Educate Your Members Regarding Their Contract

Teaching members About The Contract Also Builds Solidarity

The contract will spell out the rules for the grievance process, including any time limits that apply and how each side is supposed to handle each aspect of the process. Your members may not have much interest in this part of the contract. That's why you need to make sure you educate them.

Members who do not understand their role in the grievance procedure may tie your hands by failing to notify you in a timely manner or committing some other oversight that ends their grievance before you can even get started on it. If that happens, they'll blame you, ignoring their own mishandling of the complaint.

Members who are unhappy with their representation often create divisions within the local. By making sure they understand their role, you can win more grievances and members will feel better about the union.

Likewise, a poor understanding of the grievance process may keep a member from realizing that there is a way to solve his or her problem. Some members will suffer in silence, building up resentment toward the union as well as the company, simply because they don't know how to get help.

You can't expect your members to know every detail of the grievance process -- that's your job -- but if they understand the basic parts, they can improve their chances of winning a grievance and make your job easier.

Another reason to educate your members regarding their contract is that it will improve their appreciation of how much the union has accomplished for them over the years.

Unless you are a brand-new local with your first contract, many of the benefits in the contract were negotiated long ago. Members, especially those new to the workplace, usually have no idea how difficult it has been to gain benefits over the years. They take your hard-won benefits for granted.

For example, vacations. Everyone gets them, right? And paid holidays? And sick leave? And emergency leave?

They're required by law, aren't they?

No, they aren't, and not everyone gets them. Many of today's workers don't realize that until only a few decades ago, very few workers got paid time off for holidays and vacations.

The same is true for health insurance, pensions, time off for funerals, employer-supplied safety boots and glasses, and dozens of other benefits.

In fact, all of the benefits included in your contract are relatively new in the history of work. After they were added to union contracts, many nonunion employers began to offer them as well in order to compete for workers. But without union contracts, it is unlikely they would ever have been offered.

It can be very instructive to sit down with your contract and make a list of all of the benefits your members get because of collective bargaining.

Seniority does not exist in nonunion shops. Employers dole out overtime, give promotions, and lay off workers based on their personal preferences.

Do your members get to keep their jury pay? Can they bid for schedules or for positions that come open?

Even the hours you work have been determined by collective bargaining and are included in the contract. Making sure your members understand that all of these items were negotiated is a great way to show them the advantage of union membership.