R. Mutt
"You're not my supervisor!"
Our hub (in Central States region) recently established an MRA raise of about $6.50/hour over minimum rate to $21/hour for our part time workers in order to attract staffing.
I work in Revenue Recovery at said hub and did not receive the MRA Raise because "we are employees of the center rather than the hub."
Of course this is wholly BS since the distinction is ridiculous and arbitrary. We work from the same seniority list for extra work and when we finish with our shifts we perform hub work to keep the extra work list exhausted so that supervisors can continue to work. Additionally, as I'm head steward for the sort, I spend a fair amount of time engaged in union related activity, almost always relating to or on behalf of hub employees--a detail that, I think, adds to the absurdity of the distinction. The only real meaningful difference is the SLIC number on our paychecks.
Obviously, I plan on grieving this, but there are some complications. When I called up our business agent to discuss the issue her comment on it was that "It's an MRA raise; the company can do whatever they want with it" and her recommendation was for us to just transfer out of our positions and back to the hub to get the raise. I could do that, but I don't want to throw away the seniority I have for job preference just to be thrown into the sort aisle or unload rather than fight a pretty open and shut case of workplace discrimination or possibly even retaliation for union activity. From my BAs comments and from personal experience I have pretty solid reason to believe that if my grievance is deadlocked in my negotiation with our finance manager then I shouldn't expect any amount of effort from our local in a hearing, so, I'm trying to do my homework well before I hand off my grievance to an eventual shrug and apology for having lost.
Has anyone had any experience with something similar, even tangentially? I'm looking for any kind of precedent I can point to in negotiations or something so blaring that even our local can't overlook it--or something concise that I can put directly into the grievance to ensure it is brought up in any hearing.
Any advice is appreciated, happy to answer any related questions.
I work in Revenue Recovery at said hub and did not receive the MRA Raise because "we are employees of the center rather than the hub."
Of course this is wholly BS since the distinction is ridiculous and arbitrary. We work from the same seniority list for extra work and when we finish with our shifts we perform hub work to keep the extra work list exhausted so that supervisors can continue to work. Additionally, as I'm head steward for the sort, I spend a fair amount of time engaged in union related activity, almost always relating to or on behalf of hub employees--a detail that, I think, adds to the absurdity of the distinction. The only real meaningful difference is the SLIC number on our paychecks.
Obviously, I plan on grieving this, but there are some complications. When I called up our business agent to discuss the issue her comment on it was that "It's an MRA raise; the company can do whatever they want with it" and her recommendation was for us to just transfer out of our positions and back to the hub to get the raise. I could do that, but I don't want to throw away the seniority I have for job preference just to be thrown into the sort aisle or unload rather than fight a pretty open and shut case of workplace discrimination or possibly even retaliation for union activity. From my BAs comments and from personal experience I have pretty solid reason to believe that if my grievance is deadlocked in my negotiation with our finance manager then I shouldn't expect any amount of effort from our local in a hearing, so, I'm trying to do my homework well before I hand off my grievance to an eventual shrug and apology for having lost.
Has anyone had any experience with something similar, even tangentially? I'm looking for any kind of precedent I can point to in negotiations or something so blaring that even our local can't overlook it--or something concise that I can put directly into the grievance to ensure it is brought up in any hearing.
Any advice is appreciated, happy to answer any related questions.