General Discussion

but a good union was a benefit to the company. I worked in a factory and it competed with other factories in our corporation to stay in business. Our plant manager created a team of both company and union members to meet and brainstorm how our plant could cut costs.
Our local union made the stipulation that one item would not be on the table and that was cutting jobs, that would have to be done only by management.

Companies have rules, have a contract, and unions got the wrong reputation of forcing companies to keep bad workers. Here's how our union worked with the company. The company had rules and steps regarding absenteeism. If an employee missed X amount of work they got a verbal warning, if they missed again in a specified time period, they got a written warning, if they continued to miss work they were suspended pending termination. I was the union person who met with the employee and put his/her grievance in writing. Sometimes the grievant had a situation that our local union could fight for, for example, extenuating circumstances for why they missed work, and then we would schedule a meeting with the company that could even be pushed forward to getting the International Union involved.

However, if the grievant broke all of the rules, violated the contract, we would meet with the company and basically beg for mercy. If the company terminated the employee and our local union believed it was justified, we would not get the International Union involved, we would drop the grievance and advise the grievant that he/she could go the legal route. The thing is, if the grievant went to a lawyer he/she would be up against the company and the union believing that the worker was justifiably terminated.