Metro Baltimore Council AFL-CIO Leadership Conference

The 19th Annual Leadership Conference for the Metropolitan Baltimore Council AFL-CIO Unions was held at the Tropicana Hotel and Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey January 6-8, 2010.

It was a great opportunity to meet and network with other union leaders, labor lawyers and other labor related service vendors from our region.

Labor leaders from various different local unions from the Baltimore Metropolitan region attended the conference. Several well known and respected labor lawyers from the area held seminars and gave speeches which dealt with important issues all union members have to deal with such as: the changes in the Family Medical Leave Act on a statewide level, the importance of estate planning, social security disability procedures, the importance of power of attorney in case of an incapacitating accident, proper strategies locals can use in union organizing and collective bargaining and the weapons that unions can use to counteract plant closings and mass layoffs.

Labor related service vendors such as Kaiser Permanente, One Net PPO and the law offices of Kahn, Smith and Collins had booths set up in the exhibit hall that offered various services that could prove very beneficial to union members such as discounted prescription cards, several different types of health care plans and disability insurance, different types of retirement benefits, and legal advice for labor unions.

It was great to see several other members of the Young Trade Unionists Board in attendance at the conference. I, unfortunately, had to get back to work early on the last morning of the conference and was not present when President Ernie Grecco pulled a raffle ticket with my name on it that would have won me a brand new mountain bike, if only I were present to claim the prize.
I feel very fortunate to be able to attend the conference and meet so many different people who have a passion for advancing the labor movement in our region. I was especially impressed by some of the speakers at the conference who gave me an insight into important labor issues that I previously had little knowledge of. I look forward to attending next year’s conference and would like to encourage everyone to attend next year’s event (and to stick around for the raffle drawing at the end of the conference…).

In Solidarity,

Bruce Holtman
Young Trade Unionists Executive Board

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