Labor Lawyers Advice?
So you pretty much only represent the worthless employee's at the expense of the good employee's, this is what I suspected.
And why I don't like unions.
You cannot say you are representing the good employee's because you are forcing them to carry the dead weight of the bad ones. You should be helping the company do proper documentation and follow up on it. Other wise the mediocre employee will see what the bad employee is getting away with and become a bad employee.
You can still defend the useless, as best you can, but if he has no defense your hands are tied.
Lots true there, but thats not all you do as a steward,...how about the guy who is late cause his kid was sick, and the company wants to dock him. This is where FMLA and sick days come in,...even non union employees benefit from this,...eventually a bad employee will be ousted if you give him enough rope to hang himself,...nobody wants to be that guy.
The best employees usually get tapped for management, and if its a good company, you'll do well. But remember not all companies have there employees best interests at heart, as seen at the start of this thread...Believe It or not, some companies consider you a liability, not an asset, no matter how stellar your job performance is. In today's world, you are just a number, and if that company can get your job done 5 cents an hour cheaper by outsourcing, your history. Thats business.
Somewhere in the middle the company and the union will meet so as to keep your job secure and the company making money.
And not everybody lives to work, some of us work to live. I firmely believe that no man should be forced to work more than 40 hours to keep his head above water