JAVIER M. PEREZ, JR., INTERNATIONAL EXEC. VICE PRESIDENT
Creating a Culture of Creativity In the last two editions of “In Transit,” magazine, I’ve discussed the role of effective committees within our Locals. I trust that if you share my belief that committees are the strongest threads in the fabric of our ATU, you will understand how they motivate change! Local leaders that advance the creation of effective committees are pragmatic and interested in correcting Labor’s shortcomings and charting a course for the future, without finger-pointing and blame assigning. They find the challenge and the results rewarding. These change agents help replace authoritarian “I know it all, do as I say” styles of leadership with participative roles and growing enthusiasm. Local leaders who rely on collective knowledge instead of limited resources open new opportunities when addressing innovative projects. On any good team, we play to each player’s strengths. Get members off the bench and find their particular strengths. Within our ranks, we boast excellent communicators, logical thinkers, tech-savvy geniuses, and more! Our members prove to themselves by trial and error that there is life beyond the stresses of confusion and disorganization. YES, there are disappointments but soon, a culture of creativity when rebounding from losses becomes the new norm and it’s rewarding! It is this type of culture and creativity that makes a Local stronger and one in which the Labor movement and our ATU cannot live without. So…How do I start?
continue offering training. Recently, 250 Local leaders participated in a Telephone Town Hall on COVID, which International President Costa led. So how do I start? Participate, and encourage others in your Local to do so. Provide opportunities for others to be involved and play to the strengths of your talented members. Examine not only which committees your Local needs immediately to attack a problem but also brainstorm about how you’re going to get the message out. Does your Local have a website, current social media posts, or are they embarrassingly absent or stale? Has your Local signed up with Tatango text messaging (a service offered through our International)? These and other forms of communication are effective. Go out and start a dialogue with our members. Talk to, not at members. Listen to what they have to say. Often, people listen to reply, not listen to understand. Act upon the needs that you heard. Each Local should be member-centered, effective, and future-oriented. Each should operate with open arms, more compassion, make information readily available, stronger structures, finer training and apprenticeship programs, smarter job loss responses, more potent political action, fairer internal democracy, and with more Solidarity than ever before. An extraordinary effort on this behalf is now well underway in our ATU. We need YOU! We need each other! Together we can, Together we will. v
COVID has curtailed our in-person training and seminars. Under the leadership of International President Costa, we have utilized Telephone Town Hall formats and Zoom conferences. While these will never replace our “inperson” meetings and can’t replace the learning that took place after hours or the new friendships made, Telephone Town Halls and Zoom conferences have allowed us to
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January - February - March 2022 | IN TRANSIT
