AFSCME members help announce OSHA violence prevention guidelines

AFSCME Local 420 member Merida Rodriguez and AFSCME Local 112 Pres. Donna Edwards told their stories at a March 14 Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) press conference in Washington, D.C., announcing the release of "Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care and Social Service Workers." U.S. Sec. of Labor Robert Reich presented the guidelines, which call for better vigilance over the dangers of workplace violence and for programs to prevent such violence. Rodriguez spent eight years as a mental health aide at Jacobi Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y., while Edwards is a state social worker in Baltimore, Md., and serves as Council 92 president. AFSCME has been a leader in the Labor Coalition Against Workplace Violence which lobbied OSHA for two years to present these guidelines.

For further information on workplace violence and the role you and your union can play in preventing it, please contact Jordan Barab at AFSCME's Dept. of Research and Collective Bargaining Services, 1625 L St. NW, Washington DC 20036-5687.