The Joint Council organizing program moved into its second round of training October 15 at Local 952. Starting with one-on ones/house-calls, it will be exciting to see the progress of those that attended previous training's and how much they have improved. Some participants have engaged in house calls on current campaigns and they will help us lead all the new ones. This training is very important because it teaches you how to listen, ask good open-ended questions and most importantly, how to get comfortable with a nonunion worker. The worker is battling fear, lack of knowledge, misinformation and intimidation from their employer. The best way to penetrate that is a union worker in the same industry explaining how a union works and why it is beneficial to have collective bargaining. When that union worker has organized themselves and went through the process, it’s even better. Because JC 42 is so active in organizing we have a large group of workers to access that have been in successful organizing drives. They can tell a non-union worker firsthand how going through the organizing process paid off. Helping them conquer their fear is the biggest hurdle and they can relate more to someone doing the same job, especially if our member is willing to take his own time to help. Workers are shocked by the pride and solidarity of Teamster members when they are knocking on their door. Maximizing on that conversation is what we focus on in the training. The wrong approach will turn someone off even with the best intentions. On September 19 the Organizers from the Locals met to lay out future training's and campaigns. We also covered the Good Jobs LA campaign, inviting their organizers to explain their program. Good Jobs LA has canvassed thousands of community people door-to-door in south LA, identifying issues for workers in the area. The program is built to mobilize the community behind good jobs, educating them and the general public on what working families need. The next phase of the JC 42 organizing program integrates the training and campaigns as well as continuing to repeat all of the training's. We look forward to seeing those of you that will be new and those of you that will be coming back and learning more.