Resources

Tools, handbooks, and reference material for stewards and members.

AFSCME national

Customize these for your local. Replace placeholders with your local number, contact info, and contract article numbers.

Weingarten card — wallet-size statement to invoke representation. Print double-sided on cardstock.
Grievance intake form — five W's, witnesses, contract articles, requested remedy.
Member contact log — date, member, issue, action, follow-up.
Pre-discipline checklist — Loudermill rights, due process, representation.

Note for site admin: drop printable PDFs in assets/docs/ and link them here. See the README.md for guidance.

Weingarten rights: Right to union representation during investigatory interviews that could lead to discipline. From the 1975 NLRB Weingarten decision.
Loudermill rights: For public-sector employees: right to notice and a chance to respond before being deprived of property interest in continued employment. From Cleveland Bd. of Ed. v. Loudermill (1985).
Past practice: A long-standing, consistent, and known way of doing things that becomes effectively part of the contract — even if it isn't written down.
Duty of fair representation (DFR): The union's legal obligation to represent every member fairly, in good faith, and without arbitrary or discriminatory conduct.
Just cause: The standard most CBAs require for discipline: the employer must have a real, work-related, proportionate, and procedurally fair reason. The classic test has seven parts (notice, reasonable rule, investigation, fair investigation, proof, equal treatment, proportionate penalty).
Bargaining unit: The defined group of employees the union legally represents. If the work is unit work, the unit does it — not managers, not subcontractors.