AFSCME Leadership Academy

The AFSCME Executive Board training provides the skills and knowledge new officers need to lead strong, successful local unions. Topics include officer roles and responsibilities, conducting effective meetings, assessing your local, setting action plans, and more.

The Local Union Leadership Academy (LULA) is a program in which union leadership teams gain essential skills, enhance teamwork and develop goals and plans to strengthen their local unions and win for AFSCME members and their families.

The Stewards in Action curriculum includes 15 hours of classroom training, covering both technical skills related to grievance handling and techniques to spark growth and member involvement.

This weeklong train-the-trainer program equips affiliate staff and members with the skills to conduct AFSCME’s Steward in Action training. Immediately after the training, participants facilitate a live steward training to put their skills to immediate use.

The AFSCME Strong Leadership Academy for Staff is designed for full-time staff of councils, affiliates and locals. The program allows staff to share best practices for sustaining powerful unions, gain new strategies for helping workers win, and learn new approaches for inspiring and training local leaders to successfully take on greater leadership roles. 

The AFSCME Contract Campaign Institute is a program for full-time AFSCME staff who want to take contract negotiations beyond the bargaining table. Participants exchange best practices and gain an array of techniques and tools for mounting successful strategic campaigns.

The AFSCME Arbitration Training is for full-time AFSCME staff who represent members in arbitration proceedings. Over the course of several days, participants sharpen their skills in analyzing, preparing and presenting arbitration cases through an intensive case study.

AFSCME has been a leader in Racial, Social and Economic Justice (RSEJ) work and is committed to promoting equality and respect within the labor movement and in society at large. We do this through our Beyond Bias Program and Connecting the Dots Workshop, as well as through train-the-trainers and Laying the Foundation Program, which help AFSCME affiliates go deeper with RSEJ work. 

The Beyond Bias program offers workshops and train-the-trainer programs for members and staff who want to reduce bias in their workplace and unions. The core curriculum provides examples of how implicit bias shows up in the workplace and everyday life and provides opportunities to practice strategies for reducing implicit bias. 

This workshop, developed by the Racial, Social and Economic Justice (RSEJ) Working Group, explores the impact and causes of unequal distribution of wealth in the United States. We examine the role that race, gender and other factors play in creating income disparities and discuss solutions to create a fair economy that works for all.