For N.J. Child Protective Services Workers, Violence Comes with the Job

CWA state child protective services workers mobilize for job protections and critical child services.

Child care workers face many of the same risks of violence as law enforcement officers. They work in high-crime neighborhoods at all hours of the day, and they don't always know what to expect when entering a home.

This work environment is a fact of life for New Jersey's 5,600 child protective services workers. CWA's New Jersey locals have had to fight for every single protection workers now have to make their lives a little safer.

"It's been a battle every step of the way," said CWA Local 1037 member Catherine Danatos, a child protective services worker for 38 years. "It is only through our union that we've been able to get the protections we have today." Local 1037 represents 3,000 child protective services workers; Locals 1038 and 1039 represent another 2,600.

When Danatos began her career in the 1970s, social workers in the field had almost no way of calling for help. There weren't cell phones then. It wasn't until the late 1980s that attacking a social worker was made a state criminal offense.

Taking a stand to keep programs that protect NJ children.

"Because children are involved, our clients can get really emotional. And when drugs are part of the home situation, people often get volatile. Workers have been kidnapped, raped and attacked," she said.

Most of the security protections workers have gained were won through mobilization and building public support for workers' safety. Workers have had to fight for every workplace protection, organizing petition drives, picketing during lunchtimes, and holding meetings with Department of Human Resources/Department of Children and Families officials. "Our strong steward network has enabled us to compile the documentation that we have needed over the years to show that what we were asking was necessary for us to do our jobs safely," Danatos said.

It was just a few years ago that the state finally agreed to provide cell phones for workers. And until recently, child protective services workers did not have the right to an escort if they believed that there was a real potential for danger. "Sometimes, you really do take your life in your hands," said Danatos.

"We now have a 'buddy system,' and the right to have armed Human Service police with us in dangerous situations," she said. Social workers also have been attacked in their offices, so CWA locals pushed for security guards in every office.

But making further gains in safeguarding workers on the job will be difficult, said Local 1037 President Ken McNamara. "Under Governor Christie, we've gotten nothing but the scorn that he has shown for state workers. It's a real shame."