[Excerpt] Experienced stewards know that sometimes you have to ask management a lot of questions if you want to reach your goal. There may be a way for both sides to come out satisfied, but you have to know how to determine if that\u27s possible, and you can only do that by posing the right questions

Margolies, Ken

English

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2-2013 
How to Probe for Settlements on Grievances 
Ken Margolies 
Cornell University, kam47@cornell.edu 
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How to Probe for Settlements on Grievances 
Abstract 
[Excerpt] Experienced stewards know that sometimes you have to ask management a lot of questions if 
you want to reach your goal. There may be a way for both sides to come out satisfied, but you have to 
know how to determine if that's possible, and you can only do that by posing the right questions. 
Keywords 
labor unions, union stewards, settlement, labor relations, grievances 
Disciplines 
Unions 
Comments 
Suggested Citation 
Margolies, K. A. (2013). How to probe for settlements on grievances. Steward Update Newsletter, 24(1). 
Required Publisher Statement 
© Union Communication Services. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/816 
STEWARD UPDATE NEWSLETTER 
How to Probe for 
Settlements on Grievances 
Grievance procedures were origi-nally designed to help unions and management work out prob-
lems as close to the source of the issues as 
possible, and with a minimum of conflict. 
But sometimes, management 
decides they want to frustrate the union, 
so they won't settle anything. 
In those cases stewards may have to 
organize the members to pressure man-
agement into taking grievances seriously. 
There's an awful lot to be said for having 
a strong, committed membership putting 
its muscle into convincing management 
to do the right thing. There's nothing like 
having a determined group 
of workers standing outside a 
manager's door to make him 
sit up and take notice. 
Another way lies in 
strengthening the contract, 
making things so airtight 
that management wouldn't 
dare to create problems for 
workers unless the employer 
has an unusually strong case. 
However, in situations 
where management is willing 
to work things out, removing the obstacles 
to getting settlements might be the style 
stewards use in dealing with management. 
If all you do is press the reasons why your 
interpretation of the contract or version of 
the facts are the correct ones, you may not 
get to talking about possible settlements. 
At some point stewards need to question 
their management counterpart about what 
it would take to reach a fair resolution of 
the issue at hand. It might be the key to 
resolving more grievances. 
Experienced stewards know that 
sometimes you have to ask management 
a lot of questions if you want to reach 
your goal. There may be a way for both 
sides to come out satisfied, but you have 
to know how to determine if that's possi-
ble, and you can only do that by posing 
the right questions. 
More Than Just No 
Here are a number of suggested questions 
that just might get management saying 
more than no to all your grievances. 
• Do yon understand the problem we are try-
ing to solve with our remedy? How do you see 
that problem? 
Maybe the supervisor isn't clear on 
the real issue. Getting him to state it mav 
open the door to a resolution. 
• What about our proposed remedy do you 
have a problem with? 
Maybe the remedy's fine with him 
but one element sticks in his craw. You 
might be able to modify the one point, as 
long as your basic issue is 
dealt with. 
• Do you have other sugges-
tions for how we can resolve 
this? 
Who knows, maybe 
he's got an approach that 
will be acceptable, or at 
least a place from which 
to start. 
• What are you concerned 
would happen if you agreed 
to our proposed remedy? 
His answer may surprise you: It may 
be something you can assure him is not 
going to happen. He may be overestimating 
the impact. Or he may misunderstand the 
true nature of the remedy you're seeking. 
• If we address your concern in that area, do 
you think we can reach agreement on the rest of 
our remedy? 
If you show him you can live with 
his concern, he'll be more prone to yield 
on yours. 
• Why is that your position? 
Maybe he's locked into his position 
for a bad reason, one you can convince 
him is wrong, or which upper manage-
ment wouldn't agree with. 
• Can you explain how you arrived at that 
position? 
If you understand his logic you may 
be able to more successfully counter his 
arguments. Or maybe he misunderstands or 
doesn't know about a basic fact in the case. 
• This is very important to us. Are you say-
ing you have no flexibility at a I? 
If he indicates flexibility, you'll 
know you've got some room to operate. If 
he doesn't, at least you'll know you've hit 
a wall and can prepare for the next step. 
• Make us a counterproposal on that. 
You may well not find his counter-
proposal acceptable, but it could open 
some new avenues leading to an accept-
able deal. 
• If we had some flexibility on X, would you 
have some flexibility on Y? 
You'll want to use this approach with 
caution, because once you hint that you 
might have flexibility on an issue, it's 
hard to take it back entirely. And be care-
ful here that you don't get into trading 
grievances: The flexibility has to be with-
in the case you're discussing. 
• The grievance procedure is supposed to be a 
way for us to resolve problems. Why are you 
unwilling to look for a settlement? 
Put the onus on management to 
defend its unresponsiveness—that's a lot 
better than going around and around over 
the same facts. And maybe the answer to 
that question—if there is one—will open a 
window of opportunity. If he gives a spe-
cific reason for his unwillingness, it may be 
a reason you can get him to dismiss, or 
view differently in the light of suggestions 
or alternative approaches you may have. 
A Word of Caution Here 
Before you probe management for a pos-
sible compromise, make sure you have 
discussed potential settlements with all 
the members involved in the case. Never 
make a final settlement offer without get-
ting member approval and seriously con-
sidering, along with union officers, any 
precedents that might be set. 
—Ken Margolies. The -writer is a senior associate of the Worker 
Institute at Cornell University. 
Sometimes 
stewards need to 
question their 
management 
counterpart 
about what it 
would take to 
resolve a 
problem. 


How to Probe for Settlements on Grievances

[Excerpt] Experienced stewards know that sometimes you have to ask management a lot of questions if you want to reach your goal. There may be a way for both sides to come out satisfied, but you have to know how to determine if that's possible, and you can only do that by posing the right questions.Margolies40_How_to_probe_for_settlements.pdf: 411 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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