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A group of workers in the Town Hall complained to their steward. “There’s something in the air. I never used to get headaches but now I get them every day.” “I have allergies,” Mary says, “but now nothing I take stops me from sneezing. When I get home, things get better.”
“When did this start?” Tony Gramsci, the steward, asks. “I’m not sure,” says Mary, “but around the time it started getting cold.” “That’s right,” says Pete, “Right around the time we were told to keep the doors and windows shut because they were turning on the heating system.”
As workers encounter vaccine and testing mandates in the workplaces, UE locals may be able to negotiate over the impacts of these mandates (“effects bargaining”), and in some cases, over the mandates themselves (“decision bargaining”). What your employer is required to negotiate over is governed by both your existing contract language as well as your type of workplace.
One of the main reasons workers join unions is to gain protection against unfair and unjust discipline that employers hand out. Stewards must be ready to handle all sorts of discipline cases, from warnings to suspensions to firings. Stewards must be ready to deal with situations ranging from gross discrimination by the boss on who gets disciplined to union members who sometimes seem to go out of their way to get themselves in trouble.
The adventure story of the battles, betrayals and victories of American working men and women. Extensively researched, yet highly readable, history of the U.S. labor movement from the Civil War through the Eisenhower Administration.
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Published in 2020, “Them and Us Unionism” draws on UE history to identify five core principles of UE’s approach: aggressive struggle, rank and file control, political independence, international solidarity, and uniting all workers. Available as a 24-page booklet, PDF or on the web
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Written by UE’s first Director of Organization, James J. Matles, Them and Us: Struggles of a Rank-and-File Union has been the most exciting history of UE available since it was released in 1974.
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