CWA Ready for the Future: Stewards

Stewards: Heart of the Union

In Memphis, Marines-Turned-Stewards Organize Hundreds
Robby Pace

Union building — persuading co-workers to sign up for membership — requires caring, personal contact. No one is better positioned to provide that than the CWA job steward. That's why Local 3806 President Mike Bennard in Memphis turned to front line stewards Clif Rudolph and Robby Pace to reach out to non-members at Bell South about the value of joining CWA.

"We split the city in half — I had three main locations and some satellite offices," said Rudolph, a BellSouth technician and a steward for the past four years.

Along with Pace, who became a steward just six months ago, and under the guidance of chief steward Brad Dickey, Rudolph matched company employee rolls against the local's records to learn which newer employees had never joined CWA. They contacted supervisors and told them they were going to exercise their contractual right to meet with the workers for 30 minutes in groups as small as two or as large as 20.

"This is a good company to work for," Dickey tells the workers. "But it's because we bargain as a union that we have these good wages, health care and benefits."

"We tell them who we are, what our jobs are as stewards, that we're here to enforce the contract," Rudolph says. "We give them an honest rundown. It's their union, not ours. We're just here to help them."

Rudolph and Dickey are both former U.S. Marines. Rudolph says he tends to be liberal in his thinking, while Dickey is just the opposite. The fact that they represent different political persuasions but still care passionately about CWA tends to put workers at ease.

"It's really great to go in there and meet co-workers and turn them around," Rudolph says. "You look at the faces. Like, there was this guy you could tell did not like unions, and by the end of the meeting, he was signing a blue card."

Through internal and external union building at Bell South, Cingular, Avaya and in the public sector, Local 3806 has gone from 500 members to more than 1,200 in three years.

Now, says Pace, the stewards are quick to catch up with new employees at orientation. "We jump right on the ball, get out there and ask them to join CWA. Most of them sign right up. The key is, you've got to ask."

A Guardian for Hospital Workers' Safety and Health
Lucy Gappen

Flash fire in the operating room! A frightening prospect and all-too-real possibility at any major hospital. But thanks to a negotiated joint safety and health committee and stewards who monitor safety issues, it's been a rare incident, with no injuries, at Kaleida Health in Buffalo, N.Y.

Lucy Gappen has been Nurses United/Local 1168's chief steward for the operating room at Kaleida for the past four years. Acutely aware of the fire danger posed by surgical lasers, which contain highly flammable gases, she's working with management and the safety committee to ensure that the risk is miminized.

Ergonomics is another big issue for nurses, who often suffer back and neck injuries lifting heavier patients. Urged by the committee, Kaleida invested $7 million in 2004 to become "the only no-lift health care system in America," says Dana McCarthy, the local's safety and health officer. Equipment to move patients from carts to beds has reduced injuries by 40 percent.

But it still takes constant monitoring by stewards, who listen to members' concerns and take them back to the committee. For example, Gappen learned that the "hover man" lifting machine is impractical for use in the operating room. So the committee is looking for another solution. "We're moving to the next stage: what do we do now?" she says.

Guild Training Sparks Confidence
Kathryn Rogers

Since The Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 36047 conducted steward training in January, Kathryn Rogers has gone 7-0 in resolving disputes between members and management at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch — without filing a single grievance.

The disputes involved vacation schedules, forced overtime, even requiring a bargaining unit member to recruit people to work overtime, normally a management task.

Rogers, a new steward but 30-year employee, resolved the cases simply by talking with supervisors. "In one case the supervisor was actually grateful for me looking into a situation and thanked me for sharing what I learned," she says.

She and 21 other local stewards  gave up two Saturdays for training and have newfound confidence standing up to management.

The training featured role-playing. With instructor and CWA Repre-sentative Mike Neumann playing an intimidating boss or glib personnel manager, the students played members on the hot seat or the steward charged with representing them.

"The best thing our local has going for it is our stewards," says Shannon Duffy, Local 36047 business agent. "We've got a bunch of wonderful people. It was just a question of getting the right information to them."

Working the CWA Triangle
Glen Skeen

Organizing, political action and representation — Local 4340 Steward and AT&T employee Glen Skeen has learned that it's all three sides of the CWA Triangle working together that strengthen the union's bargaining power.

"When I first started working outside, the crew head — also a steward — took me under his wing and taught me the importance of being in a union," Skeen says. "Then I saw it firsthand when I had kids. If you came into conflict with management over family issues, it was important to have a voice at work, and I wanted to be part of that."

After becoming a steward 12 years ago, Skeen's main goal was making sure members weren't unfairly disciplined. A couple of years later, he joined the local's legislative committee and began lobbying state and national lawmakers on issues ranging from telecom regulation to health care. "All of these affect our bargaining clout," Skeen says. "It's important for CWA to be part of the political conversation."

In 2001, Skeen became a charter member of the steering committee for Jobs with Justice in Columbus, Ohio.

"Jobs with Justice has been very good for getting the word out to the other unions in town about how Verizon Wireless keeps workers from organizing," he says. "We've had a lot of success getting (other unions' members) to not renew their contracts with the company."

Concerns about job security and access to good jobs in the future have made it easier to mobilize rank-and-file members, Skeen says.

"When I explained the importance of organizing Verizon Wireless in terms of union access to jobs there, I was able to generate a lot more interest in our pickets and get members to come out for them."

Crossing Delaware
Shelby Nash

Shelby Nash is one of a new breed of CWA steward, a union builder who reaches out beyond her bargaining unit, part of Local 13100, to organize new members. Just recently elected a steward, she immediately took the lead in signing up the entire Delaware retail unit of 49 Cingular Wireless workers.

Nash spoke to workers at nine Cingular stores across Delaware and followed up with small groups and one-on-one conversations.

Better health care benefits were a big incentive for the Cingular workers to join CWA.

"It was a win-win situation, but still they had a lot of questions," Nash said. "My task was mainly getting them to that point where they had confidence in what they were signing up for."