Busy Union Steward
Brenda Van Asch, Union Steward
Brenda Van Asch has
been a North Memorial employee for 17 years in Cash Application departments of
both the Business Office and Medical Transportation ambulance service, but has
only been a Union Steward for North Memorial’s Business Office for a year and a
half, and it has been a very busy year and a half.
Brenda Van Asch
Shop Steward Brenda has been a Steward
who is there for her fellow Union employees and is a good listener and
arbitrator with management, even when they do not agree on the issues.
She has worked closely with
management to resolve or clarify employees’ Performance Improvement issues,
clarify Policy and Job Expectations, and employee’s job duty changes with the
new EPIC computer billing system. She also made sure either the employees were
updated throughout the Union negotiations, by emails or the Union flyers placed
in their personal mailboxes.
Brenda works with her
Manager, to notify an employee that if there is a Performance Improvement
issue, that they may want Union representation in the meeting as well. She has
unfortunately, had to sit in on two dismissals, but was there to support the
employees to understand the reasons for their dismissals. The employees
appreciated her input with management, and attempt to change management’s
decision in the dismissal. Several other Performance Improvement issues, have
either been dropped or reduced, due to either miscommunication between
Supervisors and employees on job duties, or not enough documentation on
management’s part to prove their stand.
Policy and Job Expectations were changed and updated by the Manager and
Supervisors in the business office, and employees were quite concerned on
several points in them.
One of them being, that if
an employee notices errors of another employee, they should report them to
their Supervisor. Brenda, however, found this unacceptable in reporting another
Union Employee, and is continuing to work with Management to remove this from
the Policy.
North Memorial has been
going through a major computer change to the EPIC Billing System throughout the
hospital. Training was scheduled with the employees, and Brenda helped to get
the employees to be able to work overtime if needed on their desk, or be
compensated for the extra time spent in training. With the EPIC system coming,
there was a change in employee job duties. Brenda wanted to be sure that the
employees were given the opportunity to pick or bid on the new job duties by
seniority, rather than the Manager picking and choosing who would be a good fit
for each job. A formal job-bidding meeting was held with the affected
employees, Management, and our Union Representative, Jigme Ugen, and the
employees were satisfied with the results and the fact that it was done fairly
by seniority.
Brenda has been a Steward
who is there for her fellow Union employees and is a good listener and
arbitrator with management, even when they do not agree on the issues.
Brenda says she finds it
both challenging and rewarding to be a Union Steward.
- A
Co-Worker