Max Parrott at LaborPress wrote this on Retail Workers in New York State who are opening up about violence on the job in their push for a Statewide Safety Protections Bill:

On the afternoon of May 14th, 2022, Jerome Bridges heard what he thought were firecrackers or a car backfiring outside the Tops Supermarket where he works on Buffalo’s East Side.

An instant later the noises moved inside the store and it became clear that they were coming from bullets shredding metal and shattering glass in his place of work.

Bridges survived what the rest of the country would come to hear about as a racist mass shooting that killed 10 people in the Upstate Supermarket.

Last week, he shared the trauma of that day among a group of other Retail Workers who are pushing for a State Law to provide increased protections against retail violence in the workplace.

“We weren’t prepared for that that day.  We did not have the system we have now in the store that day,” Bridges said.

Bridges’ story is one particularly harrowing example of several experiences that Members of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) shared about forms of violence they experience on the job - many of them more routine than Bridges’ experience.

The group, which assembled during Workplace Violence Awareness Week, called on the State Legislature to pass the Retail Worker Safety Act, a Bill that would require employers evaluate risk in their workplace, develop a violence prevention plan, provide ongoing safety training, document incidents and require the installation of panic buttons in workplaces of 50 or more people.

In a survey of RWDSU’s Members on workplace violence, 88% of them said they would feel safer if a silent panic button was installed.

The Union is pushing for the Bill, sponsored by State Senator Jessica Ramos and Assembly Member Karines Reyes, to be passed this session.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: Retail Workers Open Up About Violence on the Job in Push for Safety Protections Bill – LaborPress