Grievance procedure - Article 6
If wages and benefits are the guts of the Local 1000 contract, the grievance procedure is its heart. “It is our shield against the arbitrary authority of the boss,” said Marc Bautista, Vice-President for Organizing and Representation. “It guarantees due process. It guards against discrimination.”
Like most union grievance procedures, Local 1000’s provides for a step-by-step process. First, you try to settle the problem right where it happens, informally, with your steward and your supervisor. Your Weingarten Rights, described in previous issues of Update, give you the right to have representation at this stage.
The formal grievance process only kicks in when the problem can’t be settled informally.
A grievance is formally described in our contract as “a dispute of one or more employees, or a dispute between the union and the state, involving the interpretation, application or enforcement of the contract.” The grievance procedure is really a series of appeals – you try to settle the problem on the job. If you’re not satisfied, you appeal in writing to the person designated by the department as “the first formal level of appeal.” The next appeal is to your department head. Step three is an appeal to the head of the Department of Personnel Administration.
At each step, there are rules mandating timely submission of the grievance and timely response by management. Failure to abide by these time limits by the union means that the grievance has been dropped. Failure to abide by these time limits by management takes the grievance to the next level. It’s also important to remember that beginning with Step 1, you and your steward have the right to prepare and process your grievance without loss of pay.
If your appeal to DPA is unsuccessful, Local 1000 has the right to take meritorious cases to arbitration, an expensive and time consuming process which is the court of last resort. The arbitrator is either someone on whom union and management agree, or one of a panel of arbitrators provided by the state or federal mediation and conciliation service.
“The grievance process deserves respect,” Bautista said. “Real issues need to be taken seriously, but every little irritation or incident is not necessarily a grievance. We always want to settle things as close to the source as possible.”
For more information on the grievance process, contact your Local 1000 job steward or click here to read Article 6 of the master contract.