Grievance Report

The more awareness that is generated around grievances, the more pressure we can utilize against management when they disrespect our colleagues and our contract.

These are always reviewed by an editor before publishing. Editors may also pull details from these reports in writing articles for the newsletter, so it’s wise to write as if management will see this one day.

While solidarity does “die in darkness”, not every detail can be shared with the Local. This can be for strategic reasons or respectful ones. Our primary oath is always to the members we are defending. Always defer to the member about what info they wish to remain private.

Here are some general rules to stick to:

• Names give stories weight by making them personal. However, only use a member’s name if they give you explicit permission to do so.

• Nothing medically related

• Nothing you wouldn’t want management to read or quote in arbitration.

• If the member requests anonymity, try to also keep identifiers like gender or age as ambiguous as possible.

Pulled from ueunion.org:

How to Report on Grievances

Care needs to be taken with how the union reports on grievances. Usually the reporting needs to be straight forward and factual with a minimal use of "editorial language." Here’s an [admirable] example:

• "On December 5th in Department 100 a grievance was settled on the improper temporary transfer of an employee out of the department. The least senior qualified employee was not transferred. After a discussion between Steward Sally Walker and the department supervisor, the more senior employee was brought back to the department and the least senior employee transferred."

versus...

• "On December 5th the supervisor of Dept. 100 once again proved his inability to read the contract as he tried to break the union by transferring the most senior employee instead of the least senior. Any moron could read the contract and see this was wrong. The company must have plenty of money to waste if they keep paying the salary of complete idiots."

The second example, while it may be true, can create more problems than it solves. What is usually important to the union membership is that problems get solved, not that the union rubs the boss’s nose in the ground all the time. The second report also creates a situation where the employer feels it necessary to "defend" the supervisor, thus making it more difficult to get future grievances settled. There is a time for speaking the blunt truth, but picking that time wisely is more effective.

Continue reading: “Putting Out a Local Newsletter”.