Ask a worker why they joined their union and seniority rights will likely be at the top of their list. That was certainly true for Mindy McFetridge of Venango County, who works a PennDOT road crew. Seniority meant being able to care for her daughter, who has a serious medical condition: getting to choose where she worked, what she did, and—she thought—whether she stayed on the job during work stoppages.
McFetridge has been a member of Harrisburg-based AFSCME Council 13 for more than a decade. She says seniority “trumps everything” and that “every day of seniority matters.”
Her union just argued the opposite in court…