Six Principles Protecting the Right to Representation in Grievance Handling

Review the six principles that protect the right to representation in grievance handling and explain how, if at all, they manifest themselves in the Cruz v. Local Union No. 3 and Freeman v. O’Neal Steel Inc. cases.

The six principles include:

• The individual employee has a right to have clear and unquestioned terms of the collective agreement.
• The individual employee has no right to insist on any particular interpretation of an ambiguous provision in a collective agreement.
• The union has no duty to carry every grievance to arbitration.
• The individual employee has a right to have his grievance decided on its own merits.
• Settlement of grievances for improper motives constitutes bad faith regardless of the merit of the grievance.
• The union can make good faith judgments in determining the merits of a grievance.