Ames Federal Employees Union

Bylaws of the Steward Corps

of the Ames Federal Employees Union, IFPTE #30

as adopted June 30, 2010

Preamble

Section 1: These bylaws refer to “grievants”, these are non-steward person or persons who have been subject of harm by NASA Ames, particularly violations of the AFEU Contract and may be an individual employee or a number of employees being represented by a steward. In the case of Union Grievances and/or grievances including Union issues, the AFEU President or his designee shall represent the interests of the bargaining unit on their behalf in conjunction with the steward.

Section 2: The rules contained in the current edition of Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern the AFEU Steward Corps in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these bylaws or the constitutions of the AFEU or the IFPTE.

Section 3: As described in the AFEU Constitution (Article VIII, Arbitration), all cases must be approved by a vote of the Steward Corps before they may go before arbitration.

Article I - Authority

Section 1: This document constitutes the bylaws of the Steward Corps of the Ames Federal Employees Union (AFEU), which is local 30 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE).

Section 2: These bylaws are a supplement to the AFEU constitution, and are subject to the authority of the constitutions of the AFEU and the IFPTE. In all cases of conflict, those constitutions shall be override these bylaws. A conflict involving a portion of these bylaws shall not invalidate the remainder, nor shall a conflict in one case necessarily invalidate application in other cases.

Section 3: All previous bylaws of the Steward Corps are hereby rescinded and superseded.

Article II - Stewards and Cases

Section 1: Representational Relationship
AFEU, as the exclusive representative, is responsible for representing employees in grievances and at arbitration for employees requesting representation. AFEU does not, however, have the power to compel employees or executive board members to be stewards or to require that those stewards take every case raised. Stewards are not lawyers and stewards represent the grievant’s interests as well as the Union’s interests as a whole. AFEU retains and/or hires counsel in support of the Union stewards and executive board in prosecuting cases, and for representing the Union in (and occasionally before) arbitration. The Union’s counsel is exclusively for Union business and all requests to counsel must be made through the chief steward, deputy chief steward, or the AFEU president. The grievant may consult their own legal advisors as they see fit but cannot, under the AFEU contract, be represented in their grievance by that counsel. AFEU shall not defer their representation rights to any third party except legal counsel hired directly by AFEU for such purposes. AFEU stewards shall certainly encourage the grievants’ assistance in preparing the case, but when an employee is represented by an AFEU steward, that steward becomes the exclusive representative and therefore responsible for the content all official communiques on the case, including but not limited to the formal (written) complaint against the Center.

The AFEU steward shall continuously evaluate the likely outcome of a case and shall inform the grievants, as appropriate.

Section 2: Fair and Equitable Representation

Under US Code Title V, AFEU stewards will represent employees fairly and equitably and treat non-paying members the same as paying members.

Section 3: General Procedures for Accepting/Prosecuting Cases

AFEU steward corps will accept cases on a first-come, first-served basis, but with deference to the severity of the injury to the employee (generally–suspensions taking priority over reprimands and adverse [needs improvement, fails to meet] performance evaluations; reprimands and adverse performance evaluations taking priority over letters of caution, letters of caution taking priority over performance evaluation disagreements or other cases that do not affect the employees personnel record or pay). Stewards will take no more than 2 cases at a time, unless one or more of those cases are in abeyance or otherwise not requiring the attention of that steward. This, by no means, compels a steward to take a case, but AFEU will make every reasonable effort to find a steward for a case when an employee requests representation, and in the case where a steward cannot be found, AFEU will inform the employee as to the reason(s) and shall inform NASA Ames that AFEU will not be representing the employee. For particularly severe (such as a suspension) or complex cases, the steward shall limit themselves to only being a steward on that one case.

Article III - Meetings

Section 1: The AFEU Steward Corps shall meet as-needed to discuss specific cases and to vote on issues before the corps.

Section 2: A special meeting of the Steward Corps may be called by any steward, with the concurrence of a simple majority of the Corps, and announced to the Corps before noon of the previous work day. This announcement must include a time and location for the meeting and an agenda for the meeting including any issue requiring a vote of the corps.

Section 3: Meetings of the AFEU Steward Corps may only be scheduled for work days of Ames Research Center and for times from 9:00 AM through 5:00 PM. All meetings of the Steward Corps shall be held in the Union office, unless another location has been announced by the Chief Steward or Deputy Chief Steward.

Section 4: Steward Corps meetings called to vote upon arbitration or other grievance matters shall invite the grievants of the cases to be discussed and make every reasonable effort including time and location modifications to accommodate the grievants and their stewards. The grievants or steward may submit written appeals and documentation for consideration by the Corps, whether or not the grievants or steward will attend the meeting. The Chief Steward or Deputy Chief Steward shall solicit such input in the event that the meeting cannot be rescheduled or relocated to accommodate the parties.

Section 5: Quorum is defined as a meeting including the chief steward or deputy chief steward, the steward for the case, and at least one additional steward who is not also a grievant on that or any other active or related case.

Section 6: The chief steward, or in his/her absence the deputy chief steward, shall chair the meeting.

Section 7: The chair of the meeting shall appoint a meeting recorder at the start of the meeting, and meeting minutes shall be made available to all parties of that meeting, all stewards, all parties to the grievance discussed, and the president of the local.

Section 8: Each steward corps meeting shall adjourn upon adoption of a motion to adjourn, or upon officially noted loss of a quorum.

Section 9: All votes by the corps shall be by a secret ballot and shall be a simple majority by all stewards present, including the chair of the meeting. In the case of a tie vote, the chair of the meeting shall break the tie.

Article IV - Votes and the Merit of a Case

Section 1: In the case where a steward no longer feels the case has merit, or Management has presented a decision or settlement offer that the steward on the case feels (both for the grievant[s] and the Union) is best to accept, the steward may decide to accept the offer or otherwise drop the case. The steward must inform the grievant(s) of their decision and their right to appeal the decision to the Corps.

a) The grevants may appeal to the Corps as a whole and the Corps shall meet with the grievants and steward in order to hear the specifics of the case and to vote on whether to overturn the steward’s decision and continue the case. The Corps shall make every effort to decide the appeal in a timely manner, considering the timeline of the grievance.

b) If the steward’s decision is overturned on appeal, the Chief Steward may consider reassigning the case to another steward.

c) If the steward’s decision is upheld on appeal, the grievants can appeal the matter to the AFEU President and/or Executive Board who may overrule the decision of the Steward Corps.

d) In cases where the steward wishes to accept a settlement, the steward must not accept a settlement that has personal remedies for the grievants unless the grievants also accept the settlement. The AFEU Contract contains language whereby Union issues may be pursued independently of the grievants in cases where the grievants no longer wish to pursue the matter or where the grievants and the Union wish to pursue their case independently.

Section 2: The Steward Corps, and particularly the steward assigned to a case shall make every effort to maintain confidentiality of grievants and shall only discuss specifics of the case on a “need-to-know” basis with other stewards and officers of the Union as the steward feels is warranted.

Section 3: As described in Article VIII (Arbitration) of the Constitution, when requesting funding from the AFEU Executive Board the steward and grievants will present their views to the board for their consideration. This should include at minimum the expenses likely to be incurred, the expected outcome of the case, the impact of the case on the AFEU bargaining unit, and on the Union.