Four members chosen to be E.A.P. referral resources

By Joe Chambers

After days of interviews and basic training, four members were selected by the Executive Board and both Bargaining Committees to work as E.A.P. Referral Resource Reps for Local 7-232 members. As E.A.P. Reps, they will help members locate and connect with the various agencies, health care providers, and other resources to help them with problems related to family issues, drugs, alcohol, depression, and other issues.

The people selected are Evelyn Dawson, Mike Ehlman, Jackie Goodwin, and Donna Shutic.

Evelyn Dawson works in M7. Mike Ehlman is currently in Rehab, but comes from Department 552. Jackie Goodwin works on the Blue Line in L5 and Donna Shutic works in Department 551. All are currently on first shift.

Twelve members originally volunteered for these positions. Ten members were considered in the final selection for these positions. Some of those not selected were also excellent candidates for these positions.

These people bring varied experiences to this job. Some have been or currently are active stewards for our Local Union, some have experience working with agencies and programs in the community or with their church, and some have had personal experience, either learning while helping family members or friends deal with problems or having faced problems themselves and successfully dealing with them.

They also have taken some training, both special sessions arranged by United Way for Local 7-232 and courses available to the community from United Way.

Contact your Grievance Rep to contact these people. We will have contact numbers and more information in the next paper and will also post this information on the Local 7-232 web site (www.pace7232.org) as soon as the details are worked out.

United Way & UAW help train EAP Reps for Local 7-232

The first session was arranged by Nevada Davis from United Way and was held at the Local 7-232 office. At this session, four agencies and providers met with candidates for this position to explain services available to help members with various problems and explained how to help members use the system.

The second session was an all day course put on at the United Way headquarters for Local 7-232. This session was taught by Joe Kraus, and Marv Wopat who are EAP Reps for the UAW. Kraus is a member of Local 438 at Delphi in Oak Creek. Wopat is a member of the UAW Local for the General Motors Plant in Janesville.

This class provided a great foundation for the new EAP Reps. This class focused on teaching how to ain and keep the confidence of the members and how to competently conduct an interview to help the member identify the source of the problem and locate the needed assistance. Wopat and Kraus did an excellent job that taught our Local Union’s resources and leaders a great deal about the Employee Assistance Program process.

Dolores Higgins continues to help after retirement

Dolores Higgins had been the primary resource for members at Briggs & Stratton for many years. She retired at the end of 1998. In spite of being retired, she has been continuing to help members on a completely voluntary basis since she retired.

Her over 30 years of experience as both an E.A.P. resource and her vast experience as a grievance rep and officer of our Union will be hard to replace. Dolores has agreed to help these new E.A.P. Reps get started. She has also helped the Union’s leadership throughout the training and selection process.

Strattec choice declined position

At Strattec, we did have two E.A.P. Reps at one time, but one moved on to other things and the other took a management position. Two members from Strattec applied to become EAP Reps. One had been selected to be the EAP rep for members at Strattec. However, after being selected, the member decided that she was not able to take the job because of other commitments she had.

The Union’s leadership has not yet met to decide what will be done to provide a Union EAP Rep at Strattec. Members at Strattec do have the services of Symmetry available to help them with EAP issues.