AT LEAST six Southwest Washington Council 2 local unions are looking into the prospect of creating a regional Labor Management Committee similar to the South Puget Sound Labor Management Committee located in the Olympia area.

The Southwest Washington locals — based in Kelso, Longview, Cowlitz County, Three Rivers Regional Wastewater Association’s treatment plants and Wahkiakum County — are: 1262-CO, 1262-CL, 1557-PW, 1557-W, 334 and 334-W.

The South Puget Sound Labor Management Committee, founded 20 years ago in the Olympia area, provides specialized training for union members and stewards as well as supervisors and managers through workshops that are held throughout the year.

The training includes professional development and enrichment skills, tools for conflict resolution and instruction on building employee confidence.

The committee also provides full-time access to an Employee Assistance Program for its members.
Already almost 2,000 employees in 10 Council 2 locals have access to the training, which is offered by the South Puget Sound Labor Management Committee.

These locals include employees for Thurston County, the City of Lacey, the City of Olympia, CAPCOM (911) and LOTT Alliance.

Other organizations that form part of the committee are the City of Tumwater, the Thurston Regional Planning Council and three Fire District groups.

But Council 2 forms the largest single group of the 2,250 represented in the committee.

“The committee has been so successful that others are now wanting to create a similar committee for their own area,” says Council 2 Olympia Staff Representative Trina Young.

“The committee provides high-quality training at a reasonable cost because each organization pays a fee to be part of the programs. Several high-quality trainers provide the instruction.”

The next step in the exploratory process will be to ascertain whether grant funds are available from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Young said.

She emphasized that the efforts to expand the program to Southwest Washington are still in an early exploratory phase.