Write@Home
Winter 2015

Employment

Close up of shop Steward working

I took a two day training course through my work recently. I am now a Shop Steward in the hospital. I support my co-workers. If anything happens with a co-worker and they don’t feel confident enough to talk to a manager, then they can ask me to go to a manager with them. I have always been in the union at the hospital, but now I am more than just a member. I learned about hospital policy at my training. I received a book about workers’ rights. The manager has to follow the rules in the book.

For example, if I hear that a worker thinks they might lose their job, or the job might be changed or made impossible for them to do, I will communicate this to the manager. The managers do have rights. They will tell me what their side of the story is. I will then write a report. After that, I give the report to my service rep. The service rep will handle it after that or give me advice.

The main thing I like about this new position is that I get paid for my extra hours of investigations for co-workers and I help them.