steelsteward said:
I am A Union Steward for a large steel corporation in Indiana. The company owns the property outside of the gates and have plant protection patrol the roads. According to plant policy, you have to have a valid drivers license to operate a motor vehicle on company property. My question is: Does this security guard have the right to take your license back to the patrol car? Or is just showing them your license sufficient. Employees have been disciplined for failure to comply with plant security because they did not want to relinquish their license to the guard. They are not on company time when the majority of these rent-a-cops pull people over.
I am a union member and one of the problems I have with unions is that they are not proactive. Nothing gets done about a situation unless the member/employee files a grievence. The union will not, in most cases, initiate any action on its own.
In this case you should file a greivence citeing concerns about identity theft. If the company replies that they are not worried about this problem (perhaps because they maintain that they have faith in the security company that they employ), then explain that they should, in writing, indemnify the employees against any loss which grows out of misuse of the information that the "security personel" may commit. Since they see no problem, then there should be no misgivings about writing the letter to the union offering to cover any losses that grow out of any potential misuse.
Also, the very purpose of unions is to negotiate "terms and conditions" of employment. When companies make rules or institute "policies" that impact those terms and conditions those rules or policies are, themselves, subject to negotiation. Most contracts have language that indicates as much by requiring companies to inform the union of any rules or procedures that would impact the employees' terms and conditions of employment. So, look through your contract to see if there are any articles or clauses that require the company to inform the union of any work rule or policy changes. If the language is there and the company did not inform the union prior to instituting the policy, then that may be another point of grievence.
Discuss all of this with your union BA.
