Brothers and Sisters,
I am happy to report that we have recently won an arbitration with the City of Springfield. An employee who had recently come back from a workman’s comp injury was directed to drive a City truck to the dump. After unloading, his GPS, took him on a route which brought him under a low bridge and lead to his truck getting stuck under the bridge. The City disciplined him by stating he was flagrantly disobeying orders instead of using the discipline guide laid out in the CBA that handles accidents.
The result of the arbitration was the arbitrator ruled that postings on shared bulletin boards and even missed road signs are not flagrant disobedience and the company had to use the accident discipline as laid out. This in turn resulted in a finding that the employee should only get a verbal warning and made whole by the refunding of the time/pay missed for the 5 days suspension. Without a Union, this employee would have had no recourse or access to the arbitration process and the loss of a weeks pay with a suspension in his file.
Chris Adams
Business Representative