Labor and union relations

A collective agreement is a contract that constrains management rights for its term. Most disputes are not about its words. They are about something a supervisor did that the words did not obviously cover, and about what the plant has done for the last five years.

This is jurisdiction-specific law with real consequences. Treat what follows as the structure of the problem and the vocabulary for the conversation, and involve qualified labor counsel before acting on anything contested.

Past practice is part of the agreement

The written agreement is not the whole of it. A practice that is consistent, known to both sides, repeated over time and unchallenged becomes enforceable, and changing it unilaterally is a common route to a grievance the employer loses despite the contract language being on its side.

This cuts both ways and is worth auditing before it matters. Informal accommodations — the early finish before a holiday, the overtime that always goes to the same crew, the break taken at the machine — are being accrued as practice whether or not anyone intended it.