We are the United Steelworkers, North America’s largest industrial union. We’re 1.2 million members and retirees strong in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. We proudly represent men and women who work in nearly every industry there is.
One of the most troubling and difficult issues for the shop steward is the issue of insubordination. Many contracts say in clear language that an employee can be disciplined and discharged for insubordination.
One of the most troubling and difficult issues for the shop steward is the issue of insubordination. Many contracts say in clear language that an employee can be disciplined and discharged for insubordination.
For the union, discipline cases deal often with the issue of credibility - whether the member's version of what happened can be reasonably believed. The issue must be handled by the local union in such a way so that if the case was to be submitted to arbitration, the union side would be believed by the neutral.
For the union, discipline cases deal often with the issue of credibility - whether the member's version of what happened can be reasonably believed. The issue must be handled by the local union in such a way so that if the case was to be submitted to arbitration, the union side would be believed by the neutral.
A majority of all grievance cases handled by local unions concern some form of discipline -- alleged absenteeism, poor job performance, insubordination, or inappropriate work behavior. The percentage of disciplinary cases can range as high as 70-80 percent of all grievances. This means that shop stewards and local union grievance officers must spend a lot of time handling these cases.
A majority of all grievance cases handled by local unions concern some form of discipline -- alleged absenteeism, poor job performance, insubordination, or inappropriate work behavior. The percentage of disciplinary cases can range as high as 70-80 percent of all grievances. This means that shop stewards and local union grievance officers must spend a lot of time handling these cases.
For new stewards the first few days on the job as a union representative are critically important. You have to demonstrate to the membership that you can get the job done. Your members must feel comfortable coming to you to resolve work-related issues.
At the same time, your supervisor and other management personnel are going to watch you and probably test you.
Establish your position.
When workers go directly to management, to another steward or to a higher union officer with a grievance, without going through their assigned steward, we call that process bypassing. Bypassing is a problem for many stewards, especially new ones.
Sometimes the employee may speak with the immediate supervisor to solve problems informally. Whenever possible, we should encourage the member to bring along his/her shop steward to make sure that the employee gets treated fairly. Often, when members go into meetings with their supervisors they are unaware of their rights and the stipulations of the contract.
As a steward you cannot assume that the membership will automatically respect your abilities. Respect must be earned by showing the members that you will apply your skills and knowledge of the contract to represent all the members to the best or your ability.
Keep the lines of communication open between yourself and other union representatives.
Management's test.
Remember that if you are a new steward, management will often test you to see how well you represent the member. That test may be in the form of denying you reasonable time to do your job or giving you an extension of a time limit on a first step grievance. Your supervisor may try in some way to interfere with your investigation of a grievance by denying access to records. Or the supervisor may simply say no at your grievance meeting even though your member's grievance is a clear case of injustice and a breach of the agreement.
Expect to be tested. Don't get angry or frustrated. Supervisors are often trained to incite a steward so that they will blow the grievance meeting. Don't lose your cool.
A majority of all grievance cases handled by local unions concern some form of discipline -- alleged absenteeism, poor job performance, insubordination, or inappropriate work behavior. The percentage of disciplinary cases can range as high as 70-80 percent of all grievances. This means that shop stewards and local union grievance officers must spend a lot of time handling these cases.
In the long term, they must also develop strategies to handle management at the local level to prevent such cases from even arising.
Steward and leadership training concerns both these issues. This column will address the issue of actually handling the disciplinary grievance.
Key is Credibility
For the union, discipline cases deal often with the issue of credibility - whether the member's version of what happened can be reasonably believed. The issue must be handled by the local union in such a way so that if the case was to be submitted to arbitration, the union side would be believed by the neutral.
This means that the grievant's story must be constantly tested to determine exactly what happened. It's human nature to be emotionally involved in an incident. A grievant might describe what happened to himself or herself but their choice of words might give an inaccurate description of the chain of events.
Or they may stretch the truth in order to get you to believe them. Details of conversations might be invented. The member might mistakenly place a witness closer to the incident than they actually were.
Check the story
A steward must constantly go over the story, checking every aspect of it. Challenge the story as you would expect management to challenge it. Explain to the member that you are not doing this to undermine him or her, but to help put forward the strongest case.
Try to find other credible witnesses who support the grievant's story. Different witnesses see the same event differently. Don't be surprised at this.
Talk to the supervisor or company witnesses beforehand. Check out their story and write it down. You might need to refer back to these conversations at the disciplinary hearing or grievance appeal. If you can show that the supervisor said one thing to you at your meeting and then he or she contradicts this story at a hearing, you begin to build a case that questions the supervisor's credibility...
One of the most troubling and difficult issues for the shop steward is the issue of insubordination. Many contracts say in clear language that an employee can be disciplined and discharged for insubordination.
For employers, insubordination is considered one of the deadly sins, right up there with theft and violence. They will be hard-nosed and unforgiving on the issue. That is why for almost every discipline case involving insubordination arbitrators hold to the rule "obey now, grieve later."
But in the heat of an argument or in situations where a member may be provoked beyond all common sense, the thought of filing a grievance over the issue may be furthermost from their mind.
Let's go over some of the basics here. First, insubordination is usually defined as the failure by an employee to perform a task or comply with an order given to him or her by a supervisor. An arbitrator will usually look at an employee's compliance with a reasonable order as basic to the conduct of the employer's business. Arbitrators take the issue of insubordination very seriously and consider it a major infraction beyond the rules of progressive discipline.
Simply put, refuse a reasonable order and you can be discharged.
Life, however, is never that simple. There are a number of issues which must be taken into consideration in any insubordination case.
1. Was the employee given a direct order? Mere instructions, suggestions, and/or advice are not the same as a direct order. A smart supervisor will say in no uncertain terms, "I am giving you a direct order to complete that job."
2. Was the member aware that he or she was given a direct order? A member may not have understood that the language used by the supervisor was a direct order.
3. Was the language clear? For example, a member might be told to stop smoking. As part of their job, they may go to another location in the facility and light up another cigarette. Caught smoking a second time, the supervisor might discipline them for disobeying an order. But how clear was the original order? The employee might have thought that he had to stop smoking at his original work location...
Debbie from Career Development will be conducting a pilot class for a new online retirement/investing class that ICD has partnered with through Morgan Stanley. The pilot will take about a 1 hour of your time to get set up. Once you have actually used the program, we will be looking for some honest feedback about the program. If your available to help with this, please let Debbie know at Career Developement (219)884-7930. This class will take place at Career Developement Center on Thursday, September 12, 2019, at 9 a.m.
Also, a reminder to all members. You have your Career Developement benefits for up to 2 years if laid off. Also, ICD is offereing CDL Classes starting soon.
