training from our International UAW Civil & Human Rights, Health & Safety, Legal, Appeals, and Arbitration Departments. They also could choose to attend in-depth workshops on sexual harassment for grievance handlers, note-taking skills, and interpreting contract language.

Our evenings were filled with roundtable discussions, additional workshops, CPR/AED certification training, and included a few nights of fun with team trivia and karaoke!

At the close of our boot camp, we watched President Fain’s live stream where he spoke in reflection of our union’s recent historic contract wins and organizing successes. We listened as he laid out our union’s plan for upcoming negotiations.

The delegates who attended the Contract Enforcement Boot Camp are now stronger, smarter, and more equipped to ensure those gains we win at the bargaining table are not lost in our worksites!