The better we are informed about our contract and our contractual rights means we’ll all have more ammunition to use against management when they try to intimidate us over a various number of issues that will inevitably arrise on the job.
Here is the contractual language for Article 18 Section 20.4 of the National Master United Parcel Service Agreement.
Article 18 Section 20.4
There shall be Safety and Health committees to cover all full-time and part- time employees. There shall be one (1) committee per Center unless the number of employees and/or job classifications within a center dictate the establishment of more than one (1) committee. The respective committees will be comprised of a mutually agreed to number of bargaining unit representatives and up to an equal number of management representatives.
Bargaining unit members who seek to serve on the Safety and Health committee may volunteer to do so, with approval of the local union. The Union co-chair of the committee(s) shall be selected by the bargaining unit members of the committee.
Each committee shall meet at least once each month at a mutually agreeable time and place. The Employer shall provide committee members with adequate time to perform committee functions, as described in paragraphs 1 through 7 below.
Each committee shall perform functions including, but not limited to:
1. Creating sub-committees, on an as needed basis, to investigate specific issues of safety and health concern. These committees shall report to the full committee.
2. Developing and maintaining minutes for all meetings, with copies to all committee members and posted on designated safety bulletin boards.
3. Conducting periodic inspections of the facility to ensure that there is a safe, healthful and sanitary working environment in each center.
4. Accompanying governmental, union, and/or company health and safety professionals on facility inspection tours. The Employer may limit the number of bargaining unit members of the committee accompanying such an inspection tour.
5. Receiving information pertaining to lost workday injury/accident causes and review results of the investigation of such injuries/accidents.
6. Receiving copies of the center’s OSHA Illness and Injury logs and the facility’s man-hours.
7. Receiving the Company sponsored training to enable committee members to effectively perform their respective functions as safety and health committee members.
Any information provided to a CHSP committee will not be shared outside the committee without the Employer’s consent.
If the committee is unable to resolve a safety and health concern and all steps of the Comprehensive Health and Safety Process (CHSP) have been exhausted, the issue will be subject to the grievance procedure.
[Emphasis ours]
