Working Together: Our Work Environment and How We Change It

Our work environment keeps changing. But there is one constant: whether you’re a flight attendant in Chicago, a corrections officer in West Virginia, a premise technician in Ohio or a university researcher in California, our work environment is important.

This issue of the CWA News looks at what’s happening now in our work environment. That means new responses to heat stress and electrocution hazards that face telecom techs, new ways to prevent violence in the workplace and real penalties for employers that break the law and put workers’ lives in danger.

CWA is pushing back against management that wants to cut corners on safety to boost productivity and their bottom lines. And we’re fighting to make certain that all of our members have safe and healthy workplaces, so that everyone makes it home after a day on the job.

There’s a real connection between the work we do on Capitol Hill, in state legislatures and in our communities and what happens in our working lives on the job. Too often, what happens in Congress makes it harder to make sure we work in a safe environment and live in safe communities. That’s because the Senate rules are broken, making it virtually impossible to move forward on progressive legislation.

Case in Point: the current fight in the U.S. Senate over reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. Since 1994, when this law was first adopted, there has been bipartisan cooperation and a real understanding of just how important this program is to millions of people who face abuse. Sometimes that abuse happens at home, sometimes it finds its way to our work environment.

Nearly 20 percent of all violent crime occurs in the workplace, and 24 percent of workplace violence is related to personal relationships. So it’s a workplace issue.

Now, a single senator is using his influence to hold up progress on this bill.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, doesn’t like the improvements to the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization proposed by Senators Patrick Leahy (I-Vt.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Specifically, Senator Grassley doesn’t want the program to cover domestic violence victims who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; he doesn’t like the additional protections provided for undocumented immigrants who are victims of domestic abuse; and he objects to giving Native American tribes more authority to prosecute domestic violence crimes.

Senator Leahy in response to the objections stated: “You cannot say that we will seek to stop domestic violence, but only for certain people. It just boggles the mind.”

Grassley’s substitute bill not only eliminated improvements in the program but proposed big cuts in funding and the elimination of the Justice Department office that administers the law and coordinates efforts on domestic violence and sexual assault.

That substitute was defeated in committee, but because our broken Senate rules require 60 votes before a measure can even get to the Senate floor for debate, this program that is so necessary to the lives of millions of Americans may be permanently blocked.

One senator’s agenda can stop the work of the U.S. Senate, even on a life-and-death issue like this.

That’s why CWA has made fixing the broken Senate rules a key element in building our democracy. Working with partners, building a movement is the only way we can move a progressive agenda forward in Washington, and beyond.