Steward Program

Are you interested in learning more about your rights as a public employee? Do you want to become more involved with your Association? Do you want the opportunity to help yourself and your co-workers in labor relations matters in the workplace? Then you should become a SLOCEA Shop Steward!

The current MOU's for Public Services, Clerical, Supervisory and Trades & Crafts with the County allow SLOCEA to have forty-four (44) representatives assigned to various departments that act as Shop Stewards. In addition to receiving County release time for providing representation in labor relations situations, SLOCEA Stewards are now also entitled to an aggregate of 40 hours per year of paid release time for training and meetings. The main purpose of a SLOCEA Steward is to maintain open channels of communication between employees and SLOCEA staff.

Click here to view your current SLOCEA Stewards.

Stewards perform important functions, such as:

• Distribute SLOCEA information to keep employees up-to-date on the Association, including SLOCEA Board of Directors actions; County Board of Supervisors decisions; Civil Service Commission findings; and progress SLOCEA has made at upholding sections of the MOU through grievances and appeals
• Orient employees on the advantages of SLOCEA membership
• Design and update SLOCEA bulletin boards at the workplace
• Attend training sessions on topics relating to labor relations, including handling grievances/appeals, documenting problems, counseling/advising employees on options and using the MOU and Civil Service Commission rules to address and solve issues
• Provide information and knowledgeable advice to co-workers pertaining to labor relations

Getting Involved
By becoming a SLOCEA Steward, you have the opportunity to meet monthly with SLOCEA staff and other Stewards to discuss current events relating to County employment, share information about issues occurring at your workplace and learn strategies to deal with situations at work. By meeting monthly with all the Stewards and SLOCEA staff, you can keep yourself and your co-workers updated on County news and also keep SLOCEA apprised of issues at your work location. SLOCEA can only act to assist your workplace with problems if we know about the issues—becoming a Steward is a great way to relay issues to SLOCEA staff.

Labor Relations Strategies
During the Steward training sessions, you will learn the proper procedures for dealing numerous work-related issues, such as performance evaluations, disciplinary actions, grievances, counseling/mediation sessions and dispute resolutions. These topics will not only help you if you are faced with a tough situation, but you will also learn how to advise other employees if they come to you for assistance. You will learn when employees are entitled to representation by a Field Representative or a Steward and you will learn various options available to employees in different situations.

No Obligations
If you become a SLOCEA Steward, there are no obligations. Just because you’re a Steward working in a certain group, that does not mean you will have to represent the people in that group—or for that matter any people in any group. SLOCEA has a full-time staff that provides individual representation for our members. As a Steward, if you want to provide representation for a co-worker in a lower-level hearing or meeting, you can, but we require that the issue be processed through SLOCEA staff first. If you would prefer to leave the representation up to the SLOCEA staff, you can also do that. At SLOCEA, we need Stewards to be the “eyes and ears” out in the workplace. We need to find out what’s happening from the employee perspective and also need employees to help us disseminate information at the various County work locations. If SLOCEA Stewards chose to do employee representation work as well, staff will to provide advice, assistance and support so that Stewards succeed in those endeavors.

This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about how our County Government works and you can be directly involved in fostering improved working conditions as an advocate for your fellow employees. If you are interested, call Theresa Schultz and she will arrange a personal training session at your convenience. You can reach her at 543-2021 or tschultz@slocea.org. Thanks in advance for your participation!