UNION RIGHTS
The Union not only protects you from unfair treatment by your employer but includes strict rules to ensure that the internal business of the Union is conducted in a fair and transparent manner. The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) guarantees certain rights to union members and imposes certain responsibilities on union officers to ensure union democracy, financial integrity and transparency.
Your rights include the following:
Equal rights and privileges to nominate candidates, to vote in elections or referendums, and to attend and participate in Union meetings and vote on the business of the meeting, subject to reasonable rules in the Union constitution and/or bylaws;
Freedom of speech and assembly.
The right to secret ballot vote on rates of dues, initiation fees, and assessments;
You are protected from improper Union discipline. Due process is required in internal Union disciplinary hearings, including:
- the right to specific, written charges;
- adequate time to prepare a defense;
- the right to a full and fair hearing and a decision based on the evidence.
- the right to appeal the decision of the Local Executive Board to the International Executive Board
You have the right to receive a copy of your Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) along with all riders and supplements and to inspect copies of all contracts that your local Union administers (nonunion employees also have this right).
The right to sue the Union, without reprisal, if internal appeals do not produce a satisfactory result within four months, or if you disagree with the Union’s decision;
Note: The union may not discipline you for exercising protected rights. However you may be disciplined for the following activities:
- participating in wildcat strikes,
- nonpayment of dues or agency fees, and other acts which interfere with the legal or contractual obligations of the Union or that threaten the existence of the Union as an institution,
- crossing picket lines.
WEINGARTEN RIGHTS
The Weingarten, Inc. legal decision of 1975 gives union employees that work under a Collective Bargaining Agreement the right to union representation during interviews or “one on one” meetings with supervisors or other management officials regarding their work or conduct if the employee reasonably believes that the meeting could lead to discipline.
The Union strongly recommends that members request union representation if they even suspect that the consequences of any meeting could be negative and/or result in discipline of any kind. Note that employees must assert their Weingarten rights and ask for representation. The employer is allowed to conduct an interview unimpeded until the employee asks.
To exercise one’s Weingarten Rights before or even during an investigative meeting, read the following statement to management, word for word:
“If this discussion could in any way lead to my being disciplined or terminated or have any effect on my personal working conditions, I respectfully request that my union representative, officer, or steward be present at this meeting. Without representation, I choose not to participate in this discussion.”
Once the employer grants this request, and upon arrival of the union representative, the employer must explain the reason for the interview. The representative is then allowed to meet privately with the member before questioning begins. The representative may also counsel the member on how to answer questions. It is an Unfair Labor Practice for an employer not to allow a union employee representation in any of the above circumstances.
YOUR RIGHTS DURING UNION ORGANIZING
You have the right to form, join or assist a union. You have the right to organize a union to negotiate with your employer over your terms and conditions of employment. This includes your right to distribute union literature, wear union buttons t-shirts, or other insignia (except in unusual “special circumstances”), solicit colleagues to sign union authorization cards, and discuss the union with colleagues. Supervisors and managers cannot spy on you (or make it appear that they are doing so), coercively question you, threaten you or bribe you regarding your union activity or the union activities of your co-workers. You can’t be fired, disciplined, demoted, or penalized in any way for engaging in these activities.
Working time is for work, so your employer may maintain and enforce non-discriminatory rules limiting solicitation and distribution, except that your employer cannot prohibit you from talking about or soliciting for a union during non-work time, such as before or after work or during break times; or from distributing union literature during non-work time, in non-work areas, such as parking lots or break rooms. Also, restrictions on your efforts to communicate with co-workers cannot be discriminatory. For example, your employer cannot prohibit you from talking about the union during working time if it permits you to talk about other non-work-related matters during working time.
YOUR RIGHT TO FORM A UNION
If a majority of workers wants to form a union, they can select a union in one of two ways: If at least 30% of workers sign cards or a petition saying they want a union, the National Labor relations Board (NLRB) will conduct an election. If a majority of those who vote choose the union, the NLRB will certify the union as your representative for collective bargaining. An election is not the only way a union can become your representative. Your employer may voluntarily recognize a union based on evidence – typically signed union-authorization cards – that a majority of employees want it to represent them. Once a union has been certified or recognized, the employer is required to bargain over your terms and conditions of employment with your union representative.
RIGHT TO REFRAIN
Federal law protects your right to decline to participate in union organizing or concerted activity, and to campaign against a union during an organizing campaign.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Even if you are not represented by a union, federal law gives you the right to band together with coworkers to improve your lives at work – including joining together in cyberspace, such as on Facebook.
Using social media can be a form of “protected concerted” activity. You have the right to address work-related issues and share information about pay, benefits, and working conditions with coworkers on Facebook, YouTube, and other social media. But just individually griping about some aspect of work is not “concerted activity”: what you say must have some relation to group action, or seek to initiate, induce, or prepare for group action, or bring a group complaint to the attention of management.
CONCERTED ACTIVITY
Federal law protects employees engaged in union activity, but that’s only part of the story. Even if you’re not represented by a union – even if you have zero interest in having a union – the National Labor Relations Act protects your right to band together with coworkers to improve your lives at work.
You have the right to act with coworkers to address work-related issues in many ways. Examples include: talking with one or more co-workers about your wages and benefits or other working conditions, circulating a petition asking for better hours, participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions, and joining with coworkers to talk directly to your employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in your workplace. Your employer cannot discharge, discipline, or threaten you for, or coercively question you about, this “protected concerted” activity. However, you can lose protection by saying things about your employer that are egregiously offensive or knowingly and maliciously false, or by publicly disparaging your employer’s products or services without relating your complaints to any labor controversy.
RIGHT TO FAIR REPRESENTATION
You have a right to be represented by your union fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination.
Your union has the duty to represent all employees – whether members of the union or not-fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination. This duty applies to virtually every action that a union may take in dealing with an employer as your representative, including collective bargaining, handling grievances, and operating exclusive hiring halls. For example, a union which represents you cannot refuse to process a grievance because you have criticized union officials or because you are not a member of the union. But the duty does not ordinarily apply to rights a worker can enforce independently – such as filing a workers’ compensation claim – or to internal union affairs – such as the union’s right to discipline members for violating its own rules.
Resources:
U.S. Department of Labor – Union Members: Know Your Rights
AFL-CIO: Know Your Rights
National Labor Relations Board: What’s the Law? Know Your Rights
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): Know Your Rights
U.S. Department of Labor Videos: Know Your Rights (English / Español)
Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
U.S. Department of Labor Organizing Rights
National Labor Relations Board Employer/Union Rights and Obligations