can't be a steward?

[705red]

Your supervisor has no say in who is steward. If management could control who is a union steward then they would look for the biggest brown noser they could find and appoint them as union steward. Union stewards are supposed to be voted on, but in my local they just get appointed by the BA.

Oglelord Where are you located? You must have voted in the apwa already. Good luck its a sign of things to come.

 

[Fredless]

We haven't heard even a whisper of APWA in Florida to my knowledge. You guys must be getting the ol southern "back wer ye came from" attitude

 

[submarine]

Get a copy of your local's bylaws and see what it says as far as electing/appointing stewards. Then follow whatever procedures are in place to raise this issue at your general membership meeting. If you can, get as many preloaders to go down with you (union members in good standing) and DEMAND representation on your shift. If this fails it's time to contact a good labor attorney.

A union is an organization like any other, with failings and successes. If left alone to it's own devices, abuses can happen. Just as Government has the media as it's watchdog, the members need to take part in what is going on in THEIR Union.

I think you are on the right path and I commend you for the steps you have taken so far. If you were in my state I would be standing beside you when you went down with your demands.

 

[gandydancer]

Get a copy of your local's bylaws and see what it says as far as electing/appointing stewards...

That was going to be my post. I was looking int the law on failure to represent and ran across Charles Engel's deposition in the Randy Olson case where he says "...in Local 78 the shop stewards are appointed. And in Local 70 they're elected..."

 

[705red]

That was going to be my post. I was looking int the law on failure to represent and ran across Charles Engel's deposition in the Randy Olson case where he says "...in Local 78 the shop stewards are appointed. And in Local 70 they're elected..."

Find out when your monthly meetings are held and go down and meet your fellow brothers and sisters. Dont get discouraged get involved, see if they need any help with organizing ups freight,etc, be seen and meet your ba if you havent already.

 

[ogrelord]

yeah, i've meet him. he pretty much assured me that there wouldn't be a steward on the reload for a while. say that my center manager is trying something funny, and thats it's best to just use the driver stewards.(to bad they don't know whats going on, on the reload) all you see the stewards around my shift is when your being given your warnings. i really hate to say this but i'll go ahead and vent it some where. i think the only reason these drivers are stewards is to make money. i know one of them has made 8 grand by filling. No apwa here in florida or not that i've heard of.

 

[gandydancer]

Find out when your monthly meetings are held and go down and meet your fellow brothers and sisters. Dont get discouraged get involved, see if they need any help with organizing ups freight,etc, be seen and meet your ba if you havent already.

Last I saw, the monthly meetings were during my first shift. I've been in Local 278 since '89, so I know the BAs, but I've paid the fine in cash rather than sleep for the annual "picket duty" assessment every year except...twice? In turn, the local keeps a low profile: no website, no business by email... BAs always seem to be out of town. The general impression is that they want to keep the barrier to reaching them high enough to keep the interruptions and demands to a level tolerable by them. May be somewhat justified. My impression the Bookter has or used to have a lot to do at the National level (3rd level capo: Hoffa-Mack-Bookter...) but I don't think Busch has that excuse... Anyway, before I worry about organizing UPS Freight I'd like to have a little more confidence about the job the union is doing for ME. The union is an absolute necessity for dealing with UPS, but I don't have all that much enthusiasm to communicate about the job they're doing, right now. Maybe I'll gain that as I find more about what's going on.

 

[submarine]

yeah, i've meet him. he pretty much assured me that there wouldn't be a steward on the reload for a while. say that my center manager is trying something funny, and thats it's best to just use the driver stewards.(to bad they don't know whats going on, on the reload) all you see the stewards around my shift is when your being given your warnings. i really hate to say this but i'll go ahead and vent it some where. i think the only reason these drivers are stewards is to make money. i know one of them has made 8 grand by filling. No apwa here in florida or not that i've heard of.

Well you can make money filing 'supervisors working' grievances but usually it costs you more in time and effort than it pays. It's certainly not worth the aggravation! They call it a 'thankless job' and that is pretty accurate. Last year I split almost $16,000 between five drivers and myself because they were the only ones I could get to file Supervisors Working grievances on the sups in my center. I did all the work, investigating the grievances, totalling the hours, making the spreadsheets etc, and split it equally amongst us. One driver had filed a grievance for exactly 1/2 hour of a supervisor working, and I worked that into a $3500 check. You can bet he was happy! My point was to make the drivers understand that the Sups aren't helping them by working (it just hides staffing issues) and that the money is there if they file. You can bet that a lot fewer supervisors were working last year and if they were there were a lot more grievances filed.
Are these Supervisors Working grievances you heard your steward filed? Why don't you file some of your own? We work on the "bounty" system (oooh they hate it when you call it that). First to file gets paid. Time stamp all your grievances if your local does it this way and don't fill them out on the clock!