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likes of former President Tony Wieners, current Executive VicePresident Marc Kovar and now E-board member and Ocean
County Conference Chairman Cernek.
“After 26 years, I’m as enthusiastic about it as I was on Day One.
It’s truly a labor of love,” O’Brien noted in his renowned Paul Harvey-like resonance that incites passion to what might otherwise
be meticulous detail. “When we first started this, there was such
a need for this information and that need has never slowed down
after all these years.”
When the Collective Bargaining Seminar first started, O’Brien
said most members weren’t fully aware of their rights and there
were basically no collective bargaining rights. So in 1989, the first
seminar convened at the La Sammana Resort in Brigantine with
77 attendees. The seminar was hubbed there with an additional
conference also taking place in Clifton for a few years. In the
1990s, O’Brien said the Trump Organization contacted him about
moving the seminar to Trump Plaza and made him an offer he
couldn’t refuse. The annual seminar has been in Atlantic City ever
since.
“In terms of learning about the issues for collective bargaining,
legal and legislative issues started to arise in 1996 when the Interest Arbitration Law was amended,” said Kleinbaum who will
make the inaugural presentation for this year’s seminar as he has
since the beginning. “Before that, we didn’t have a lot of legal and
legislative obstacles we were dealing with.”
So from the 77 who attended the first seminar, “it’s been growing and growing and growing,” O’Brien praised. Attendance has
peaked – and been capped – at 400 the past several years.
Requests to attend the seminar come from attorneys and outside
citizens every year. But it has been kept exclusive to members
who pay $350 total for what O’Brien says is priced as high as
$1,000 per day in brochures he has been sent.
The featured attraction each year is the speakers and the
expertise they share. In addition to Kleinbaum and his partner,
Robert Fagella, speaking about the assault on collective
bargaining and unfair labor practices, presentations come from
legends like Vincent J. Foti on financial analysis; Frank Crivelli of
the Pellettieri Rabstein and Altman law firm on preparing for the
negotiation process; James Mets of Mets, Schiro, McGovern on
Interest Arbitration; and attorney and former law enforcement
officer Stuart Alterman on officer’s rights.
“I get requests from attorneys every year who want to speak,”
O’Brien notes. “The ones we have come in are well-received and
widely-recognized as the finest in the industry.”
Adds Kleinbaum: “Each speaker brings his or her own perspective, and that makes for a wealth of knowledge members get in
those three days that they can’t get anywhere else.”
Such expertise would make sense to be captured on a video
that could probably be sold nationwide and gener ]H[