LCLAA 17TH NATIONAL MEMBERSHIP CONVENTION
ORLANDO, FL
AUGUST 4-8, 2008

RESOLUTION:

13.    Resolution:  A National Anti-Workplace Violence Strategy
For Locals Employed by Non-Profit Employers

WHEREAS; Workplace violence is primarily a safety and health issue; and

WHEREAS; Workers need to be trained on job hazards that increases the potential for violence; and

WHEREAS; The training should give the worker the ability to assess potential dangers in the office and in the field; and

WHEREAS; In April 2006, Homecare Local 389 lost a  New York City member, Syndia Jean-Pierre Brye, a homecare worker with three young children, to a shocking act of violence which left her and three others murdered in a home that should have been registered as a "difficult-to-serve-client"; and

WHEREAS; Backup support and education/training on these issues have not been increased for not just homecare workers, but direct care workers, foster care workers, workers in residences and those who give supportive care to individuals with special needs, developmental disabilities, children and the elderly; and

WHEREAS; These employment situations are ticking time bombs that will again explode and take additional lives with them; and

WHEREAS; Workers do not go to work to be placed in peril, but to earn a living and go back to their families after their shifts are completed; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED;
That LCLAA create and begin sharing information on workplace violence episodes across the nation and begin to deliberate action to engage state and local legislators on realistic legislation that begin to hold employers responsible, offenders punished with increased criminalization and penalties that protect workers and allow employees to report and document all incidents without
prejudice or retaliation; create a client/patient/consumer to staff ratio that is realistic and can be used to protect workers; create an action protocol that Councils and Locals can utilize to lobby state and local legislators; prepare grievances using OSHA and local safety laws; plans for engaging employers and training members by shop or local levels to create conditions to fight workplace violence in their shops and lastly in contract negotiations fight for management to provide legal assistance to workers who have been wrongly accused of violence and to press charges against assailants.

Respectfully submitted by:

New York City LCLAA Chapter
Albany/Capital District Chapter
Westchester County LCLAA Chapter                                                                                

REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE: WOMEN'S COMMITTEE
CONCURRENCE:________________________________________
NON-CONCURRENCE:___________________________________