Weingarten Rights
What is “Weingarten” and why should I care? Weingarten was the name of a corporation in a National Labor Relations Board case that went to the US Supreme Court in 1975. The Supreme Court upheld an NLRB decision that employees have the right to union representation at investigatory interviews. These rights are commonly called “Weingarten Rights”. How does this apply to me? Anytime an employer, Show Supervisor, or any other person who is on the management side wants to ask you questions about something that happened in the workplace, it is an investigatory interview. And one of the rights and privileges of being represented by a union is that you don’t have to go into an investigatory interview alone where an employer representative may try to corner you or get you to say something you later wish you hadn’t. What should I do? If you ever find yourself in an investigatory interview, you must state clearly that you want union representation. That’s written in bold, underlined italics because it is that important! Once you request representation, the employer must do one of the following: Weingarten Rights are one of the most important rights you have as a union worker. Non-union workers don’t have the protection of representation during investigatory interviews – they’re on their own against the employer. You’re not! »
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