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Stewards, The Grievance Procedure, and Weingarten Rights
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Workers have an important right to “on-the-spot” representation in any situation involving actual or potential disciplinary action. It’s something every steward and every member should know.
If a member is asked to report to the boss’s office. The boss fires off a question. The member asks: “Could this meeting lead to discipline?” The boss says, “Maybe.” The member responds, “I want to see my steward before I answer!”
Legal? Yes! All union members can — and should — make this request if they’re being questioned by management about anything that could lead to disciplinary action. Bosses have no right to refuse.
Different problems arise on the job nearly every day. The supervisor is treating workers unfairly. Management is ignoring or misinterpreting the contract. The administrator is not doing what s/he promised, or the administrator is doing exactly what s/he said s/he wouldn’t do. You are not sure, but you know you’re unhappy. What, if anything, do you do?
This is where our union stewards come in. Stewards are trained in helping our members by ensuring they are treated fairly and the administration is following the bargaining contract as well as their own policies.
Informal discussions with management can sometimes resolve workplace problems. The worker’s representative – the steward – can help do this. Better yet, a group of workers – with their steward – can meet with the manager. Strength in numbers! This can be done before filing a grievance (when there may be a better chance to solve the problem). Or, it can be done instead of filing a grievance.
The grievance procedure is the formal problem-solving process found in the contract. But the grievance procedure has several drawbacks: Many problems are not covered by contract language. It takes time to process a grievance and “justice delayed is justice denied.” A grievance often involves only one steward and one worker, and management has to deal with only those two people.
The negotiated contract is the steward’s most important document. It contains the wages, hours, working conditions and rights of bargaining unit employees. But management sometimes forgets, misinterprets or ignores what they agreed to at the bargaining table. To help address these management violations of employee rights, the contract contains a grievance procedure for addressing those violations.
Five-Step Approach to Grievance Handling
Nearly every workday, stewards hear complaints about something on
the job. Part of the steward’s role is to determine whether the grievance procedure
is the right course of action in response to complaints or issues, or whether
another course of action makes more sense. To help determine whether or
not an employee has a legitimate grievance, there is a five-step formula stewards follow:
Identification
Investigation
Documentation
Preparation
Presentation
After contacting the chief steward, your issue will be assigned to one of the stewards, or they may choose to handle it themselves. If you ever think, “do I have a grievance here?” the answer is CONTACT A STEWARD
. They will best be able to advise whether or not your issue is a simple discussion to management, or if a formal grievance should be filed.
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I’m Being Disciplined. What Do I Do?
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Beware that management is not obligated to inform employees of your Weingarten rights -employees must ask for them. Unlike Miranda rights – where police are required to tell a suspect of his/her right to an attorney, etc., – employees must ask for their Weingarten rights.
In the 1975 case NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court declared that unionized .. employees (in the private sector) have the right to have a steward present during an investigatory meeting with management when the employee believes the meeting might lead to disciplinary action being taken against him/her. According to the court, these rights arise as a result of the proper functioning of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The rights flow from NLRA §7’s guarantee of the right of employees to act “in concert for mutual aid and protection.” Denial of this right violates NLRA §B(a)(l). We have this right in the Public Sector in Illinois.
Weingarten rights apply during investigatory interviews when a supervisor questions an employee to obtain information that could be used as grounds for discipline. When an employee believes such a meeting may lead to discipline, he/she has the right to request union representation. These basic Weingarten rights stem from the Supreme Court’s decision:
• The employee must request representation before or during the meeting.
• After an employee makes the request, the supervisor has these choices:
1) Grant the request and wait for the union representative’s arrival;
2) Deny the request and end the meeting immediately; or
3) Give the employee the choice of either ending the meeting or continuing without representation.
• If the supervisor denies the request and continues to ask questions, the employee has a right to refuse to answer. In addition, the supervisor is committing an unfair labor practice.
