Biography
Richard is a graduate of University of Illinois at Chicago, 1976, with a Bachelor of Science. He has taught with the Chicago Carpenters Apprentice Training Program off and on for nearly 16 years. In 1994 he joined the staff of Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago where he has led the bargaining of various Teamster contracts in addition to the regular servicing of membership. On a number of occasions, he has directed successful strikes for his local. Richard also regularly does training in a variety of subjects ranging from contract bargaining, servicing, strike conduct, and grievance and arbitration handling. Over a number of years he has taught Contract Costing as a companion class to Contract Bargaining II with the Rocky Mountain Labor School (GCRMLS). This has led to his support of participants from GCRMLS developing costing proposals for their home locals. This year he will be leading workshops at Labor Notes on Grievance Handling, Section 7 Rights of Non-Union Employees, and Strike Readiness. Richard has been a regular contributor to several of Robert Schwartz’s books on labor relations. And he is Spanish/English bilingual and has lived and worked in various parts of Latin America including Nicaragua, Bolivia, Mexico, etc.