Rep. just showed up

[Electriceel]

Had an interesting one the other day. Union Representative was sent to see a steward, he just showed up at the shop, interrupted our work.
Employer is not real happy about having interrruptions on their time, and rightfully so.

Give me your thoughts on this.

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Union reps are allowed to show up whenever they feel like it.

[42linehand]

So you sound like you are against a Union Rep showing up. Are you management or are you doing something that is wrong? Like the Tramp said he has the right and it is also good for the men to see a union rep coming on the jobsite. I feel that a union rep or BA should take atleast 1-2 days a month to travel around the jobsites to see the men.

[Trampbag]

Actually it varies from collective agreement to collective agreement concerning a union reps access to the work site. Most union reps, ABMs or BMs (BAs) try to talk to the “men” off hours, before work starts or after it ends. In some areas the union rep showing up without prior knowledge of the employer can be construed as an illegal work stoppage and almost always there is a “courtesy call” by the rep to the company prior to a visit.

It is rare, in my experience, to have a rep show up on the jobsite unannounced, stopping work, unless there is some kind of serious problem.

[Squizzy]

We usually get paid when we have union meetings and if the management won't pay us we have the meeting out the gate and someone always calls the media. Which is great as then all the public gets worried that their power is going off (don't know why as we aren't generation)and they get on the talkback show and back us as the pay is crap...

[77liner]

I think its great when a rep shows up at the shop,but I agree a call to the GF or Supe should happen before?
I bet Henry Miller never called before he showed up!

[Electriceel]

Why is it that some people think something is wrong or someone is wrong when a rep. shows up. If I was doing something wrong I would not be there.
NO I am not management, and NO I am not Union, and yes I am against them showing up, unannounced and pulling a worker aside without asking, the worker did not know he was coming either.
I am responsible for the crew not him, he came into my territory. And as far as anything being wrong I really doubt that.

[Trampbag]

When I started in this trade union was strong and the hands were UNION. The shop steward had respect and if something was amiss the hands backed the shop steward to the point of laying down tools if required, no exceptions. A union rep showed up pretty much any time he wanted. There certainly was never any BS like running a hand off because the foreman didn’t like him.

Then came the ‘80’s with the Conservative shift. Regan (USA), Thatcher (UK), Mulroney (Can) and many others in State/Provincial governments happened. Since then union membership is down, attendance at the meetings is super low and our wages and benefits have been eroded. The company’s safety policies were written down and boldly displayed for the whole world to see and on the job pressure increases to ignore them, cut corners because time is money.

“A pole a day, or you can’t stay.”

It is a different world today.

Will we ever have another Henry Miller? I sure hope so.

[77liner]

Well said brother