ESCANABA – This fall, the U.P. Labor-Management Council will again partner with local Intermediate School Districts to teach collective bargaining workshops to high school students.

The Fall 2015 workshop dates are on Thursday, Oct. 29 in Hancock; Friday,?Oct. 30, in Escanaba; Tuesday, Nov. 3, in Iron Mountain; and Friday,Dec. 4, in Marquette.

The workshops give students the experience of being an employee or a manager in a union workplace by engaging them in the negotiation of a mock-collective bargaining agreement.

Each student plays the role of “labor” or “management” using the facts of a fictional company and, during the course of one day, must reach a “contract” that is acceptable to both sides.

Professionals from both labor and management who work in the collective bargaining arena volunteer to act as “coaches” to guide the students through the process.

The exercise introduces students to concepts in economics, politics, history, and labor law, and provides a glimpse into real issues that arise in the world of work.

Approximately 7,000 high school students have attended the council’s collective bargaining workshops since the project began in 1988.

Many of the students who have participated in the workshop, as well as their teachers and parents, have sent letters of thanks to the council for the workshop, some stating that it was one of the best days of the student’s high school education.

The workshops, which are attended by high school juniors and seniors, are the council’s way of acquainting young people with the idea of labor-management cooperation.

The council was formed in the 1970s and is still going strong with a membership of labor and management professionals from around the U.P.

The goal of the council is to encourage labor-management cooperation through education and fellowship as a means to foster a strong economy in the Upper Peninsula.

Students who participate in the council’s high school collective bargaining workshop during high school are eligible to apply for a $500 scholarship offered by the council, in honor of past council member Gerry Kendziorski.