Working with Your Union
If your company has a union, it should involve the union early on in the process of planning workplace violence programs.
Unions are the elected representatives of unionized employees and are legally entitled to negotiate many conditions of employment for those employees. Although some of the substantive issues relating to workplace violence, including issues concerning internal security, may be outside the duty to bargain, this does not mean that consultation and discussion with the union cannot occur.
Union involvement is particularly appropriate where there are labor-management partnership councils. It is a good practice to involve recognized unions up-front, before decisions are made, so they can have an opportunity both to express employees' concerns and to bring to bear their expertise and knowledge. Union involvement demonstrates both the company's and union's commitment to the success of a workplace violence program.
Various case studies have been included in this course to help a planning group determine if they are adequately staffed, trained, and able to respond to incidents.
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1-3. When planning workplace violence programs, what should be done about unions?
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