Wednesday July 17, 2019

In the current Steward Update newsletter
Back Pay Ordered for Work Done at Higher Level
A parks worker was assigned to take over the duties of a lead worker, but was not paid at the higher lead worker rate. His request for an increase to the higher rate was denied. The agency claimed the worker failed to follow procedures to reclassify the job. An arbitrator said the parks agency erred in that a job reclassification was not needed and that the worker had been performing all of the duties of the higher-level job. The arbitrator ordered payment of back pay to the worker for all the hours worked in the lead worker position.

Labor Quote
Darrow on Unions
"Trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men."
Clarence S. Darrow, American criminal lawyer, writer, 1909

Labor Cartoon
Martin Bucella

Steward Tip
Investigation Time Limits
What can you do if you can’t make a full investigation within the time limits to determine if a complaint is a grievance? File the grievance and continue your investigation. The union can always withdraw the grievance at any time if you find it shouldn’t be pursued.
Excerpted from The Union Steward’s Complete Guide (2^nd Edition, Updated)

Today in Labor History
July 17
Two ammunition ships explode at Port Chicago, Calif., killing 322, including 202 African-Americans assigned by the Navy to handle explosives. It was the worst home-front disaster of World War II. The resulting refusal of 258 African-Americans to return to the dangerous work underpinned the trial and conviction of 50 of the men in what is called the Port Chicago Mutiny - 1944

July 18
The Brotherhood of Telegraphers begins an unsuccessful 3-week strike against the Western Union Telegraph Co. - 1883
 
Some 35,000 Chicago stockyard workers strike - 1919
 
Hospital workers win 113-day union recognition strike in Charleston, S.C. - 1969
 
July 19
Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, N.Y.  Delegates adopt a Declaration of Women's Rights and call for women's suffrage - 1848
 
An amendment to the 1939 Hatch Act, a federal law whose main provision prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity, is amended to also cover state and local employees whose salaries include any federal funds - 1940

Compiled and edited by David Prosten. Click here to view this week's labor history.
 

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