Thanks to Richard for calling my attention to this. Sounds like a tough situation. Here are my thoughts, I hope they are of some help.

In some Teamster contracts workers have the right to be considered "innocent until proven guilty" -- a revolutionary idea, right? Unfortunately, even in those, fighting, threats of violence, stealing and some other high crimes are not included.

This seems to me like a basic question of power. One problem with multi-step grievance procedures that end in arbitration is the further up the ladder the grievance goes, the longer it takes, and the further from the shop floor it goes. The member becomes "the grievant" and is rarely involved beyond the first step. As it goes up the ladder, the people handling it are less and less involved/invested in it -- it's just not their job on the line, not their workplace. You don't get information, you don't know what the status of the case is, and, in the meantime you are left hanging. Guilty until proven innocent, and it sucks.

(That's one reason unions need to study alternatives to simply "grieving it" -- the Troublemaker's Handbook is a good guide to such alternative tactics.)

Without knowing more details of your situation (like are you all on strike already?), I'd suggest two things:

1. Follow up on your grievances in writing via letters sent by certified mail, return receipt. If there is anything you can do to help the union reps. prepare the case, witnesses you can identify, evidence you have, etc., offer it to them. Be persistent but make it clear you see this as a union issue and see the officers and reps as allies. (For a sample letter see: http://www.uniondemocracy.org/Legal/sample.htm#gri...)

Get people to express their support for your case in concrete ways: petitions, letters, organize a meeting or rent party. You need to show the union reps that members care about this and convince the union reps that this fight is important and worth the effort.

2. Talk with your coworkers and fellow grievants and the committeeman about how to up the pressure on this issue at work. Petitions, more grievances, rallies, posters, songs, an inflatable rat, be creative. You need to convince the employer that this fight is not worth it. Convince the higher ups that the low level managers are screwing up. Obviously what you do, when and how you do it all depends on the other struggles going on. That's for you all to figure out.

If you end up in the even more difficult situation of someone with a grievance that the union reps/officers don't want to handle, you may want to consult Ellis Boal's Internal UAW Appeals practice manual for members: http://ellisboal.com/. The UAW is unique in having an appeals procedure, but you need to know how to use it.

Hope this helps, Matt

Side note: we need a good solidarity tool, like the email campaigns on LabourStart, to express support for workers in such situations...

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"The practice of democracy in organizing is the organizing of democracy in practice."