Steward playbooks

Floor training for stewards and local officers. Start here before national school.

On this page

Ontario-focused playbooks and self-paced modules. They are learning aids, not legal advice: confirm every deadline and remedy in your own collective agreement.

All steward playbooks

Same depth as a training handout: gate, steps, worked example, and sources.

Training

Officer Learning
Seventeen modules with scenarios, floor checklists, printable sheets, and a quiz per module.
Includes self-test quiz
Steward 101: your role and rights
Orientation, three hats, representation script, DFR basics, and a worked discipline example.

Floor

The steward's guide to grievances
Forum gate, 6 W's notes, CA clocks, and a printable intake sheet.
Duty of Fair Representation
Steward playbook: LRA s.74, OLRB bulletins, and a worked intake file.
Right to refuse (Ontario)
OHSA s.43 stage 1 and 2 with ministry Part V guide.
Seniority & bumping
Two cascade examples and a printable seniority worksheet.
Joint committee playbook
Campus → caucus → table → member note after signed minutes.
Workplace mapping & organic leaders
Chart co-workers, find organic leaders, and score union support 1 to 5.

The local

How Canadian unions connect
Two tracks, not one ladder: union family and the city labour council, mapped from OPSEU / SEFPO Local 243.
Running a meeting and Robert's Rules
Scale formality to the room, run a standard agenda, and know what to say when you move or raise a point.
Local Bylaws: The Rules of Your Local
What must be in local bylaws and how to amend them with notice, quorum, and national approval.
Land Acknowledgement Guide
Research, draft, and pair words with action using the how-to walkthrough and PDF worksheet. Federation guides linked; no copy-paste generator.
Membership signup playbook
Recruit and orient new members with a repeatable signup path.

Campaign

The bargaining lifecycle: from survey to signing
Survey to signing for Local Bargaining Committees — table updates, strike votes, ratification, checklists, and the on-device Proposal Tracker.
Strike operations playbook
Command, the picket line, member care, money, safety, and return to work. Not a posting calendar.
Crisis comms playbook
Calm local messages during strikes, bargaining, layoffs, and management reactions.

Recommended training path

Start with Steward 101 for role basics, then Officer Learning for seventeen modules with self-tests. Open the other playbooks when a live file needs them.

Start Steward 101 Open Officer Learning modules

Practice workspaces

On-device worksheets for stewards and bargaining committees — score eligibility, log discipline meetings, draft RTW scripts, build bylaws, and track proposals before you walk into HR or the table.

Complaint vs grievance diagnostic
Five-point filter, 6 W's, FAR sheet, and alternate pathways when the score is zero.
Pre-disciplinary meeting log
Rights checklist, mitigator talking points, and early-resolution scripts.
Return-to-work & accommodation
Employer emails and meeting points for a gradual return or an accommodation, with no diagnosis on the form.
Bylaw Builder
Draft a standard local bylaws template from your executive, quorum, and fiscal-year choices — copy or download as text.
Proposal Tracker
Track articles, union proposals, and employer counters on this device. Export CSV for a USB backup after each session.
Rules of Order cheat sheet
Fourteen parliamentary actions with exact wording, chair notes, and a copy button — built for phones in the meeting room.

Open all workspaces (Officer Hub)

Where the self-tests live

Officer Learning modules include a quiz at the bottom of each lesson. Use Module quiz in the on-page nav, or scroll to the quiz after reading. A perfect score marks the module complete on this device.

Sources & references

External resources cited in this guide. National and government URLs often move; if a link 404s, search from that organization’s home page. OPSEU / SEFPO pages on opseu.org may block automated checks — open those links in a browser before you share them in a workshop.

Canadian Labour Congress — labour education catalogue
National CLC steward and leadership courses (Level 1/2 grievance handling). Cite for multi-union education; confirm live offerings with your labour council.
CUPE Steward Handbook
Public CUPE steward handbook — grievance basics, human rights, and accommodation. Useful comparative education for any local; confirm against your own CA and national.
Unifor — Grievance Handling & Workplace Leadership
Unifor three-day grievance and workplace leadership course outline. Members should register through their local/national education path.
OHRC — Human Rights at Work (2008)
Foundational OHRC workplace guide. Supplement with newer OHRC disability and ableism policies for current practice.
Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Ontario)
Ontario LRA s.74 sets the duty of fair representation (arbitrary, discriminatory, bad faith). College CAAT units may use the CCBA instead — confirm which act applies.
OLRB Information Bulletin 12 — What does DFR mean?
Plain-language OLRB explainer for members. Stewards use this to understand the test — not to coach filing against the union.
Ontario Federation of Labour
Provincial labour federation — solidarity and movement education; cite, do not mirror.
Canadian Labour Congress
National labour congress — solidarity links on local sites; cite, do not mirror.

All steward playbooks

Same depth as a training handout: gate, steps, worked example, and sources.

Training

Officer Learning
Seventeen modules with scenarios, floor checklists, printable sheets, and a quiz per module.
Includes self-test quiz
Steward 101: your role and rights
Orientation, three hats, representation script, DFR basics, and a worked discipline example.

Floor

The steward's guide to grievances
Forum gate, 6 W's notes, CA clocks, and a printable intake sheet.
Duty of Fair Representation
Steward playbook: LRA s.74, OLRB bulletins, and a worked intake file.
Right to refuse (Ontario)
OHSA s.43 stage 1 and 2 with ministry Part V guide.
Seniority & bumping
Two cascade examples and a printable seniority worksheet.
Joint committee playbook
Campus → caucus → table → member note after signed minutes.
Workplace mapping & organic leaders
Chart co-workers, find organic leaders, and score union support 1 to 5.

The local

How Canadian unions connect
Two tracks, not one ladder: union family and the city labour council, mapped from OPSEU / SEFPO Local 243.
Running a meeting and Robert's Rules
Scale formality to the room, run a standard agenda, and know what to say when you move or raise a point.
Local Bylaws: The Rules of Your Local
What must be in local bylaws and how to amend them with notice, quorum, and national approval.
Land Acknowledgement Guide
Research, draft, and pair words with action using the how-to walkthrough and PDF worksheet. Federation guides linked; no copy-paste generator.
Membership signup playbook
Recruit and orient new members with a repeatable signup path.

Campaign

The bargaining lifecycle: from survey to signing
Survey to signing for Local Bargaining Committees — table updates, strike votes, ratification, checklists, and the on-device Proposal Tracker.
Strike operations playbook
Command, the picket line, member care, money, safety, and return to work. Not a posting calendar.
Crisis comms playbook
Calm local messages during strikes, bargaining, layoffs, and management reactions.

Practice workspaces

On-device worksheets for stewards and bargaining committees — score eligibility, log discipline meetings, draft RTW scripts, build bylaws, and track proposals before you walk into HR or the table.

Complaint vs grievance diagnostic
Five-point filter, 6 W's, FAR sheet, and alternate pathways when the score is zero.
Pre-disciplinary meeting log
Rights checklist, mitigator talking points, and early-resolution scripts.
Return-to-work & accommodation
Employer emails and meeting points for a gradual return or an accommodation, with no diagnosis on the form.
Bylaw Builder
Draft a standard local bylaws template from your executive, quorum, and fiscal-year choices — copy or download as text.
Proposal Tracker
Track articles, union proposals, and employer counters on this device. Export CSV for a USB backup after each session.
Rules of Order cheat sheet
Fourteen parliamentary actions with exact wording, chair notes, and a copy button — built for phones in the meeting room.

Open all workspaces (Officer Hub)

Sources & references

Canadian Labour Congress — labour education catalogue

National CLC steward and leadership courses (Level 1/2 grievance handling). Cite for multi-union education; confirm live offerings with your labour council.

CUPE Steward Handbook

Public CUPE steward handbook — grievance basics, human rights, and accommodation. Useful comparative education for any local; confirm against your own CA and national.

Unifor — Grievance Handling & Workplace Leadership

Unifor three-day grievance and workplace leadership course outline. Members should register through their local/national education path.

OHRC — Human Rights at Work (2008)

Foundational OHRC workplace guide. Supplement with newer OHRC disability and ableism policies for current practice.

Labour Relations Act, 1995 (Ontario)

Ontario LRA s.74 sets the duty of fair representation (arbitrary, discriminatory, bad faith). College CAAT units may use the CCBA instead — confirm which act applies.

OLRB Information Bulletin 12 — What does DFR mean?

Plain-language OLRB explainer for members. Stewards use this to understand the test — not to coach filing against the union.

Ontario Federation of Labour

Provincial labour federation — solidarity and movement education; cite, do not mirror.

Canadian Labour Congress

National labour congress — solidarity links on local sites; cite, do not mirror.