“...being accused of being a gamer, solve the problem like a gamer,”

January 26, 2023 12:28 PM

The union-oriented Twitter account Daily Union Elections asked the world in a recent tweet, “Union folks, what is the best grievance/[Unfair Labor Practice] that you’ve ever won?” And the world responded in kind.

““A member was accused of playing video games on his work computer,” union organizing director Erik Strobl said. “I got him cleared by proving conclusively that the employer-provided graphics card couldn’t handle the resource-hungry game his supervisor claimed to have seen.””

The worker wasn’t even playing a game, but watching “a game review on his break (which is fine),” Strobl clarified, “but he was accused of installing unauthorized third-party software on a government computer (which he 100% didn’t do and, as I showed, couldn’t have done). Zero abuse of time or state property.” [via: Kotaku]
posted by Fizz (8 comments total)

Another example of why system requirements and unions matter!!!
posted by Fizz at 12:38 PM on January 26, 2023 [12 favorites]

But but, he could he could have been on cloud gaming mode! /s

My favorite from the thread is this one, which is similar.

Family friend. UAW. Plant on the edge of an airport. The accused was drinking on factory campus because of bottles on the other side of the fence where the accused took lunch. When out with all involved looking at evidence, small craft pilot overhead threw bottle out window.

Bottle landed in the small ditch as the bottles thrown over fence and this was during an airline strike. Family friend shook his first. “Damn scab pilots!” Factory rep threw up their hands, dropped the grievance, and said just don’t let me catch him out here again.

posted by buffy12 at 12:40 PM on January 26, 2023 [7 favorites]

A good friend used to work at the NRLB, then went on to VP HR at a steel factory and now works at a corporate firm specializing in labor law. He's got some good stories from both sides.
posted by slogger at 12:48 PM on January 26, 2023

While the big wins are nice I love the little wins where just having the union there corrects a wrong:

The grievance in itself isn't anything impressive but when we were *just* newly organized, the first time I got called in as a steward, they handed me the employees write-up & stated they intended to suspend him for 1 day.
I read it, looked up and just said "No."

They accepted.

Those are the best.
posted by Mitheral at 1:38 PM on January 26, 2023 [31 favorites]

Just got back from our local's general membership meeting (I am secretary). Our local has a couple of pilpul artists who were in top form tonight, which honestly drives me all the way up walls, but...

... it's worth it. This kind of thing is why.
posted by humbug at 4:57 PM on January 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

When I worked at the Molson Brewery in Toronto a shop steward defended a worker that was caught asleep on the job (the job was watching empty bottles heading for a filling machine) by saying that the reason the worker didn't respond to the foreman when the foreman yelled at him was that his name was not "Hey you" and that he could very well been awake but just not realized the foreman was yelling at him specifically.
posted by srboisvert at 5:06 PM on January 26, 2023 [12 favorites]

A shitty manager tried to get rid of me by posting my permanent position as a permanent position when I accepted a temporary job elsewhere within the organization. I went to the union and it was taken care of in no time because it was a clear-cut violation of the collective agreement*, but it turned out that particular manager had a long, long history of pulling crap like that just to see if she could get away with it (I was told some people she screwed over in various ways didn't go to the union because they weren't inclined to cause a fuss or whatever), and also because she didn't seem to like workers who were competent, well-liked, enthusiastic, etc., probably because she was none of those things.

* a while later someone in HR had to meet with me and eat some shit on behalf of the organization
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:28 PM on January 26, 2023 [7 favorites]

Can't remember where I saw this comment on the case quoted in the post, but:

If the GPU is shit, you must acquit!
posted by Dysk at 6:29 AM on January 27, 2023 [2 favorites]