State Toolkit

To use any template in this toolkit, request access to the document, make a copy to your Google Drive, and edit.

State Bill Director Job Description
The state bill director is responsible for building up and steering the direction of the state team with the ultimate goal of passing the Workplace Psychological Safety Act. We’ll help and support you every step of the way.

Core responsibilities for state bill directors:

• Direct the bill strategy, including identifying a state legislator(s) to introduce the bill (lead sponsor(s)).
• Keep in touch with lead sponsors’ staffers for strategy and understanding of the legislative process.
• Grow a base of volunteers/supporters through marketing tactics.
• Partner with like-minded organizations.
• Organize actions around the strategy.

We highly suggest a tag-team approach with two co-directors when possible.

There will be regular meetings with state bill directors to help us support each other, share ideas, and learn tools.

Optional responsibilities for state bill directors:

• Organize through email with those who are proactive about helping and responsive. It’s a numbers game in finding committed volunteers. Don’t get discouraged when volunteers come and go. Former targets/victims are at different places of recovery. 
• Identify where volunteers fit best and assign simple tasks such as reaching out to their state legislators. (We have template forms but encourage them to doctor it up with their own story. It gives them their voice back and empowers them to fight forward.) We recommend starting with tasks (then projects then roles) so volunteers can get their feet wet first and build camaraderie.
• Run monthly Zoom meetings for volunteers/supporters when you have enough committed and active volunteers.
• Recruit new volunteers and maintain volunteer contact information via Action Network and other means.

Email info@endworkplaceabuse.com if you are unable to fulfill at least half of this role. It may not be a good fit for you.

Introductory video
Guide to introducing the bill
Why a state approach vs. federal? (starting at 7:49)
Expense policy

The WHY behind the bill
Bill language
State Labor offices

The basic goal is to:

1. Get a lead sponsor/bill number. 
   
2. Build our base (aka get advocates to sign up through Action Network, especially the petition) so we can get as many people as possible to reach out to their state legislators in support of the bill at key points in the process. See How-tos section.

Here’s the process to get started:

1. Access your state data. Email info@endworkplaceabuse.com to get added to Action Network, our database where you can email people in your state.
2. Look for a lead sponsor(s). Figure out which state legislators you can approach to introduce the Workplace Psychological Safety Act (either one state senator OR one state senator or one state rep/assemblyperson). Try these state legislators first:
   Those who’ve either introduced (and even passed) civil rights or workers’ rights legislation before
   Those who head up a labor or workforce committee (if there is one)
   Progressive Democrats/those who are from a major city and are likely to be liberal and for workers’ rights/women, Black state legislators, Hispanic state legislators, and LGBTQ state legislators who are most likely to have been abused at work and champion the issue
   Those who are recommended by a union
   State senators (because they have more power)

   Visit your state legislature website and see who the lead sponsors were on bills you search by any of these terms: labor, worker, employee, civil rights, discrimination, wage. Look at the summaries of the bills and see who’s already interested in related issues.
   Workers’ rights bills passed in states (as ideas for state legislators to approach)

3. Approach state legislators in your order of preference. You could start with a letter, then email, then call — or whatever works for you. Followup multiple times.
4. Secure at least one lead sponsor (state senator OR state senator and state rep/assemblyperson). This process may take weeks or months.
5. Once you have a lead sponsor, reach out to lead sponsors’ staffers to learn the legislative process, recommended strategy, key committees, and key people to reach out to in your state.
6. Continue to build your base until you have a bill number:

• Look at proposed and passed workers’ rights bills in your state to figure out who has the power to either pass a workers’ rights bill or who has the interest to recommend who to approach. A progressive organization in your state may already have this info, and if you also find out who backs these bills, you can develop partnerships with those organizations for lobby days and letter campaigns.
• Compile a list of potential supporters and reach out to them. Find allies in industries where bullying is happening: health care, education, nonprofits, government employees, essential workers (grocery stores, etc.). Connect with people scheduling worker strikes. Link up with Jobs with Justice, Raise Up, Commissions on the Status of Women, League of Women Voters, AFL-CIOs, State Labor Councils, Amazonians United, NAMI, APA, NASW, career coaching associations, unions, university professors who focus on labor and/or sociology, other workers’ rights groups, and progressive groups (you can copy the Potential Partner Ideas list under Research Resources and modify it for your state) and tag them in social media posts (Twitter is especially useful for this approach).
• Contact employment lawyers in your state through NELA and NELP and labor professors to run the bill language by them and/or ask them to testify with you. Filter them through those who focus on discrimination and send them the Lawyer Letter under Research Resources. It will be key to get legal experts and labor professors on board to testify in support of the bill at hearings.
• Contact therapists, psychologists, mental health counselors, law professors who specialize in employment law, discrimination, or civil rights, and labor professors (MA – MIT School of Work, NJ – Rutgers ILR School, AZ State – Social Justice Program, MI – Michigan State ILR School) to see if they will contact their state legislators and testify at hearings.
• Contact workers at specific locations with issues on coworker.org.
• Contact your Attorney General’s office for a list of labor law violations by organizations. Find the bigger offenders by pulling the data into Excel and running a count on each company then ranking them. Flyer outside those companies.
• Google “dignity at work task force” plus the name of your state to see who else might be interested in this issue who you can reach out to.
• Reach out to freelance writers about the bill and talk about the issue when it relates to news stories or major themes in the news.
• Create a list of state government employee and teacher email addresses in your state and email them in chunks of 500 (2,000 max per day). While it is spam, it lets people who may be suffering find support and relief.
• Share data about how your state ranks from the Center for Employment Equity.
• Type the name of your state into the search bar on the Labor Notes website. Labor Notes is an organization that educates on what labor movement action is happening. Look through the articles that come up and reach out to groups starting up unions, holding strikes, and taking other forms of action.
• Read 198 methods of nonviolent action. Escalate tactics.