STEWARD TRAINING CLASS Led by State President Dennis Taff Excellent! State President Dennis Taff put on one of the best Steward Training classes ever. 16 union stewards and leaders met in the Tibbets Suite on the 3rd floor of the Fayetteville Hilton on Saturday, September 23rd, from noon until 4 pm. Union people came from Rogers, Harrison, Tulsa and Fayetteville. The Hilton served prime rib lunch. Setting was great; food was delicious. Price was right ($11 per person + tax & gratuity). Dennis showed VCR tape relating to investigation of grievance / arbitration that, at first glace, looked like the grievant would lose her job. However, on closer inspection, we could see how management's case was irreparably flawed. Lessons learned were: (1) you can't judge a case simply by observing one picture or by assuming the frame is all inclusive; (2) grievance cases must be built from the groundfloor up with well written statements, gathering of all documents and pertinent material; and (3) even though it looks like a loss at the beginning, after thorough investigation, it could possibly be turned around to win case(s) for grievant. The case [used as example] focused on Little Rock area grievant who was targeted for termination. Little Rock Area Local did a great job in preparing case for arbitration. In addition, Dennis Taff, when stepping in as advocate at arb level, discovered more information which assisted in winning the case. The clerk won job back with backpay. At first glace the video seemed to prove fraud, but only after watching video 3 times could we detect what actually was happening. Viewing the video may have seemed boring, but it turned out to be intriguing. Very interesting. I'd like to thank Dennis Taff for such a marvelous presentation. Thank you also to the union leaders who came from the various cities. Loren