Unions have been getting a bad rap. I keep reading articles about problems with
unions and union officials. While there
are always bad actors in any occupation or national organization, including
unions, what gets lost in all the chatter is that unions are employee-based
groups. These are the folks who go to
bat for you in employment disputes, represent your interests, and negotiate
your benefits.
I didn’t grow up in a union family but have been a union
member, though not always the same union, for almost 20 years. In recent years I’ve taken a more active
role. A few years ago I was elected to a
one year term as the president of our local.
This is a volunteer position that most people hold for just one or two
terms, though the cast of characters does get recycled. There is paid union staff at the next largest
organization level and part of my job
was doing triage – answering what questions I could from those I represented,
and talking to the staff about who I should refer the most complicated matters
to.
Union presidents are usually portrayed as burly men in
logoed jackets. I didn’t fit the stereotype. We don’t have jackets. I did get a notebook with policies, a copy of
the current contract, and other assorted paperwork in it.
During my year as president I fielded about one question a
month, mc’ed meetings, and sent out letters to potential new members. The questions fell into two main
categories. One was contract
interpretation. I would get a call or
email asking me what the contract said about a particular topic. In the case of a phone call fairly often I
could call up the contract on the internet and the other person would, too, and
we would talk through their question. Parking
was a big issue. If we couldn’t come to
a confident and shared conclusion then I would call the regional staff and ask
them for their interpretation. Mostly
I was a sounding board.
The second category was job actions. People would come to my office angry
(primarily male) or in tears (primarily female). Someone approached me about filing a
grievance. While I agreed with their
view, their argument was not supported by the contract so I discouraged them. I commiserated with someone feeling alienated
in their work group. I helped steer
someone through the process of deciding to take a severance offer because it
was clear an exit strategy was best for everyone. Again,
I was primarily a sounding board.
No one offered me money or a bribe of any kind. I didn’t try to bribe anyone. I did start keeping a box of tissues in my
office but paid for that out of pocket.
There was no slush fund, no shadowy deals, no threats or violence. It was extra work on top of my regular job.
Unions serve a valuable service to both employees and
employers. HR is easily viewed as taking
the side of the employer. My role was to
represent the interests of the employees as a group. Just as both parties in a mortgage closing or
a pre-nup will have their own lawyers, employees should be able to ask for representation
in disputes with an employer. I was
pleased and honored to serve in that role for a year.
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