Talking to my housemate, who is the night-shift shop steward for his local union, and whose collective bargaining contract is coming up. He is unable to attend the upcoming meeting and there is explicit lack of attempt to not replace him with anyone else from his shift for representation. This means that the entire third/ night shift has been left out of their collective bargaining meeting. Apparently the day-shift shop steward told him that people on the night shift don't deserve differential pay because they don't do more than the day shift, and in some cases they do less. I was dumbfounded on many levels at this stupidity. First, nightshift is known to be highly correlated with many health problems above and beyond day shifts, and differential pay is meant to adjust for the health issues and accident hazards related to fatigue, not the actual work. Second, in-fighting at the employee level about holding pay back for people who need it is exactly what helps business exploit employees beyond the exploitation they already do. Third, it's a violation of union bylaws. Forth, let's all just work until we have one foot in the grave- great plan.
Yes, my housemate is writing his grievance, on behalf of himself and his entire shift, right now.