October 18th, 2012
NAGE Efforts on Anti-Bullying in the Workplace Recognized at National Press Club Event
From the blog of the National Association of Government Employees, Oct. 15, 2012 …
NAGE—and particularly the work of National Vice President Greg Sorozan and National Executive Board member Jane Bethel—were recognized today at a Freedom from Workplace Bullies event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The event commemorates the 5th annual weeklong (Oct. 14-20) focus on anti-bullying efforts spearheaded by the Workplace Bullying Institute.
NAGE National President David J. Holway, who introduced Sorozan at the event, recognized the patience, persistence, and commitment Sorozan and Bethel have shown over many years to educate employees and employers about the grave effects of bullying in the workplace.
“Greg and Jane have worked tirelessly on ending workplace bullying and we are so proud to have them represent our union today,” Holway said. “Greg has been relentless in his pursuit of getting legislation passed that would make it much, much harder for employers to ignore bullying. Jane has done the same in Virginia, advocating for, listening to, and doing everything she can to help the targets of bullying.
“Legislation to stop the bullying would actually help businesses’ bottom line,” Holway said. “Bullying hurts productivity, it hurts families because the bullying target takes that anxiety home, it increases health care costs resulting from stress-related illnesses, and it increases absenteeism. Businesses should see the anti-bullying campaign as both a moral issue and a financial one.”
As the Massachusetts State Coordinator for the Healthy Workplace Bill, Sorozan has spent countless hours doing research, meeting with legislators, and testifying in favor of the Healthy Workplace Bill.
“I’ve been involved in the anti-bullying campaign for over seven years. I would love for Massachusetts be the first state to pass the Healthy Workplace Bill, and I believe there’s a strong possibility of that happening,” Sorozan said. “Using Facebook, a website, lobbying, and outreach of all kinds, we’ve grown our number of Healthy Workplace Bill advocates from about 20 to more than 3,000 in less than three years. It really speaks to the number of people in the general population who have been badly mistreated at work. It’s time to end the abuse.”
National Executive Board member and Local 200 President Jane Bethel is the Virginia State Coordinator and has made the news for her efforts to force the City of Norfolk to live up to its promise to take a tougher anti-bullying stance to protect city workers. She also spoke at the National Press Club event.
SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry, and Hilary Shelton, the director of the Washington bureau of the NAACP also spoke at the commemoration, as did several individuals who had been bullying targets. The first-person accounts were very moving and provided powerful reminders of the damage organizations and businesses can do when they turn a blind eye to bullying.
<-- Read the complete WBI Blog
Tags: David Holway, Greg Sorozan, Jane Bethel, NAGE
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2012 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Freedom Week, Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), Unions, Workplace Bullying Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Loading ...
Follow us on...