Transcript Information Requests and ULPs

The Role of the Steward
Dante Whittaker
Region 8 Council Vice-President
2 Part Presentation
 Role
of the Steward
 Communications
and representative
 Employee assistance, handling complaints
 Recruiter for Local
 Negotiations
 Union Image
 Nuts
and Bolts
 Know
your stuff… and where to look it up.
 Attending meetings
 Union internal functioning
 Union Tools
How are stewards selected?
Election
or
Appointment
It depends on your ________!
fill in the blank!
Communications
Communications
 Communication
between union and
bargaining unit employees
 What
are employees’ concerns?
 What is the Union doing for employees?
 Communication
between Union officials
and other Union officials
 Get
or give assistance/advice
 Refer issue to higher level union for resolution
 E.g. National or regional issues
Communications
 Communication
between employees and
management
 Employee
concerns and issues
 Pre-decisional involvement
 Negotiations
 Grievances and other complaints
Communication
 Be
available to your Bargaining Unit, and let
them know when and how to contact you
 Check in with your members – don’t wait for
them to come to you.
 Local Bulletin Boards – Have them, use them!
 Get in touch with other unions in your area.
Know the local issues and support them.
 Greet all new bargaining unit employees
(Article 13.4: Where practical to do so, supervisors will arrange to
introduce new employees to a local Union official.)
Bulletin Boards
 How
many have at least one Bulletin Board at
their work site?
 Why was every hand not raised??
Communication – Nuts and bolts
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Your Local should create e-mail or mailing lists of
 All officers and stewards
 All members and
 All BUEs
Put names in the bcc line so folks don’t use your list and to
protect confidentiality. (Put notice such as, “This e-mail was sent
to all bargaining unit employees as a bcc to protect your privacy.”)
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Read your e-mail daily and forward appropriate
messages to your officials, members, and BUEs.
Share information about what your Local is doing.
Establish a regular e-mail or newsletter to all
members.
Your Local should be sending “This Week in the
Council” and “FSC Voice” to all BUEs.
Creating Mailing Lists
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You need to communicate to your members AND your
entire bargaining unit
Get a list from Management
Article 7: Upon request the Forest Service agrees to
furnish to the Union, at the appropriate level, usually
not more than quarterly, an up-to-date list of
employees in the organizational unit showing
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name,
position, title, grade, and step,
Bargaining Unit Status code (BUS),
Fair Labor Standards Act code, and
official duty station.
Communications -- Internal
 Note:
Internal business (dues, membership,
budget, etc) should be sent on your own time
and say “INTERNAL READ ON YOUR OWN
TIME” in the subject line.
Confidentiality
 As
a Union official you hear a lot of “stuff”
 Must respect confidentiality of employees you
represent.
 Must be clear with employees about what you
can and will keep confidential and what you
cannot.
 May share info with other union officials.
 There are times when management will tell
you something in confidence. You have no
obligation to keep it confidential, BUT you will
lose all trust if you don’t.
Employee Assistance
Handling Complaints
Grievances and Complaints
 For
Example:
 Grievances
– contractual agreement for dispute
resolution
 Merit Systems Protection Board – appeals of
adverse actions
 Equal Employment Opportunity
 Merit System Protection Board
 Office of Special Counsel
 OPM
 Fair Labor Standards Act
 Classification appeals
Local Complaint Form
 Helps
guide your discussion with the employee
 You can fill it out as employee tells story then
have them sign
 Gets employee to both tell their story and tell
what they want as a resolution
 Makes it clear that the employee wants union
to represent them.
 NEVER give the Local Complaint form to
Management. It is an internal union document.
Timelines
– 30 days from incident
 EEO Complaint – 45 days from incident
 MSPB Complaint – 30 days from action
 Unfair Labor Practice – 6 months from incident
 Office of Special Counsel – none
 OPM Appeals
 Grievance
Coding – none, but lookback for pay can only
be 2-3 years
 Classification – none.
 FLSA
Recruiting
Recruiting
 Federal
workplaces are “open shops.” All
employees are represented whether they join
or not, so……
A steward is the Local’s
number one recruiter.
Recruiting
 Ask,
ask, ask! No one should ever be able to
say that they didn’t join the Union because no
one asked.
 Be sure that BUEs know what the Union is
doing, so they don’t have the excuse of “what
does the Union do for me?”
 Consider how you do representation for nonmembers – Do you assist with EEO, MSPB,
OSC? Or not?
Negotiations
 Stewards
may be called upon to:
 Negotiate
with management regarding
proposed changes to conditions of
employment
 Initiate proposals on behalf of the
bargaining unit
Union image
 Union
officials ARE the union in the eyes of
most employees
 Exhibit professional behavior – treat all
persons with respect and dignity
 Follow the rules
 Be visible and active
A few nuts and bolts…
Know your stuff…
 Review
the materials from this week (several
times)
 Review the contract
 Review the law
 Get more training
 Talk to other Union reps
… and know where to look it up
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In the binder from this training.
FLRA Website: www.flra.gov
Merit System Protection Board: www.mspb.gov
Forest Service Directives: http://fsweb.wo.fs.fed.us/directives/
MOUs: http://fsweb.asc.fs.fed.us/HRM/labor_relations/union.php
FS Partnership Council:
http://fsweb.asc.fs.fed.us/HRM/labor_relations/union.php
USDA Directives: http://www.ocio.usda.gov/directives/index.html
Federal Employees Legal Survival Guide -- Passman and
Kaplan
Broida – FLRA and MSPB case summary books
Meetings
Meetings
 As
a Union rep, you will be in a lot of meetings
with employees and management.
 Formal
meetings
 As representative of the Bargaining Unit
 As employee’s representative
 Investigations
 ADR
 Negotiations
 Partnership
 Meeting new employees
Guidelines for all meetings

Be prepared: Management needs to give reasonable
notice for formal meetings.
 Prepare a list of what you want to cover during the
meeting.
 Equity principle -- When you have your Union “hat”
on, you are equal with management.
 Ask who will be at the meeting BEFORE you go. If
you are bringing someone to the meeting, be sure to
let management know beforehand.
 Take notes.
 Focus on interests.
 Watch out for “ok” reply. It can be interpreted as
assent.
 If you lose your cool… apologize!
Caucuses
 Time
for you to speak alone with the
employee you are representing
 Employee
is frustrated
 You are unclear on where the discussion is or
should be going
 Employee is looking exhausted
 Employee is damaging his/her case
 Management has made an offer
 Often
party calling the caucus is asked to
report back from the caucus, especially in
negotiations.
Attending formal meetings
 Provides
“face” of the Union to employees
 Listen for issues that are arising, especially
with respect to policies that are changing and
affecting working conditions
 Ask questions to clarify what is being said.
 If something doesn’t sound right, it is OK for
you to try to correct the issue.
Formal meetings –
representing Bargaining Unit
 These
include any staff meeting when working
conditions are discussed
 Safety
meetings
 Staff meetings where policies are discussed
 Orientation meetings
 Helps
Union be visible
 Be prepared to say something at the meetings
 Formal meetings are often the key to Union
visibility!! Don’t miss this opportunity.
Formal meetings –
Individual representation
 Grievance
meetings, discussing workplace
issue, oral discipline responses, etc.
 Represent the interests of the employee.
 Know their rights.
 Know the strength and weaknesses of their
case/arguments.
 Help employee tell their story… and keep
them from harming their case.
 Call caucuses when needed.
Investigative meetings
 Investigator
may be FS employee or
contractor. It should NOT be law enforcement
for an administrative investigation.
 Clarify the purpose of the investigation,
preferably prior to the meeting.
 In accordance with Article 4, “During an
investigation, the employee may ask whether
or not they are being directed to answer and
will be provided a written statement of this,
upon request.”
 Thus: Always counsel the employee to ask for
a written statement
Investigative meetings (continued)
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You are representing the interests of the employee.
Counsel the employee prior to the meeting:
 Employee must answer the questions in an
administrative investigation.
 Answer the question asked, no more. Employee
generally should not go “on and on” in their
response.
 If questions are too broad, ask the investigator to
be more specific. No fishing trips.
You can assist the employee in answering the
questions.
Employee will be asked to sign a statement when
done. Be sure that the statement is an accurate
reflection of what was said.
Negotiations Meetings
 Get
interest-based training! And use it!
 Union and management reps should be equal
numbers.
 Official note taker.
 Facilitator.
 Document decisions. Initial off on the official
notes and decisions in the meeting and get
final agreement finished up right after.
 MORE
on negotiations on Friday!
Meeting follow up
 Document
the meeting and decisions in a
signed agreement, particularly for settlement
discussions and negotiations.
 Identify “deadline” dates for getting decisions
implemented.
 Do your part of the follow up.
 If there are no other notes or written
agreements, follow up phone calls/meetings
with short e-mails summarizing agreement.
End each e-mail with “Please let me know if this
is not correct.”
Internal Union Functioning
Internal Union Functioning
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Function as a cohesive unit: You’ll already be one step
ahead of management!
Meet regularly as an executive board/steward
committee.
Keep each other informed about cases and upcoming
issues.
Have an internal policy about submitting documents to
management:
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Who can submit them
Who needs to review them
Seek advice (on the job training) from other union
officials.
 Be sure you are getting IAM and NFFE
communications. Contact NFFE to be sure they have
your officer information correct.
Internal Union Functioning
 Get
training! Use your bank of hours each
year.
 IAM Info – Steward Updates
 IAM training – Winpisinger Center
 FSC training -- RENO
 Keep
files and information in shared area, so
work can continue when individuals are gone.
 Local
e-mail account
 Local electronic filing space
 Local paper files
 These
documents are LOCAL records, not the
property of individual union officials.
Record keeping
 Notes
of meetings
 Who
was present
 Decisions made
 Next steps
 Case
files
 Employee
complaint form
 Meeting notes
 Formal actions
 Step
1 Grievance and Response
 Step 2 Grievance and Response
 Settlement offers and final settlement
Record keeping (cont’d)
 Negotiations
 Proposals
 Ground
rules
 Notes taken during the negotiations
 Draft agreements
 Final agreements
It is important to keep negotiations history for future
reference, in case issues come up regarding the
intent of the parties.
What every steward needs!
2
Copies of the Master Agreement
 One
for you, with all your notes
 One to give away
 A list of all your bargaining unit employees
 Copies of SF-1187 forms
 Local Lodge Complaint Forms
 Federal Employees Almanac (or other good
resource)
 An e-mail account and internet access
 New member kits – Available from NFFE