Shop stewards: Should libertarian workers become one?

Just to say we had this thread before, six years ago, but of course some people's views may have changed since then, and there may be new people here now:
http://libcom.org/forums/thought/should-communists-be-union-reps-26062006

i'm interested - just not really qualified to contribute usefully to the discussion.

In hindsight I would have liked to have become a shop steward* at my old public sector job, but i was very part time, had no idea how to approach organising, had not very decent politics, and was probably a bit too young/inexperienced/hadn't been in the job long enough to be effective or taken seriously...

*mainly because it would have given me a bunch of contacts of people across the different shops sympathetic to organising, and because, as is often the case in the British public sector, the union was entrenched (had very well protected legal rights) but very very inactive in most shops with very few organisers across them.

But it is probably worth mentioning that i have never actually had any contact with one in any of my workplaces, and have only read about / talked to others about what a shop steward actually does.

I think in this way I might be symptomatic of a lot of younger libertarian communists who come to lib com it through a rejection of big tent anarchism or disillusionment with activisty stuff rather than recruited through workplace militancy... so have ok politics (I would hope!) but no / little experience on the shopfloor.

Cheers, hope my post didn't read too autobiographical. I found the Solidarity Federation workplace training (derived from US IWW Organiser 101) really helpful in laying out the basics, and also talking to comrades within SF actively engaged in organising their workplaces has been helpful as well.

In a way, i think it would help for younger libcoms to optionally 'do some time'* in a reformist union to build up confidence and see how it all functions (not that they are prime targets for emulation!), and then take that skill elsewhere to libertarian organisations and modify the tactics as they wish.

I imagine that maybe the trot 'boring from inside out' tactic (while completely flawed) within the unions does tend to provide this kind of training for their younger members.

I guess that is partly a benefit i could see libertarian workers taking on roles as shop stewards.

That said, i've read some of the IWW stuff about organising drives in Jimmy Johns / Starbucks etc. which has been really useful. I could also see developing more organiser training programs as helpful, as the reformist unions offer them only at quite a high price.

Apologies if i've derailed this thread, feel free to get back on the subject. I might start a new thread if i find i have anything more to say.

* sounds a bit more central committee directed than i intended

Being a shop steward isn't easy in a business union. I served in that capacity at a rough time in the early 1980s. I was elected from the floor but I bridled when the union bosses made some unconscionable compromises and expected the stewards to whip the floor into shape. I couldn't do it.

The IWW is different since it's run by the rank and file but I don't work in an IWW shop.

I probably said what I want to say about how many shoppies are on another thread - but whether to be one... why not? Of course, if you're trying to build a grass roots organisation that is in direct conflict to the methods of traditional workplace unions you'll undoubtedly find yourself torn/slapped down.
On a practical note - it may be a useful way of building confidence and gaining knowledge until you're a workplace delegate (a la anarcho-syndicalism) as opposed to an entrenched tier of soft management (traditional social democratic union).

If the option is there it should always be taken.

I can envisage some situations (usually the most desperate) where a pro-revolutionary individual might temporarily take up a stewards position to get access to certain facilties but best thing even then is to get out of this 'facing two ways' situation at the earliest opportunity so the qualified answer is in general - don't do it.

There have been longer and perhaps more useful discussions on this in several other threads on the role of unions and union reps so leave it at that for now.

Double post due to long delays in saving posts it seems.

really like this bit in bold.

On another note, taking up a position as a shop steward, but placing your loyalties to the shop floor / acting like a delegate, is surely an opportunity to bring workers into direct conflict with their union, and encourage the (emergence of / breakaways to) other forms of rank and file controlled organisations (whether formal or relatively informal) that bypass the social democratic unions and force management to negotiate with recallable delegates rather than, as plasma put it, union management structures.