Voting No Confidence for My Department Union Stewart

[rsmith6621]

Well the last straw has broke this camels back.

Two days ago chatter amongst my department was abuzz about a union Brother who passed away last Wendsday,he was 44 YO and had served two terms of employment with the company for a total of 6 years. Well I checked my email and the bulletin board as well as the Union board, there was not one official corporate or Union statement,NOT ONE!!

Being the inquiring mind I am I asked several fellow workers if our department manager or an HR person had made any sort of verbal announcement.....NONE!!......After it festering in my heart and mind for two days I emailed my Union Stewart last night expressing my displeasure with the failure of no official statement/acknowledgment from him or the Union.....well today we worked the same shift about 10 feet from each other and not one mention that he received the email and YES he is required to keep his OUTLOOK up and on standby.

After a bit of thought and discussion with a five other members about the situation they to feel like me. This afternoon we had a pow wow after work down the street from the office to discuss his performance. After about an hour we have decided to call the local and seek a no confidence vote and have him replaced......this guy just collects the monthly stipple which is 25 percent of his salary....he is suppose to have meeting every two month and hasn't called one EVER....and what is worse is he has never challenged management on any issue that affect our workload/conditions and has failed recently to sit in and observe disciplinary actions being taken against an employee...word is he says it is not his place or right to...wrongo.


We to have thought of inviting another Union to talk with us about representation and de-certifying the one we have...they seem worthless and weak.

Ill keep you posted.

[upi402]

1. Best of luck to you

I know it's frustrating. It's hard times to boot and the nail that pokes its head up gets hammered down anyway, even before the Bushistas.

[ret5hd]

2. What are the odds you will step up to the plate and run for the office?

(my guess is at or about 0%)

[patrice]

3. Very important decision.

I hope you can salvage whatever is usable in the relationship, but . . .

Not having those meetings is a big deal; sometimes the single MOST important thing that NEEDS to be done is to persevere. If he doesn't understand that, he doesn't understand how a group IS a group.

Process, process, process . . . collaboratively define your process; it will save your ass.

[Bluebear]

4. (steward)

He sounds worthless. Best of luck!

[gratuitous]

5. If the union officials aren't responsive

It's up to the members to make that change. The shop managers aren't going to do it. Good luck. If this guy's dead in the water, it's your job to do something about it. Acknowledging a co-worker's death isn't something that just slips by.

[ldf]

6. there's dead wood in every union

currently, unions must fight for advances and improvements for all employees. in addressing grievances they should stand up for the good members, but NOT back slackers.

the slackers hurt the whole, and are dragged out at every chance as an example of why unions are bad.

if the steward deserves it, bitch about him and get him replaced.

AND make it known that you WILL approach another union.

unions exist because there is a need for them. and given the current economic situation, every chance to reduce the power of unions will be taken advantage of.

[mitchtv]

7. my cure for that?

become a stewart. That's what I did. what union is it? CWA never paid me. Lota of dummies became stewarts to protect themslves and did nothing for anyone, others were great

[dysfunctional press]

8. isn't the term union 'steward'?