Convention delegates unanimously approved a resolution submitted by Louisville 619M Pres. Richard M. Street that requires the International to create a task force to focus on the problem of workplace violence.

The GCIU task force is charged with developing "a program that focuses on awareness, intervention, response, and post-stabilization in incidents of violence in the workplace."

The resolution also pledged the International to develop contract language to define "violence in the workplace," provide for implementation of the program created by the task force or a joint program created by an employer and local union, and give the union final approval over any program that is negotiated.

Photo by Herald Grandstaff

Richard Street of Louisville 619M speaks for the resolution.

Street described for convention delegates the 1989 incident at the Standard Gravure printing company in Louisville in which a distraught employee killed seven co-workers and wounded 13 others.

With Sept. 14 the anniversary of the incident, GCIU Pres. George Tedeschi asked delegates to rise for a moment of silence for those killed and wounded at Standard Gravure.

Joyce Hurley, Twin Cities 1B president and General Board member, said members of her local have been the victims of homicide and of suicide. She urged other locals to establish member assistance plans within their health and welfare funds. She said her local's program has prevented at least six suicides.

The resolution noted that, according to the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, there were an average of 20 workers killed on the job each week in 1997, with homicide being the leading cause of death for women in the workplace. An estimated million workers – or 18,000 per week – are victims of non-fatal workplace assaults.