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TForce | anyone here want to be steward

Teamster251 said:
First of all its not the steward's job to impose job actions, slowdowns, walk outs, call-ins or strikes.

The steward's job is to be the eyes and ears of the Business Agent.

The steward does not enforce the contract, the BA does.

The steward is there as a representative of the union and a represntative of the member(s) to make sure the member(s) is treated within the guidlines of the law and contract.

Many locals appoint stewards becuase they are working together with the BA to run a tight ship or contol a tough situation.

Doesn't the President appoint his cabinet?

Some local's by-laws will allow for an election if certain things apply.
Retirement of steward, lack of faith from members, illegal doings, even change in Business agents can cuaes the change of stewards.

Overnite's/USPF situation is a slightly different stuation.
Here you have a entirely new company coming on board and for the most part the members and Business Agents don't know each other. Stewards may be chosen based on what the local leadership sees in a person during the organization drive or may see fit to let the members elect one of thier own choice.
Also remember more than one steward will be neede at each barn.

Take for instance a barn witha large operation.

Stewards will be needed for the road operation, dock operation, city operation, and mecahnaics.

In this case a chief steward is assinged by the local and a member that works in each classsifaction is appointed or elected.

Being steward is a 24/7 job.

Be ready for your phone to be ringing at phone when you off, during vacation, on a sick day, whenever there is a problem and your not around.

Be ready to dedeicate you time to the local and the members. It a thankless job, holds no extra benifits and takes a certain type of person to be able to take on the added work load.


Stewards do the job side by side with the members and in most cases don't get any extra out of it. Be ready to be diplomatic.

STEWARDS DO NOT CALL STRIKES
STEWARDS DO NOT TELL THE COMPANY HOW TO RUN IT'S BUSINEES
STEWARDS DO NOT HAVE SUPER SENIORITY
STEWARDS CAN BE ELECTED
STEWARDS CAN BE APPOINTED
STEWARDS CAN BE FIRED
STEWARDS CAN BE REMOVED BY THE LOCAL OR THE MEMBERSHIP


Suggestion, follow the advice of the local first in deciding who the steward will be then correct it if it needs correcting in the future

Also no steward out there will make 100% of the members happay all at once. If he or she does then I want to meet that person becuase he or she willl be the first.

T251
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GREAT POST YOU ROCK T251
 
Up here, the steward DOES go on the clock for any grievance meetings. Grievances are first discussed with the grievant, steward and the TM. If they cannot reach common ground, the steward gets the BA involved. Then the BA and a COMPANY LABOR REP. set a date for a "Local Hearing", to try to reach common ground. If they still agree to disagree, it then goes to what we call a "STATE PANEL". This panel is made up of company and union reps. that will make a determination. It is nice when the union and the TM can reach an agreement "in house". We, unfortunately, have a TM that will agree to stop the illigal practice at the first meeting. Then contiues it anyway. Thats when you go to the next steps. Your stewards need to have "a SET". If they don't think rationally for both sides, company and union, DON"T elect them. As for all of our posts; We are only trying to help educate you guys as to what it is like to be union, so you will know what to expect. Each Local does things a little bit different, so it will be a feeling out process at the beginning. Your steward will be on the phone to the BA often. The stewardship will be quite time consuming at first. Hopefully you will have an experienced BA. That will help a lot. We'll help with our past experiences if we can. Good Luck!:smilie_132:
 
So than Northern Flash do the stewards still get free dues,like they used to many,many years ago when I was an active union memeber?
 
At local #135 in Indy we don't get free dues or super senority nor paid time while in hearings. We have separate stewards for dock,garage,office,linehaul.
 
Ok,I remember when Red Star went out of business.
It was all over their office workers in PA. that wanted to become Teamsters.

I never knew that there were any office workers at any union LTL trucking companies.
I learn something new every day.
 
Years ago we used to get our dues paid, but that stopped a long time ago. And we never had super seniority here. I never even heard of it until this thread.

One other thing came to my mind. When a BA goes to hearings, he will have a wad of grievances, way more than he can get presented in the alloted time. Therefore, just like with the courts, a lot more deals will be made in the hallway than will be presented to the panel. And discharges get priority, obviously. Thus, you may have a perfectly legitimate pay claim that will be bargained for a discharge. So you will have to go to your grievant and tell them they won't be getting any, or as much, money. That is just the way the game is played for expediency.

As far as spending time off the clock, that is a given. I used to have to examine and copy time cards out of sight of management and some backstabbing brothers, so they would not know I was aware of certain things. Whenever I was trying to get someone put on the board there were others making deals with management to just give them more overtime and not hire anyone. Thus I had to be sneaky. I would wait outside the terminal until the coast was clear and go back in and do my deed. This is definitely not recommended. The point is, yes there are times you have to work off the clock.
 
Thats it larry retired everything is barganing give,and take.
At least having union representation you have more then your company just showing you the door without any input from you.
 
Apostolic said:
Thats it larry retired everything is barganing give,and take.
At least having union representation you have more then your company just showing you the door without any input from you.
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Yes, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. It is just a fact of life. Believe me, with my personality, I would have never survived without the union. And when you win one, it can be very gratifying. I was told many times to go ahead and file because I would never win. This only inspired me to put in the extra work to build a good, solid case. Plus, I think the one thing that any of you on the fence should consider is that with the union, you will not be getting only one side of the story now. And that one side is very contrived, very manipulated.
 
Apostolic said:
Ok,I remember when Red Star went out of business.
It was all over their office workers in PA. that wanted to become Teamsters.

I never knew that there were any office workers at any union LTL trucking companies.
I learn something new every day.
Click to expand...

Office wrkers in Cumberland and Boston were union at Red Star (for many years)
 
Apostolic said:
Ok,I remember when Red Star went out of business.
It was all over their office workers in PA. that wanted to become Teamsters.

I never knew that there were any office workers at any union LTL trucking companies.
I learn something new every day.
Click to expand...

Apostolic,
I didn't see this post before. Everyone at our barn is Teamster: road, city, shop, office, janitors. I think this is fairly universal at Yellow.
 
galaxy99dx said:
Does the steward get any sort of compansation for the obvious grief and pain in the backside stuff they will have to deal with?
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A nice pat on the back, or some give him the number one sign! Been to a couple terminals where next to the grievance box, was a donation for the stewards time.
 
skeeterhawk said:
are these hearings conducted during working hours? how much time should a steward expect to lose every week?
thanks
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If you are a Steward and have to represent an employee locally the Steward is paid for his or her time. If the case goes to the panel it is usually the Company and the Union at the panel. Sometimes the Steward is there at the panel but not usually. On a discharge case the individual that lost his or her job is there. If the Steward has to go to the panel the Union pays him for his or her time and their expenses.
 
All the UPS Freight employees are going to have a lot to learn about becoming new Teamster members.
These are exciting times to say the least.
Union strong instead of just a number on UPS's employees ledger.
 
skeeterhawk said:
are these hearings conducted during working hours? how much time should a steward expect to lose every week?
thanks
Click to expand...

The amount of time you will lose depends on a lot of things, mostly you. When I was at a small barn, I didn't have to spend a lot of time on union problems, because there weren't many. When I transferred to a big barn, I wasn't a steward there. But the best steward I ever knew was there, and he spent a lot of time both on and off the clock. The reason was because he reveled in it, he was just cut out for the job. And, frankly, none of the others were that good. They let him carry the water, and he was willing to do it. That way he knew the job would get done right.
 
Apostolic said:
So than Northern Flash do the stewards still get free dues,like they used to many,many years ago when I was an active union memeber?
Click to expand...
UP here in Michigan, Local 406, our Stewards do get free union dues. The union stewards don't pay dues but, the alt. stewards DO have to pay their dues. It seems that every local is different though. Check with your BA in your area. :1036316054:
 
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