A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a trades/labour union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold this position voluntarily (through democratic

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

by fellow workers or sometimes by appointment of a higher union body) while maintaining their role as an

employee Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

of the firm. As a result, the union steward becomes a significant link and conduit of information between the union leadership and rank-and-file workers.

Duties

The duties of a union steward vary according to each trades union's

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

al mandate for the position. In general, most union stewards perform the following functions: *Monitor and enforce the provisions of the

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and labour rights, rights for ...

agreement (labour contract) to ensure both the firm and union worker are not violating the terms of the agreement. *Ensure that the firm is in compliance with all national, state and local

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

s and

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

s. *Represent and defend fellow workers whom the firm believes violated company policy or the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining agreement, often through the

grievance A grievance () is a wrong or hardship suffered, real or supposed, which forms legitimate grounds of complaint. In the past, the word meant the infliction or cause of hardship. See also * Complaint system * Harm Harm is a morality, moral and ...

process. *Communicate and disseminate official union policy, memos and directives to workers in the shop. *Popularize and promote union consciousness and values in the workplace. Unlike other union representatives, stewards work on the shop floor, connecting workers with union officials at regional or national levels. The role of shop stewards may vary from being a mere representative of a larger national union towards independent structures with the power of collective bargaining in the workplace.

In political history

In the United Kingdom, a network called Shop Stewards Movement organised shop stewards against the First World War. In Germany, a network of shop stewards called Revolutionary Stewards took an important role in the revolutionary " January Strike".

Other designations

Father of the chapel (FoC) or mother of the chapel (MoC) are the titles in the United Kingdom and

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

referring to a shop steward representing members of a

trades union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

in a

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

office or in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

. The FoC or MoC is assisted by the clerk of the chapel or by a deputy FoC/MoC. In the printing trade, a chapel is the traditional name given to a meeting of compositors. The name originates in the early history of printing in Great Britain, though the National Union of Journalists states that the precise origins of the terms are unclear.

References

{{Authority control Labor relations

Duties

In political history

Other designations

Further reading

References