What are “Weingarten Rights”?
“Weingarten Rights” are Union Member protection rights that were handed down by the United States Supreme Court.
If called into a meeting with management and the meeting could in any way lead to your being disciplined or terminated, or affect your personal working conditions, inform management that you request that your Union Representative or Steward be present at the meeting. Until your representative arrives, explain that you choose not to participate in their discussion.
Under our contract, the administration is required to inform you that you are entitled to union representation if they call you to a meeting regarding discipline. However, if you feel that a meeting is leading in that direction, you should immediately ask for a union representative and refuse to answer any more questions until you have a representative with you. DO NOT leave the meeting. Simply respectfully decline to answer questions under your Weingarten rights.
This DOES NOT apply to meetings about evaluation. Although they may seem to be related, as long as the discussion about your evaluation does not involve discipline, you ARE NOT entitled to union representation (although you could still ask, if you wanted).