Stewards Guide

ABOUT OUR NUMBER ONE JOB-ORGANIZING

Now that you have secured some of the goals in your collective bargaining agreement and you have gotten your supervisor to live up to the contract with the aid of the 100% support of the workers in your area, you have just completed the first step toward full-job protection.

Throughout this Pocket Guide we have offered practical suggestions which should go a long way toward helping you perform your duties with dispatch and expertise-and with a great deal of personal satisfaction. We've also discussed how you could best organize yourself to meet the many challenges that you as a steward, must face on a daily basis.

ORGANIZING is a key word in our union movement. But organizing is more than a word-it's a vitally important tool for every part of a union member's daily life.

Unfortunately, more often then not we put our organizing tactics to rest and leave them at the time clock or work area. Each of us, when away from our place of employment-going to work, returning from work, on our night out at the bowling alley or banquet and even while on vacation-is actually in constant touch with, and even conversing with, one of the biggest threats to our job security, wages, fringe benefits and working conditions-the unorganized worker.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

We are glad you asked, you can begin by talking wherever you go, about the many benefits you enjoy under your IAM Union-about your IAM contract, and about your functions in the union-thereby projecting a good positive picture of your union throughout your entire home community.

You can also see to it that your lodge sets up an organizing program. If you find someone who is interested in organizing his or her particular plant, you can play a very important part by making sure to have that person directed to an IAM representative. Spreading the benefits of our union to the many less fortunate unorganized workers in your community is the best way to insure that you and your fellow members keep on improving your own benefits.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

THE IAM AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT

IAM Constitution. This is easy to keep with you and to refer to. Available through your local lodge.

Brief History of the American Labor Movement. U.S. Department of Labor. Bulletin No. 1000. A pamphlet giving the major events and landmarks in the development of American unions. Illustrated. U.S. Government Printing Office. Washington D.C. 20402.

The American Worker. Prepared by the U.S. Department of Labor commemorating the two hundredth year of American independence. Dedicated to all American working people, past, present, and future. U.S. Department of Labor, Washington D.C. 20402.

History of the IAM and Highlights of the Labor Movement. Excerpts from the Machinists Leadership School Notebook on the history of the IAM. Available from IAM Placid Harbor Education Center.

Profile. A pocket-size outline description of the structure and government of the IAM. Useful for ready reference and hand-out. Available from your lodge or from IAM Communication Department and IAM Placid Harbor Education Center.

COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT AND IAM PLACID HARBOR EDUCATION CENTER

IAM Journal. This Publication is mailed directly to your home. It keeps you abreast of IAM activities.

AFL-CIO News. To keep up with current developments in the labor movement. Weekly. AFL-CIO, 815 16th ST. N.W., Washington D.C. 20006. Perhaps your lodge or your library subscribes.

Officers Guide. How stewards and officers work together. What the stewards system means to the lodge. Duties of officers which stewards need to now. Available from your local lodge and the IAM Placid Harbor Education Center.

The Steward. An outline of steward's duties, and grievance handling. Available form IAM Placid Harbor Education Center.

Unionize the New Member. Tips to stewards on how to reach new members in the plant. Special Bulletin No.8, IAM Placid Harbor Education Center.

Handy Guide to a Well Conducted Union Meeting. A ready reference to the official IAM order of business and procedures in a lodge meeting. Available from IAM Placid Harbor Education Center through your local lodge.

"We Are The IAM". This Publication in its handsome magazine format serves as an introduction to the IAM and has become a popular organizing tool. Single copy available from IAM Communications Department or in quantities through the IAM Organizing Department.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS

Pamphlet List-"Keys to Facts and Understanding.” You may write IAM Placid Harbor Education Center for this pamphlet list, then order, by number, from the AFL-CIO single free copies of pamphlets which are of interest to you.

Books on Labor. The public library is the place to look, and the number of the labor book shelf is 331.8. If the library does no own the book you want, ask the librarian if it can be borrowed from a larger library, or purchased. The following titles are taken from the Labor Reading List of the Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor Groups.

Labor in America. A history by Foster Rhea Dulles. Crowell, 1960. 439 pages. A history of labor from its craft beginning in Colonial America through the 1960's.

American Labor: A Pictorial Social History. by Morris B. Schnapper. Public affairs press, 1975. 574 pages. An outstanding pictorial history of working men and women as shown through many rare documents, cartoons, newspaper articles and other sources.

A.F. of L. in the Time of Gompers. by Philip Taft. Octagon, 1970. 508 pages. Basic book on American labor history.

A.F. of L. from the death of Gompers to the Merger. by Philip Taft. Octagon, 1970. 490 pages. Basic book on American Labor history.

American Unions: Structure, Government, and Politics. by Jack Barbash Random House, 1967. 183 pages. A brief description of trade-union structure and administration for the student.

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