Welcoming Newly Appointed Stewards

The purpose of the Steward committee is to promote open channels of communication between employees and the union, and to help educate and inform the membership. Having active and effective Stewards at work-site locations increases member participation, makes for better informed employees, and positively affects member attitudes towards their union. More importantly Stewards help make SLOCEA more unified and stronger. 

We are so pleased to announce that at the October 18th SLOCEA Board of Directors meeting, two new Stewards were appointed to the Steward Committee.

Miranda Donaldson

A Cal Poly graduate of Biology, Miranda has worked for the County since April 2020.

Originally hired for the department of Child Support Services, Miranda was promoted from Administrative Assistant III to Legal Clerk and then to an Accounting Technician position.

In August 2022, Miranda transferred to the Assessors Office as an Appraiser Trainee and was recently promoted to Appraiser I.

Miranda was born and raised in SLO and demonstrates a strong commitment to making her community better and stronger.

Given Miranda’s extensive background with several different positions and departments, we are confident that Miranda will do a great job serving SLOCEA as a Stewards!

Esther Santiago

Esther has worked for the County since January 2018.

Esther began her County career as an Administrative Assistant III for Behavioral Health, where she worked for two years.

In December 2019 Esther was given a promotional opportunity and transferred to the Probation department as a Departmental Personnel Technician, commonly referred to as a DPT.

Esther’s military service and background performing Human Resources work with the National Guard was a perfect fit for her County DPT position.

Esther has already demonstrated her go-to attitude for SLOCEA in immediately securing a SLOCEA lunch site visit for her co-workers.

We look forward to more of the same from Esther in this new leadership role! 

We are Seeking Stewards!

Are you seeking a deeper understanding of your MOU and the negotiations process? Are you looking for a way to get involved? Do you want to learn more about your union? If so, we are looking for SLOCEA members that want to become engaged with the union by serving as Stewards.

Becoming a SLOCEA Steward is simple. The employee must be a SLOCEA member for at least one year. The Steward candidate contacts SLOCEA staff to discuss the program, criteria and obligations. Next, the member receives ten signatures of support from co-workers that are SLOCEA members, and the Steward candidate is then considered for appointment by the Board of Directors at the next monthly meeting.

After their appointment, the new Steward receives valuable training and has access to SLOCEA’s OneNote Steward Notebook, an extensive resource guide. Steward training consists of a comprehensive 2½ -hour session in which the new Steward is introduced to a full range of labor related topics such as collective bargaining, labor representation, employee rights, benefits of membership, pensions, unfair labor practices, Civil Service Commission hearings and arbitrations.

Stewards meet bi-monthly at noon over Zoom and discuss relevant topics such as labor relations, strategies in dealing with various work situations and meet and confer updates. Stewards are also afforded the opportunity to share and disseminate information from their work locations.   

While serving as a Steward is a great way to learn more about your rights as a public employee, it’s also a great steppingstone to work into other leadership roles such as serving on the negotiating teams, a committee or on the SLOCEA Board of Directors. 

If you have been a SLOCEA member for one year and you want to help build a UNITED, INFORMED and INVOLVED membership by serving as a SLOCEA Steward, please call our office at 805-543-2021 or email me at tschultz@slocea.org.

We are seeking Stewards throughout the entire County, especially in departments that do not currently have Steward representatives. We look forward to hearing from YOU!!

By Theresa Schultz, Senior Labor Representative