We love our shop stewards. They are the glue that holds our Union together. They help negotiate and enforce our contracts. They speak up for us in grievance meetings. They lend an ear when we're dealing with a personal crisis or have a beef to pick with management. They lead us into battle.

But what makes a shop steward great? We posed that question to attendees at our January membership meeting. 

For this group, a steward should be open-minded, approachable, helpful, caring, have good ideas, and love the Union!

Working in groups, members rattled off a litany of ideas. Their input will serve as the spark to develop advanced training programs for our steward community. 

Check out this group's superhero. She listens, problem-solves, is politically savvy, and sniffs out the bullshit.

Member feedback took a variety of forms. Some folks wrote out their ideas, others drew, doodled or discussed. 

We love our stewards to be intelligent, equity-driven, real, and ready to flip the bird when necessary.

In all, the experience was community-driven, collaborative, educational, and a ton of fun. 

A good steward is empathetic, brings people in, organizes, speaks up, drives the "welcome wagon" and has a backbone.

Shout out to our members, both in the room and online, who chimed in with their many ideas.

Much love and gratitude also to our incredible cadre of Shop Stewards for their service and sacrifice. As Secretary-Treasurer Paul Dascher likes to say, "You are the backbone of this Union."