When I decide to become a steward (not stuard-sounds like turd-try your spell check), it was because of the BA we had was a company man and he up until that point had hand picked his stewards. So we forced an election. I was tired of watching the abuse of the contract and abuse of my fellow workers. It was an uphill battle fighting against the BA and company, but my fellow workers and myself were able to stop much of the abuse. Never ever received anything from the union for my work, but never expected any. Just the pride and respect of forcing the company to honor the contract and treat employees as human beings, not animals.