I’m taking up the mantle of Glenna and Josh’s Cliff Notes Guide to Your 2024-25 Collective Bargaining Agreement. It shall henceforth be known as Kyla and Josh’s Cliff Notes Guide to Your 2024-25 Collective Bargaining Agreement. How original! Today’s topic I’ll be discussing Weingarten Rights and how they show up in our contract.
Established by the Supreme Court’s 1975 decision, NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., Weingarten Rights give you the right to have union representation present during an investigatory meeting with management when the employee (you) believes the meeting might lead to disciplinary action being taken against them. Hooray!
How it shows up in our contract: Article 17.4 Union Representation (page 21) of our contract goes into how Weingarten Rights work in practice. I highly recommend reading the article in full to understand it’s specificity, but to summarize the article:
- You as the employee have the right to Union representation from a Shop Steward or Union Rep in a meeting if you believe discipline (i.e., firing, demotion, unfair work practices) may result from it.
- You have to request representation from a Shop Steward or Union Rep for the meeting; it won’t just happen.
- The Shop Steward or Union Rep’s role in this meeting is to assist and counsel you, the employee, not to oppose your employer. For example a shop steward could ask clarifying questions on your behalf, provide information to further contextualize your situation to the employer, or remind you and your employer of your union rights, but they are not your defender against your employer.
- Your employer will accommodate your request to have Union representation present if that request doesn’t unreasonably delay the meeting from happening.
- The disciplinary meeting will occur in a private setting and none of your personnel information will be on public display.
- A shop steward will be released from their typical work schedule, with pay to attend this meeting if they have notified their supervisor in advance.
It is hugely important to be represented fairly and accurately by your union and as such having Shop Stewards who understand and are a part of your specific work environment and culture is of paramount importance. So if you don’t have a shop steward at your branch or department think about becoming that person or reach out to someone you trust to become that representative.
If you’re at all curious about learning more about becoming a shop steward there is going to be a virtual Shop Steward Training on Wednesday December 18th from 5:30-8:30pm. By attending the training you are not automatically locking yourself into becoming a steward, unless you want to. It is simply an opportunity to get more information and clarification on what being a steward looks like. Please reach out to ashley@wpea.org and RSVP if you want to attend!
Further Reading on Weingarten Rights:
Weingarten Rights – National Labor Relations Board
Training Video on Weingarten Rights – Washington State Labor Council This is a delightfully cringey training video and you might be thinking “Yikes!” but actually it has a lot of useful information in it!
If you have any questions on this or any related topic, please feel free to reach out to myself, Josh, or another shop steward. And in the words of Glenna, our comrade across the line, “we are here to help and this is a learning process for us all. The more familiar with the contract we all are, the more effective it is, and the stronger we are as a union body.”
In solidarity,
Kyla & Josh
