Quote:That happens far too often in union shops.  Here's another example that happened to my son.

 

He was only on the job for a short period of time.  He's a smoker, and the smoking area at that job site happened to be near the dumpsters.  He noticed that a trash can near his work station  was full, so he pulled the full trash bag out and replaced it with a new one.  While he was doing so, one of his co-workers asked him what he was doing.  He replied that he was going to take a smoke break and empty the full trashcan at the same time since the dumpsters were near the smoking area.  The worker replied that they "had people for that" and that it "wasn't his job".  My son shrugged it off and took the trash out anyway.  He got reprimanded for it.  When he told me about it I explained to him that that's the way union shops work.

 

You gave your son an accurate explanation.

 

I see this frequently at work, although I admit that it took some getting used to when I first got hired.  Unless it's safety-related, the crafts will fiercely guard their work.  In their mind, losing work in any capacity can lead to losing positions (jobs).  It doesn't matter if they are cross-craft violations or supervisors performing bargaining unit work.  If the stewards are doing their jobs, they will record these infractions and seek remedies through the grievance process.

 

Usually, newer supervisors learn very quickly to instruct someone to do certain work instead of just doing it themselves, no matter how little the work is.  Of course, there are those who never learn and are a source of non-stop grievance settlements.

 

I'll give you an example that happened in a city branch.

 

They had a lazy steward (who was a poor worker to begin with) who never filed any grievances when branch management started doing his craft's work.  There were 7 clerks in that branch.  After one clerk retired, management opted not to fill the position because they were getting the work done by chipping in.

 

Down to 6 clerks.

 

Some carriers were having undertime (finishing their routes early) and branch management instructed them to do clerk work.  This is a no-no, as management is supposed to review their carrier staffing and make cuts to the carrier craft if they have too many carrier hours.  However, the carrier steward was a "strong" steward and a constant thorn in management's side and they did not want to approach him about the issue, so they didn't.  This was all grievable, but the clerk steward did nothing.  Guess what?  One clerk position got abolished, and a clerk (single mother) was forced to leave the station and go work at the plant (on a totally different shift with different days off, screwing with her ability to coordinate transportation to daycare for her child).  Management didn't shed a tear over that.

 

Down to 5 clerks.

 

This went on for months and management and carriers did more and more clerk work and eventually 2 more clerk bids were abolished.

 

Down to 3 clerks.

 

In the meantime, those 3 clerks that were left were being worked ragged and getting stressed out.  Management was coming down on them for failure to get the work done on time.  Extra monitors were brought in to watch them work and "evaluate the process" over a few weeks.  When investigations for discipline were initiated by management, the president of the local for the clerks finally got involved and took personal control of the situation.  The branch steward was removed as a steward, management was interviewed and admitted authorizing cross-craft work, performing work themselves, and trying to run a station with 3/7 of the authorized clerk craft positions.

 

The remedy finally came down.  Management was reprimanded and the 3 abolished bids were reinstated with the original clerks getting their positions back.  They were paid out-of-schedule pay (basically an additional 1/2 base pay) for every hour they worked since their bids were abolished.  The reverted bid (from the retiree) was reposted, with the winner of that bid getting out of schedule pay dating back to the time the bid was reverted.

 

This colossal waste of money and time, coupled with the negative impact on the workers could have all been avoided if management had simply abided by the CBA.

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