Nancy Fitzgivens has been called a community hero and a champion of children. As a child services caseworker in Columbus, Ohio, she worked tirelessly to protect children from abusive and neglectful parents. She also tried to help parents regain control over their lives--especially their tempers and their addictions. There are thousands of FPE/AFT members nationwide like Fitzgivens who work in high-risk professions for social service agencies, mental health institutions, prisons and juvenile facilities. One difference between them and Fitzgivens, however, is that they have not been killed in the line of duty.

Fitzgivens, a member of the FPE/AFT-affiliated Professionals Guild of Ohio, was beaten, choked and stabbed to death Oct. 16 during a routine home visit with two parents whose seven children had been taken into protective custody after allegations of child neglect and parental drug abuse.

While Fitzgivens' death has prompted policy changes within child services, the Guild is doing its part to ensure that safety protocols become systemic--a priority expressed by the nearly 200 Guild members who attended an Oct. 29 union meeting.

"One of the concerns folks have is that, for a month or so, management will be on its toes, sending people out with an extra person or with a police officer," says Mike Dittmar, the Guild's field representative who works with child services employees in Columbus. "We've been telling folks all along that, if you feel uncomfortable, you have the right to go up to your supervisor and say you want to be accompanied by a police officer or another employee. If management is not responsive, call the union office."

Dittmar acknowledges, however, that "folks don't like to stand up to their supervisors," because they are afraid to tell their supervisors they are afraid.

The politics of health and safety

Fitzgivens' death, as well as the other homicides and assaults that have been recorded among the ranks of public employees, is a glaring indictment of public policy, according to many observers.

Jonathan Rosen, head of the FPE/AFT-affiliated New York State Public Employees Federation's (PEF) Occupational Safety and Health department, says issues of "crime and protection of a community are politically popular," whereas issues of worker safety and regulation are unpopular and fail to attract political support. As a result, Rosen says, policymakers do not allocate enough resources, including funding to provide for adequate staffing, nor is legislation passed to ensure the safety and health of public employees.

Like Dittmar, Rosen has found that public employees "typically are afraid to speak out about health and safety issues because they are told it is part of the job. Our position is that it is not part of the job, nor should it be part of any job. There should be systems in place for dealing with threats. If you don't have that in place, there will be tragedies. What we have found is that agencies are more likely to move into action after a tragedy, and that is so unfortunate."

Following the brutal assault of PEF member and psychiatric nurse Jill Dangler in November 1996 at Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center in Utica, N.Y., the hospital acquired pager-sized safety devices at the urging of PEF. When activated, the device sends a message, including the location of the employee and his or her picture, to the hospital's safety department. All movement of the employee is tracked once the device is activated.

Dangler's assault also prompted the hospital's Employee Assistance Program to form an employee response team to talk with staff after a traumatic event. "When I was assaulted, it was just as devastating for the people I worked with and the patients who witnessed it," says Dangler.

Dangler's ordeal

Since Dangler's brutal attack, she has become an advocate for state and federal health and safety standards and has conducted safety workshops with Rosen for the union. Last winter, she was scheduled to testify at a U.S. Senate briefing on workplace violence.

Unfortunately, a major snowstorm prevented her from appearing. But had she been there, Dangler would have relayed the chilling experience of being assaulted by a patient convicted of murder. She would have recounted the numerous facial fractures and muscle injuries that she sustained, causing temporary blindness in one eye. She would have recalled the horrifying way she was treated by the duty officer, who initially refused to take a report because, "you knew that it was risky when you took the job."

"After I was injured, it was hard to go back [to work],"says Dangler. "I had been assaulted in the past, but never that badly."

"Nobody wanted to talk about it or deal with it," says Dangler. "[But] the union helped me the whole time. If I didn't have them to reach out and help me, I probably would not be doing as well as I am doing now."

Preventing violence

The FPE/AFT is addressing worker health and safety issues at the national level in Washington, D.C., where the union is working to secure federal regulation of workplace violence.

Darryl Alexander, AFT's health and safety director, says there are steps local unions can take to assess the extent of safety threats, including surveying the membership about on-the-job assaults and collecting incident reports and Workers' Compensation claims. Alexander contends that workplace violence is epidemic nationally--so much so that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) should develop a standard on workplace violence.

"OSHA made a positive move five years ago by issuing guidelines on preventing violence in healthcare and social services, but guidelines alone will not stem the tide," Alexander says. "Employers should be compelled in an OSHA standard to work with their employees to develop comprehensive workplace violence prevention programs that address security, staffing and training."

PEF, which counts among its 55,000-membership 7,770 nurses and related nursing titles, 4,218 social workers and social service employees and 1,974 parole officers and law enforcement personnel, also is working diligently to change the culture and the attitudes that exist in government agencies where threats of violence undermine the very mission of public service.

Specifically, PEF has forged labor-management partnerships to address health and safety issues through policies, procedures and staff training. At the Office of Mental Health, which operates 28 psychiatric hospitals throughout the state, PEF has worked with the agency to develop training on preventing and managing crisis situations.

If management does not cooperate with the union's efforts, Rosen says, PEF files complaints with enforcement agencies. The union also works with researches to document problems, a necessary step to gaining public support.

"A lot of these problems are hidden," says Rosen. "If you work with researchers, it is better because the information becomes part of the scientific record."

By mobilizing its members and by "generally raising hell about these problems," PEF has bolstered its efforts to improve workplace health and safety policies.

In memoriam: Nancy Fitzgivens

According to the National Bureau of Justice's Workplace Violence Survey, 37 percent of all workplace assault victims are public employees, many of them working with violent patients, clients and inmates.

As caseworkers in Columbus learned by the death of Nancy Fitzgivens, overt signs of violence may not always be apparent, but the threat always exists. Fitzgivens was killed during a routine home visit to Gregory Pack and Rose Newkirk. Pack confessed to the killing saying that he and Newkirk were in danger of losing permanent custody of their seven children.

"There was no indication of violence," says Clovis Dawson, Fitzgivens' husband, noting that she had met with the couple on numerous occasions. In addition to Dawson, Fitzgivens is survived by two college-aged daughters and a son. Dawson says that one of the factors that helped Fitzgivens be successful at her job was the birth of her autistic son. "She was determined to raise him in a healthy way, and that meant no abuse," Dawson says. "That meant firmness. That meant kindness and an awareness of his needs."

Fitzgivens became a caseworker in 1999 after earning her social work degree, a goal she achieved over 10 years of working full time and going to school part time.

"She cared about the kids as though they were her own--and the parents, too," he says. "Nancy had a view of not just the immediate problems, but [looked] generations ahead to try to break the [cycle of] the sexual abuse or alcohol problems or neglect."

"It is not a safe line of work," says the Guild's Dittmar of social service casework. "You are dealing with people who don't want you there in the first place."