One of the biggest advantages of MEA membership is the service provided directly to members by MEA’s local UniServ directors. APA UniServ Directors are Melissa Sortman and Tanya Pratt.
These highly trained professional labor relations consultants help APA members access a wide variety of services available only to members.
“MEA’s UniServ program is the core of our association, and provides members with easy and convenient access to a wide range of essential services,†said MEA Executive Director Gretchen Dziadosz, who served members for many years as a UniServ director in the Grand Rapids area. “MEA membership provides school employees with numerous advantages for their careers, for their rights, for their wallets and for public education, and UniServ directors are trained to deliver those advantages directly to members.â€
Here’s just a sample of what UniServ directors help members with:
- Contract bargaining and interpretation
- Grievance processing
- Job security protection
- Problem-solving advice for work issues
- Retirement concerns
- Development of training programs to meet specific local needs
- Employee counseling for work-related problems
- Presentation of arbitration cases
- Unemployment compensation representation
- Bargaining crisis preparation
- Development of local public relations programs
- Assistance in governance matters
- Processing civil rights violations
- Assisting members with accessing member-only benefits
To contact your UniServ staff call (517) 353-4898 or e-mail [email protected].