Abstract
The COMET (Construction Organizing Membership Education Train ing) is an educational program utilized by building trades unions to gen erate rank-and-file support for organizing new members. Since 1996, the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO has been sponsoring COMET training in multi-trade settings for its 15 affiliates. Between 1997 and 1998, the Department undertook a systematic evalu ation of its multi-trade COMET programs to determine their impact on attitudes toward organizing as well as on the nature and extent of orga nizing activities. This article summarizes the lessons the Department learned. Among other conclusions, the evaluation reaffirmed that COMET training is an effective way to build internal support for external organiz ing and that local unions using the COMET appear to be more deeply engaged in organizing than those not using this program.
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