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Education & Research: Steward's Corner
by Robert
Wechsler, Education Director
What Does "No" Really Mean?
Many stewards hear the word "no"
more often than they would like.
It might happen like this. A
member comes to you with what
seems like a clean grievance.
They have been bypassed for
overtime and according to your
investigation they were most
senior and were never asked.
Simple?
You decide to meet and discuss
the issue with management
because it appears that the
supervisor committed some
oversight here. But when you get
into the supervisor's office, he
begins to talk about emergency
work and needing to assign an
available employee without going
to the list. Your jaw begins to
drop, the muscles tighten and it
takes all your effort not to
explode. You have just entered
the world of grievance denial.
What happened?
Bad decisions
Chances are the supervisor
on duty made a poor decision and
management is now using the
emergency work excuse as a
cover. Of course the member
should have been paid, but
management doesn't like to admit
it made mistakes. So it
compounds the mistake and gets
the union and member angry.
Here's another scenario. Your
shop has enjoyed a practice for
many years. There is nothing in
the contract that deals with the
practice but a new supervisor
decides to end it. You protest
through the grievance procedure
and are told the grievance is
denied. When you ask why, the
supervisor reads
you the management rights clause
of the agreement.
Don't take no for an answer
We have to live with bad
answers and grievance denials
but that doesn't mean the
process ends. Your first move is
to explain to the grievant what
just happened and make it clear
that the union will not allow
management to play games with
his/her grievance.
Next, you must research and
document the grievance
thoroughly, if you have not
already done so. Make sure that
your notes of the first level
meeting go into the union's file
in case the second step appeal
is handled by a different union
officer. Insure that record is
complete. Talk to the chief shop
steward, executive board member,
or local officer so that the
proper person can make the
strongest case on appeal to the
next step.
Always consider the reason for
the denial but your rebuttal is
not necessarily the primary
argument. If a member is passed
over for overtime and there was
no real emergency, stick to your
guns about the bypass. If the
supervisor hides behind the
management rights clause -- and
they often will -- insist that
the employer consider the
practice as part of the
unwritten agreement between both
sides. Show that the practice
has been ongoing for a long
enough time period that it
appears to reasonable people
that this is the way both sides
conduct their business.
What about no answer?
Let's take a variation of
this case. Suppose the
supervisor doesn't answer your
written grievance within the
time limits set out in your
agreement. Unless your contract
says otherwise, the union must
then choose to move the
grievance up on appeal to the
next step.
If you use a single form which
has a space on the form for
management's reply, such as in
the Air Transport Division,
write in that still empty space,
"not answered in a timely
manner," and appeal to step 2.
Do not miss out on the time
limits.
When a supervisor does not reply
to a grievance, it is usually
because he or she is overworked,
negligent, can't make a decision
or won't make a decision. I have
heard senior management complain
that their worst nightmare in
the grievance process is to go
to arbitration where their lower
people did not answer the
appeals and the union progressed
the grievance. Most of the time,
they would settle the grievance
to save face.
Employers will go to the issue
of time limits first when
responding to a grievance. And
the language that justifies a
rejection of the grievance on
the basis of missing the time
limit is usually found in the
labor agreement. Good grievances
-- grievances with merit -- can
be lost when management sees
that the union has missed time
limits.
Keep appealing
The key is not to let
management control the grievance
procedure through denial or
refusals to reply. Their hope is
that denial or silence might
make the grievance go away. As
frustrating as these tactics
are, they cannot be allowed to
divert the union from its
primary task of defending
members' rights on the job.
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