Aaron Beaudry

If you have ever had a question about your workplace, your rights, your collective agreement, a grievance, discipline, arbitration, or what a union representative actually does, you are in the right place.

My name is Aaron Beaudry. I have been in the labour movement since 2001 — twenty-five years. I currently serve as Chief Steward of Mines for United Steelworkers Local 6500, representing close to 1,200 workers across seven worksites. That office is elected. This site is personal. It is not the local speaking.

The day-to-day of that work is grievances, investigations, meetings, and, when it has to go that far, arbitration.

I built UnionRep.ca because workers and members often have questions that are not easy to answer. Sometimes the language is complicated. Sometimes the process is confusing. Sometimes people simply do not know where to start. The job of this site is to take that and make it practical.

This is not a website that pretends every workplace situation has a simple answer. It does not. Collective agreements are different. Workplaces are different. Labour law depends on where you work and what your circumstances are. Workers should still have access to good information so they can understand the issue in front of them. That is what UnionRep.ca is.

My experience in the labour movement

I started with my union in 2001. Since then I have served as a:

• Union steward
• Committeeperson
• Plant Incentive Committee chair
• Health and Safety Committee member
• Plant contracting-out representative
• Chief steward
• Collective Bargaining Committee member

Those roles meant seeing labour relations from more than one chair. I have represented workers in disputes, discipline, and grievances. I have sat in investigations and meetings. I have taken the grievance procedure from the first step through to arbitration. I have also been involved in mediation, mediated arbitration, and matters involving commissioners.

Effective representation is not simply knowing the rules. It is listening. It is asking the right questions. It is understanding the facts. It is knowing your collective agreement. It is preparing. And sometimes it is having the patience to keep working a problem when the answer is not sitting on the table.

A career built on representation

That work has been with the United Steelworkers, including my local, United Steelworkers Local 6500. Twenty-five years in a union is more than the day-to-day grievance procedure. I have seen how a workplace issue lands on a worker, a family, a department, and a community. I have also seen what solidarity is worth.

One period that stayed with me was the Building Power campaign in 2009–2010. I was on a strike that lasted almost a year. A strike that long is its own education. What made that year different was the work of building relationships beyond our own workplace and town. Building Power was an international effort to raise the issues around that strike. As part of it I travelled to Sweden and Germany, met people, and talked about what was happening at home.

A workplace dispute may start between one worker and one employer. The questions underneath it — work, wages, safety, dignity, fairness — are not unique to one plant or one country. What are my rights? How do I make sure I am treated fairly? What happens when my employer and I disagree? How do workers have a meaningful voice at work? Those are the questions under most of what I write here.

From the underground drift to the bargaining table

More recently I have served on my local’s bargaining committee. When a collective agreement expires, the items on the table are not words. They are wages, benefits, scheduling, overtime, health and safety, job security, seniority, contracting out, and the rest of a working life.

Bargaining confirmed something the grievance procedure already taught me: preparation matters. Whether you are walking into a grievance meeting, an investigation, a disciplinary interview, an arbitration, or a bargaining session, the quality of the preparation is the difference. That is a theme you will see on this site.

Why this site

There is no shortage of labour-relations writing. Legal sites. Union sites. Government pages. Academic work. Newsrooms covering the big disputes. All of that has a place. I wanted something closer to the drift.

A place a worker can search a workplace question and get an answer in plain language. A place a new steward can find a checklist before an investigation. A place a member can learn what a grievance is, and how the process generally works. A place someone can read an important award without wading through hundreds of pages before the holding shows up. And a place for practical tools — books, products, and the rest — that make working life a little more workable.

What you will find here

The site will grow. The writing is organized around this:

What I believe

• Workers deserve to understand the rules that govern their workplace.
• Union members should understand their collective agreements rather than simply relying on someone else to explain them.
• A good union representative should be prepared, knowledgeable, honest, and willing to listen.
• Disagreements between workers and employers do not always have simple answers.
• Good information is one of the most powerful tools a worker can have.

Union representation is not about winning every argument. Sometimes it is finding a solution. Sometimes it is protecting a member’s rights. Sometimes it is challenging an unfair decision. Sometimes it is negotiating. Sometimes it is taking a case through the grievance procedure and into arbitration. Every situation is different. That is why UnionRep.ca is not here to tell you what to think. It is here to help you understand the issue, ask better questions, and walk in more prepared than you were yesterday.

Written from the work

Everything here is written with twenty-five years in the movement behind it. That does not mean I have all the answers. No one does. It also does not mean that something you read here automatically applies to your workplace. Your collective agreement, your employment situation, your jurisdiction, and your facts can all change the analysis.

Treat UnionRep.ca as a starting point. A place to learn, to research, and to find the questions you may want to take to your steward, your union representative, or another qualified professional. It is a personal education site. It is not the website of Local 6500, and it is not legal advice. Union offices are elected. If that chair changes, the writing is still mine.

I write these articles. I use AI to help edit some of them — to tighten a sentence or lay out a piece. The experience, the judgment, and the responsibility are mine. If a line is wrong, it is on me, not on a tool.

After twenty-five years I have learned that the simplest question can open the most complicated problem. I have also learned that when workers have knowledge, preparation, and someone willing to stand with them, they are in a stronger position for whatever comes next. That is why I built UnionRep.ca. Welcome.