steward's corner

  • Everything You Were Afraid To Ask About Lockouts
    Robert M. Schwartz
    Apr 17 2012 - 2:11pm

    Lockouts seem to be everywhere. At Cooper Tire in Ohio, sugar beet plants in North Dakota, the New York City Opera, the National Football League, and Caterpillar’s locomotive plant in Ontario, management has used the tactic to try to force outrageous concessions.

  • Getting Members Involved in Occupy’s Next Phase
    Joe Berry and Helena Worthen
    Feb 29 2012 - 9:53am

    The idea that the 99% can actually stand up to the 1% is contagious. How can stewards build on this moment of opportunity? Several unions are drawing members into home defense actions.

  • 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.

  • Proving Disparate Treatment
    Robert Schwartz
    Oct 24 2009 - 1:15am

    Claiming “disparate treatment”—imposing harsher punishment on one employee than was imposed on others who committed the same offense—is one of the most effective union defenses against discipline, especially discharges.