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How to handle union president gone bad
posted at 5/15/2012 1:02 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 4
First: 12/30/2011 Last: 5/23/2012 |
We are a union shop. Per union contract, anyone that comes into an existing title gets paid a contract set salary but the salary of any new title is set by the director. A new person/and title with 20 years experience was recruited over a year ago. A salary and vacation time was negotiated to be comparable to what they had been making at their old job. Management is very happy with the employee - employee is happy - a very high performer. Out of the blue a year later, the union president informs the director he feels that the salary is "illegal" and is having the regional union look into it. And he is going to confront the employee and tell them that to their face.
We were very careful to make sure we were working within union guidelines, grievances must be filed within 30 days of the known offense, so he is outside the timeline and we don't think he has the right to file any complaint. I have never seen a union official complain that one of there own union people is getting paid too much. He blocked another good employee from getting a raise after he negotiated it with us as a sidebar and then changed his mind and wouldn't sign the agreement - I thought the employee should have filed failure to represent and we could have filed for not negotiating in good faith.
We are pretty sure he is using his union president position to advance his private issues and frustrations. He negotiated a poor contract this past year. Should he be ignored? Be told to come back when he has an official signed complaint? The employee he wants to confront is union but a department head several grades above him but not his supervisor. We really don't want him verbally attacking the employee disguised as a concerned union official. Do we wait to see if they complain? |
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Re: How to handle union president gone bad
posted at 5/15/2012 12:56 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 180
First: 9/21/2011 Last: 5/14/2013 |
Wow! This is one that I would strongly suggest paying your local legal counsel a visit on. I'm not sure anyone here can help without having read the whole CBA. |
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Re: How to handle union president gone bad
posted at 5/16/2012 12:06 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 4
First: 12/30/2011 Last: 5/23/2012 |
The business manager said they had consulted the lawyer over earlier things he had done (that pre-date me) and they felt that there were chargeable issues but they chose not to go that route because of lawyer costs (we aren't that large an agency) and he went back to behaving. This last time besides the employee pay raise issue, he went into the business manager and her assistant's office and started a rant about a whole slew of issues that had nothing to do with his job or union, intimidating them and then he moved onto the director who he informed that she was hated by the majority of the staff (untrue) and everything that the governing board does is her fault. Some of the issues he was bringing up were grudges from ex-employees who recently retired but stay in touch with him. Once again, none of the issues related to his job, or his union duties. I felt that he had way overstepped his boundaries, was in violation even the basic contract rules about working with management and that he is using intimidation (all the managers are female) as a power tool and it's working. I suggested it's time to spend some money to shut this down before he finishes destroying the moral of the entire agency (and blame it on the director) Ironically, as he left he announced to the director's secretary that he probably has totally destroyed any professional relationship he had with the director. I'm thing a dose of EAP might be needed also.
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Re: How to handle union president gone bad
posted at 5/16/2012 8:15 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 180
First: 9/21/2011 Last: 5/14/2013 |
Based on your second posting, I'd be working with counsel to see if there was any legal way to document the incidents enough that you would be protected if you needed to termination the employment relationship. Because it sounds like this guy is a loose cannon. Get all your ducks in a row. See what the CBA says about terminating a union protected employee. But someone should be documenting every incident. Witnesses should be asked for statements, etc. |
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Re: How to handle union president gone bad
posted at 5/18/2012 10:19 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 1
First: 5/18/2012 Last: 5/18/2012 |
You mentioned a 'regional union'. I would review the documentation of the parent or main union office as it relates to how they govern themselves. You can also invite the regional presidents superior to attend meetings and cc on correspondence. The title of 'president' is more of a director role in a regional or sub-office of a union. I would document conversations, describe body language and volume and copy the parent union. To save face the out of control president will probably do something more outlandish then it may die down. This sort of behaviour doesn't happen in a vacuum. I bet you others in the union are aware of it. Bring in the regional president or the head of the union. Nothing will happen in front of you, and you won't get any feedback. If it gets better it will be because of conversations you will never know about. It's too bad the employee who is suffering from this won't file a complaint with the labour board. Unions hate failure of duty of fair representation suits. Any chance you can promote the person to a management role and exclude them from the union? They'd probably welcome it. |
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Re: How to handle union president gone bad - Update -
posted at 5/23/2012 12:33 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 4
First: 12/30/2011 Last: 5/23/2012 |
We told everyone "document!" Then we discovered he posted a diatribe about a trustee election we just had (turns out he was campaign manager for the loser) into a online union folder that was strictly for employee union news and training info only. With smoking gun in hand, we gave him a disciplinary counseling session where he proudly explained how he chooses the weakest link employees who like to gossip and plans for days ahead the exact time and place how to drop little bits of misinformation that he knows will be spread and create unhappy employees and he would not drop his planned contract dispute issue. The next day we received an unexpected email from him saying he had thought about it and was probably going to drop the issue.
The union employee being targeted stopped by in the afternoon to let us know that the union president had stopped in at the end of the day and asked if she had heard about what he was planning and if upset her. (this was after his session) He parked himself between her and the door and spent two hours rehashing all the same non work related issues and saying he had file this complaint. She said she was not upset - she was mad, confronted him and said that if he files the complaint she would file against him for working out of title and conflict of interest (I think she's got a legit case there), and she would be "coming after him" and that he was not going to be a happy, she wasn't going to bother with the local union office - and oh yeah, he shouldn't take it personally it was for justice and fairness for all. She wouldn't elaborate to him that meant filing failure to represent (she wasn't sure if it was a union thing or labor board) and also file for harassment and intimidation. She never said anything before but it turns out he's been dropping by her office periodically as the union president ever since she started and was telling her other people in the office wanted her job (including him), that her professional services were not needed, that we could have gotten cheaper help etc. She also had set a digital recorder on the desk in front of him after he came in and recorded the whole thing.He must have thought it was her cell phone. I think that explains his sudden decision to withdraw the complaint. We are continuing to monitor him - he is has be instructed while on the clock he is only to discuss work with employees, his supervisor has been asked to closely supervise and report any violations. He claims he wants to step down as union president but there are no employees good enough to fill his shoes. He doesn't seem to get that we are not after him stepping down, we want him to get out. The union employee is still debating whether to go after him anyways. You'd think I was making this stuff up - any ways it's be quiet for a whole day now.. :-) |
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