Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1313527
ENSURING FAIR TREATMENT YOU'RE A UNION MEMBER, AND YOUR SUPERVISOR WANTS TO MEET WITH YOU. OR MAYBE YOU'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A MEETING WITH YOUR SUPERVISOR. EITHER WAY, YOU'RE WORRIED YOUR SUPERVISOR'S QUESTIONS MIGHT LEAD TO DISCIPLINE OR EVEN FIRING. IN SUCH CASES, YOU ARE PROTECTED FROM BEING QUESTIONED ALONE. THIS PROTECTION IS CALLED WEINGARTEN RIGHTS, AND THIS ARTICLE BREAKS DOWN WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW THEY WORK. WHAT ARE WEINGARTEN RIGHTS? Weingarten Rights ensure the presence of a union representative at any meeting with your employer where questioning might affect your job status or result in disciplinary action or the termination of your job. WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF WEINGARTEN RIGHTS? In 1972 an employee at a lunch counter was accused of taking a large box of chicken but only paying for a small box. While she was being interviewed by her manager and a loss prevention specialist, she asked numerous times for her union representative. Her employer refused to grant her request. The woman explained that she took only four pieces of chicken but had to use a larger box because the store was out of small boxes. She was cleared, and her employer asked her to keep the interview to herself. But she told her shop steward, and her union filed charges against the company. The result: The Supreme Court's 1975 ruling that, upon request, a union employee is entitled to union representation for investigatory interviews. WHAT IS AN INVESTIGATORY INTERVIEW? In an investigatory inter view, an employer questions you in order to gather information about the employee being questioned to support a disciplinary action under consideration or gain an admission to support a disciplinary decision that has already been made. WHEN CAN I EXERT MY WEINGARTEN RIGHTS? If you have reasonable basis to believe your employer is going to ask questions that could lead to discipline, a negative THE INVESTIGATORY INTERVIEW BEFORE THE INTERVIEW: The employer must provide you and your union representative information about the subject matter of the interview. You are entitled to meet privately with your union representative to discuss this information before questioning begins. YOUR RESPONSIBILITY: If your union representative is present, you cannot refuse to answer questions, unless the issue being discussed has criminal implications, in which case you should seek legal counsel. YOUR UNION REPRESENTATIVE'S RESPONSIBILITY: Your representative is not at the interview to speak on your behalf; they are not there to answer the supervisor's questions for you. They can, however, request that the supervisor clarify a question so that what is being asked is understood, give you advice on how to answer a question, and provide additional relevant information to the supervisor at the end of the questioning. 18 KEYFRAME T H E L O C A L