Stewarding 11 Management Meeting Setup

Stewarding Section 3: Management Engagement

Part 1: Grievance Meeting Setup: Representation Approach

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- Step 1 of 2

You and Amara prepared and submitted an official grievance [add link] to human resources. The union contract states that next step in the grievance process will be a meeting with HR, the supervisor, the union steward, and the worker involved.

Human resources calls you as the steward supporting Amara and says:

Hello, this is Trisha from Human Resources. We received the grievance on behalf of Amara. I have done some research into the issue. Amara has been late a couple times recently and her boss gave her some leeway but wants to send a message that this can't continue. I do understand the boss started in the department recently and he wants to establish good relations with everyone. He seems willing to be flexible.

Do you think Amara would accept if we agreed to drop the warning letter if she doesn't come late to work in the next 3 months?

How would you respond? (You will have the opportunity to try all the responses if you like)

That sounds reasonable. Let me check with Amara and see what she thinks.
Argue with Trisha and to try and negotiate to less than 3 months.
Tell Trisha that is not acceptable and Amara doesn't deserve any discipline.
An other response

What would you say to Amara? (Reminder: You must enter something to continue)

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Amara's possible response would be:

When did they say I was late other times? If that ever happened that was probably under the previous supervisor.

Did you remind them that I was only supposedly 6 minutes past their 15 window and that I had a sick child to take care of?

Having the threat of more discipline hanging over me for 3 months stresses me out, can we talk with them to see if we can get something better?

Let's assume you say "sure," I'll get back to them and setup a meeting. Now, take a step back. How did this process setup the relationship between you, Amara, and the boss.

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Here are some observations:

(1) By discussing the issue and starting to negotiate on Amara's behalf without her present, she can't speak for herself.

(2) You placed yourself in a situation of having to explain management's position instead of her seeing it herself.

(3) If Amara had been part of the discussion, you could have checked with her (in a side discussion) about the validity of management's claim that she had a record of tardiness.

(4) You set up the overall relationship between Amara, yourself, and management as one where you take care of Amara, instead of helping Amara speak for herself.

You can go back to your choice and change your answer and see how the other options change the process.

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You respond to Trisha (the HR person) that the warning letter disproporionately punishes Amara for supposedly getting to work 6 minutes past the 15 minute grace period.

Trisha answers to you that she could possibly reduce the time for dropping the warning letter to one month and asks if that is acceptable.

You respond to her that you'll speak to Amara about it and get back to her.

How would you report this to Amara?

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Amara might respond:

"I don't have a problem being on time for the next month but I still don't feel that I'm being treated fairly. What do you think I should do? Could we still have a meeting with management to discuss this?"

Next5 say when

What would you advise Amara? Would you set up the meeting?

How did this interaction empower Amara?

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If you suggested to Amara that she accept the offer from HR and not have an additional meeting, she will likely feel that she was pushed into accepting what she did not want. She never got a chance to face management herself and had no opportunity to express her voice in the workplace. If you have the meeting with Amara and HR, management perhaps won't offer any better but Amara will have gotten to see that for herself.

If you agree to setup the meeting, you will have already set yourself up as a messenger or go-between with management instead of having Amara directly confront management. You set yourself up as a "representative" of Amara that may encourage her to defer to you instead of assert her own opinion.

You can go back to your choice above and change your answer and see how the other options play out.

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You told Trisha that Amara deserved no discipline and that a warning letter was totally unreasonable for someone supposedly showing up 6 minutes after the grace period.You suggest the supervisor has some axe to grind with Amara and he needs to be reigned in.

After scolding Trisha, you schedule the contract mandated grievance meeting.

What would you say when you get a chance to speak to Amara?

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Trisha from HR probably deserved an outraged retort to her offer. You most likely want to stand up for Amara and fend off her boss and HR. Mission accomplished.

Let's recall the two goals of the stewarding process: (1) address the issue and (2) empower the union member. At this point giving HR push back has not accomplished either.

Trisha said that Amara had a history of absences. You'll find out the truth when Amara takes part in the conversation. It can be hard to predict at this point in the process if management has offered an olive branch and might get more difficult when we reject it. Lecturing HR without the member participating may help the steward feel proud but doesn't necessarily help the affected worker.

Also, taking on HR without first consulting Amara on the approach doesn't give her an opportunity to consider how these actions may impact her work life. Aggressive representation may actually disempower the worker.

Do agree with these observations? Why or why not?

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If you have another approach, go back to the top question and select "An other response".

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Where now?

Each of the options for how to respond to HR in this section have positioned you the steward as speaking for Amara. That is often what is meant by "representing." Unfortunately, these approaches all disempower the worker and set up a kind of heirarchical model where you take care of Amara. In the next section we will investigate a different approach.