Union Skills Winter Conference
Every winter, the Division of Training & Professional Learning offers skill-building workshops for union activists and leaders.
Winter Union Skills Conference
Saturday, January 24, 2026
Sheraton Boston Hotel, 39 Dalton Street, Boston
Register for 2026 Winter Union Skills
Membership
Whether you are a seasoned treasurer or a rookie, you know that the responsibilities for managing the financial "back office" at the local level can be daunting and time-consuming. In this workshop, we will review some of the financial best practices. With the proper checks & balances in place, there will be an increased confidence in your local operations and the resultant financial reports and tax filings.
This workshop will highlight the core responsibilities of the Membership Enrollment Process and related Dues Obligations. The submission process has changed considerably in the last two years, and your feedback and ideas are an important part of the annual updates to the process. Suggested Audience: Local Association officers, treasurers and membership chairs.
Membership & Organizing
The strength of our union is rooted in the strength of our membership. This workshop will highlight membership sign-up, engagement and retention best practices. Topics include normalizing membership sign-up, breaking through tough conversations and using contract and issue organizing campaigns as a vehicle for membership growth. This is an interactive workshop offering practical skills that can be shaped into actionable membership plans within participants' respective local(s).
Negotiations
When engaging in collective Bargaining negotiations, how do you develop economic proposals that will secure the highest financial settlement for your members? How do you value and prioritize the various items that are a part of your economic package? What kind of broader economic data could you use to support your proposals? And, very importantly, how do you use economic information to empower your Bargaining team, mobilize your membership, and support public relations efforts? This hands-on workshop will demystify the numbers of Bargaining and address these questions and more! Participants should bring their laptops to this workshop. This workshop counts as one elective in the MTA Bargaining Certificate program.
Does the health insurance negotiations process confuse and/or stress you? This workshop breaks down the laws and regulations that govern municipal (K-12) health insurance. Then we give practical guidance for monitoring/evaluating your health insurance, and how to get the best outcomes from insurance negotiations. This session will count as one elective under the Bargaining Certificate program.
This interactive workshop will cover the foundations of collective bargaining in public PreK-12 and Higher Education in Massachusetts. Discussion topics will include an overview of the collective Bargaining process and the Massachusetts law that governs it, the roles and functions of bargaining and contract action teams, best practices for preparing and planning for negotiations, platform development and proposal writing, tactics and techniques at the bargaining table, and strategies for member engagement that build bargaining power and win strong contracts. This session counts as a core requirement of MTA's Bargaining Certificate Program.
This practical workshop will examine how school funding works in Massachusetts. It will cover State Chapter 70 aid and the sources and parameters of municipal funding. Using real-world scenarios, participants will analyze the employer's ability to pay contract proposals using MTA's Municipal and School Finance Reporting system. Participants will also examine how we leverage this information to justify our Bargaining demands, respond to employer arguments, and agitate and mobilize our members and other community stakeholders in our fights for fair contracts. This session will count as one elective toward the Bargaining Certificate Program.
Negotiations, Solidarity School & Political Organizing
This course will review recent statewide and national successes in negotiating provisions that help to protect our immigrant members and communities. We will also address strategies and tactics on how to pressure employers to negotiate matters ("permissive" bargaining subjects) that they may not have a legal obligation to negotiate. This workshop counts as one elective in the MTA Bargaining Certificate program.
This workshop will teach the canons of contract interpretation so negotiating team members are prepared to apply the principles used by arbitrators to interpret existing language when drafting contract proposals and language. Using established interpretation principles and best practices for legal writing, participants will analyze a variety of language provisions, noting strengths and weaknesses, and apply that understanding to contract language examples. This session counts as one elective of the Bargaining Certificate Program.
Negotiations & Organizing
This workshop explores what's possible beyond petitions and standouts in shaping effective and powerful campaigns. Topics include a comprehensive overview of actions for consideration across different campaign contexts, power mapping, and choosing effective tactics. Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution (provided at the workshop) will serve as the guiding text for this interactive workshop. Participants will gain practical skills that can be shaped into actionable campaign plans within their respective local (s) / organizing space (s). This session will count as one elective under the Bargaining Certificate program.
Bargaining units across the state are undergoing major transformations to build power and demand more for educators, students, and our communities. Local unions are engaging in democratic strategies to build power in negotiations, including inviting more members into the process through expanded and open Bargaining, running escalating contract campaigns, forming Bargaining councils, and moving past traditional "bread and butter" issues to Bargaining for the Common Good. This interactive, one-day workshop will discuss all of these strategies and more, and will be an opportunity to learn about recent contract victories that used democratic Bargaining strategies. This session counts as a core requirement of MTA's Bargaining Certificate Program.
Education employers often assume that enduring physical abuse is "part of the job" for educators. However, MTA members, just like all other workers, have a right to a safe workplace. This workshop will address how to negotiate provisions that will protect our members. While post-pandemic student dysregulation may increase, nonetheless, educators should not have to endure physical abuse. This workshop will give practical guidance on how to negotiate a safer work environment. This session will count as one elective under the Bargaining Certificate program.
Are instructors and students getting sick due to exposure to mold in your buildings? Your not alone, the prevalence of mold in US schools is a significant concern, with reports indicating that 34% of school buildings include mold growth due to moisture intrusions. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) links indoor exposure to mold with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough, wheeze, asthma attacks; and hypersensitivity pneumonitis in immune compromised individuals. We will discuss the removal of mold from schools, as well as methods for finding and stopping the source of moisture in the structure, as a critical aspect of maintaining indoor air quality and ensuring the health of students and staff. In this workshop, MTA local union leaders and professional experts will show you how to mount a successful organizing campaign and describe the technical and financial resources the MTA provides free to locals for successful remediations in schools.
Organizing
This program will teach members how to work with other members to create bottom-up activism and help make their local associations powerful and effective organizations. It is for members who want to solve workplace problems through active engagement. This program is suited to members who are interested in engaging more actively in their union but have not been in elected positions for a significant length of time. The program is designed to help participants understand the fundamentals of outreach, recruitment, involvement, strategy, decision-making and planning of direct-action strategies for empowerment of MTA locals. Conversations will focus on assessing the balance of power, how to bring people together around common problems, and designing and carrying out action plans to solve problems.
Winning the demands we need for our members, for our students, and for our academic communities is going to take all of us. Join our session to learn lessons from rank-and-file MTA Higher Education members on their campaigns. We'll use this session to sharpen our organizing tools through training and practicing the skills we'll develop for our organizing toolbelt.
MCCC is in a fight to win a transformative wage adjustment. Community College educators need a 70% wage increase to get in line with state and national standards. The road towards a transformative campaign is long, and we need to strategize what the year ahead looks like on the path towards winning. MCCC Members: join us for the strategy session to build this year's plan to win.
This workshop will engage participants in best practices for their locals to consider when communicating with the public, the media, and other union members. The workshop will cover communications strategies for bargaining and other campaigns and help union members determine how their locals can best reach the communities and stakeholders they need to influence. This session will count as one elective under the Bargaining Certificate program.
Political Organizing
Join MTA Legislation, Policy, and Political Action (LPPA) staff to explore how MTA legislative priorities are developed, resources that the LPPA Division can offer, and the status of current legislative campaigns and organizing initiatives. Workshop topics will review progress made over the past year, highlight MTA legislative priorities, map a timeline for the upcoming six months of legislative advocacy, explore organizing touchpoints for members, and connect statewide legislative priorities with local and regional campaigns.
In recent years, MTA member leaders have advanced a program of pro-labor / pro-public education candidate endorsements and corresponding political organizing campaign support. The result of these efforts has been an uptick in wins across municipal races including MTA members who have successfully run for and won office in local elections. This past November, MTA was involved in 78 races across 19 municipalities, securing 54 wins — a nearly 70% overall success rate. This workshop focuses on a political organizing approach to candidate elections that is rooted in a member led, rank-and-file labor organizing approach. What does a good candidate endorsement process look like? What are the elements of a strong political organizing campaign that positions our endorsed candidates for success at the ballot? What MTA support can we count on? How are we supporting more of our members to step into public office? Join us for a dynamic workshop where you will hear from some of our fellow members who have been successful in their bids for local office and learn from the evolving political organizing approach our locals have used to build union power in their community.
Political Organizing & Negotiations
When your School Committee claims it can't afford your contract proposals or other critical resources your schools need, how can educators and community members organize collectively to secure the funding our students and schools deserve? In this session, participants will learn from members who have successfully mobilized around their municipal budgets and led campaigns to lift local tax limits through Prop 2½ overrides, winning new resources for educators, students, our schools and communities. This session will count as one elective under the Bargaining Certificate program.
Union Rights & Advocacy Organizing
This session aims to instill confidence and empower union representatives and activists to build strong unions at the worksite. We cover fundamental statutory information (legal rights of union representatives, Weingarten, Duty of Fair Representation) and use those skills in an investigatory meeting roleplay. We will also demystify contract interpretation and discuss organizing approaches to help win on the issues important to our members.
This workshop will discuss our foundational collective rights as a union under M.G.L. Chapter 150e. It will cover the history and policy declarations behind these rights and the importance of safeguarding them in our daily union work. MTA attorneys will discuss examples of how employers attempt to infringe upon these rights through Unfair Labor Practices, such as unilateral changes, repudiation of our collective bargaining agreements and more. We will explore strategies for how members can effectively respond.
ESPs work in a variety of roles in the public school system, which pose different challenges that impact ESPs' legal obligations. As a result, ESPs have specific concerns about their legal rights and responsibilities at work. This training focuses on legal issues that arise and are associated with ESP job duties. It will help ESPs engage their local association and the MTA to defend their rights and hold their employers accountable. This training will also help local associations understand how to address concerns regarding accusations against members and when to seek legal assistance.
