Nearly a month ago Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) introduced H.R. 1309, "Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act" with the goal of passing a Bill to help lower the incredible rate at which health care and social service workers fall victim to workplace violence. The Bill would make the recommendations OSHA has already released to lower the chance of violence toward workers. 

     Many of our fellow USW Members work in hospitals, nursing homes, emergency response, and similar workplaces. For them this Bill and the regulations it will enforce can be the difference in how they go home after serving their community. These workers suffer at a rate nearly 12 times that of other sectors, leaving over 600,000 peoples lives changed. Often these incidents are not even the result of the work themselves. Often these incidents could have been completely avoided with implementation of some simple easy to use techniques in de-escalation. These compassionate people care for patients at time of great crisis and with this come a great deal of danger.  

     It is important to note that this is not the first time a Bill like this has been introduced. This time last year a bill was introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) presented a bill by the same name, with the same goals in mind. It was never brought top a vote due to a lack of support from fellow members. We hope that this time we will get support for this much needed bill to protect our friends and family working in these industries.  The bill has 54 co-sponsors at the time of publish, including Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL).