The grievance procedure

The classic four steps

1. Informal / supervisor step.The steward and grievant raise the violation with the immediate supervisor, usually within a short window — often 5 to 10 working days from the event. Most disputes end here.
2. Written grievance.The dispute goes on paper: contract articles violated, facts, remedy sought. Management answers in writing on its own deadline.
3. Higher-level meeting.Local officers and HR/labor relations — often with staff reps — argue the record. Settlements here trade on precedent as much as facts.
4. Arbitration.A neutral arbitrator hears evidence and issues a final, binding award. Costs — arbitrator fees, transcripts, advocacy — commonly run into the thousands per case, which is why unions triage carefully.

The rules around the steps

• Deadlines are everything. Miss a filing window and a winning case can die on procedure. Every grievance log should carry its clock.
• Weingarten rights (U.S.). A worker is entitled to union representation in an investigatory interview that could lead to discipline.
• Just cause. Discipline under a CBA must survive the just-cause tests — notice, investigation, proof, equal treatment, proportional penalty.
• Duty of fair representation. The union must handle grievances for everyone in the unit honestly and without discrimination — a legal duty, not a courtesy.
• Past practice. A consistent, accepted practice can acquire near-contractual force; arbitrators weigh it when language is ambiguous.

Where grievances actually die

Not usually at arbitration — in the filing cabinet. Paper files, missed deadlines, no searchable history of what was settled and how, stewards reinventing arguments the local already won five years ago. A grievance operation is an information system, and most locals run it from memory.