Stewards Corner

  • When Your Boss Doesn’t ‘Like’ You: Surviving in Social Media
    Mischa Gaus
    Jan 19 2012 - 1:37pm
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    Social media are presenting new challenges for unions as employers develop policies and discipline employees for their posts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

    But whether workers are talking to each other in the lunch room or online, labor law still provides protections for private-sector workers to engage in concerted activities with their co-workers.

  • Striking Back against Picket Line Retaliation
    David Cohen
    Jan 13 2011 - 9:50am

    Verizon fired 40 union members in December for picket-line activity. Aren’t members protected in legally sanctioned strikes? Not always. But unions can prevent firings for strike conduct by mounting massive and disciplined activity that doesn’t allow the boss to target a few troublemakers.

  • Winning the P.R. War in a Contract Campaign
    Randy Robinson
    Dec 14 2011 - 3:47pm

    How does a union win a public relations war in the mainstream media? An Ontario union trained members, emphasized internal mobilizing, and communicated directly with the public to spread a campaign that communities need good jobs.

  • Action on the Job: Tips and Traps
    David Cohen, Judy Atkins
    Nov 16 2011 - 4:40pm

    Workers have the right to organize and take action on the job, even with a contract and grievance procedure in place. But stewards need to know how to bend the rules without getting people in trouble.

  • Defend Your Breaks, and Defeat Retaliation
    Ellen David Friedman
    Oct 18 2011 - 5:38pm

    How do stewards resist relentless speed-up, fight to keep contractual breaks, and build support to protect activists when the inevitable retaliation comes? Start by “inoculating” members about the retaliation that is sure to follow bold actions.

  • Building a Coalition from the Grassroots
    Howard Ryan
    Sep 16 2011 - 12:30pm

    New York is a tough town for education advocates. The mayor is a corporate operator with a privatization agenda. The city’s teachers union offers meager resistance. Rank and filers are building a no-cuts coalition, showing activists they shouldn't wait for permission.

  • Cross-Union Committee Unites Stewards
    Bill Franks, Ron Blascoe, Barbara Smith
    Jul 22 2011 - 3:49pm
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    A seemingly minor issue sparked a mass grievance by workers at the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development more than 10 years ago, in one state building in downtown Madison. The issue was resolved in months, but the cross-union stewards committee that formed out of that fight proved to have lasting value.

  • In Florida, An Organizing Drive that Doubled the Union
    Paul Ortiz
    Jul 11 2011 - 2:37pm

    Faculty members in Florida’s public institutions of higher learning have responded to the state legislature’s attack on public employee unionism by building unions in their right-to-work state at an outstanding rate.

  • From Breakfast Club to the Big Time
    James Fouts, Scott Ranney, Chuck Norris-Brown
    May 21 2011 - 2:51am
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    Two years ago the bus drivers and mechanics of Teamsters Local 597 were about as disconnected as they could be from our union. Negotiations with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority in northern Vermont were going on, but no one was seriously involved.

  • How to Monitor the Monitors
    Charley Richardson
    May 18 2011 - 1:15pm

    Monitoring technology lets managers see what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and how long it takes. They analyze this data to figure out how to cut corners and eliminate jobs. They are monitoring us because they can—and we haven’t stood in their way.