Harrassed at work

What is the name of your state? Washington
Hello; Situation with my husbands work. He is in production - works hands on with another co-worker. This co-worker has been verbally abusive and hard to work with for years. He will get mad, cuss people out, go out of his way to make the job harder on my husband (not handing tools, working together, etc). Well, the other guy had a major blow out last week towards my husband in front of everyone. My husband ended up leaving for the day. Well, they gave the guy 4 days without pay suspension. The company pushed for my husband to file charges - in a sense getting this guy fired. (he has been suspended before). My husbands did not want to get him fired - just wanted to be able to do his job in peace. So he stated he did not want to press charges. Well, today they brought back the guy - had them shake hands in front of the shop steward, boss. As soon as they were gone - the guy started in again. My husband asked if they could talk - and he stated he would never talk to him again (cussing along the way). Well, it has progressed all day and my husband is ready to quit. I feel that he should be able to approach the boss, and explain he cannot work in this environment - no one should. Unfortunately, it is just him and this guy in this area - no where else to go. What would his options be - it is a union shop. We are not in the position for him looking for a new job right now - both financial and medically.

Your husband had his chance. The boss advised him on what to do, so I'm not understanding why he is complaining now.

From the details of your post, this doesn't meet the definition of harassment. The harassment has to be based off a characteristic of gender, race, religion, age, etc... under the law to be illegal.

Why would your spouse want to put up with this kind of behavior? He needs to go back to managament and complain again and what I don't undertsand is that managment doesn't need his consent or for him to file charges. He made a verbal complaint and that should be enough, unless procedures are different in his collective bargaining agreement.

I don't understand on what basis he's supposed to file charges and with whom?

It doesn't seem that your husband has any options besides finding another job. He can't force his employer to fire his co-worker and from what you say, there is not another job or location in which your husband can work.

Has your husband always been a nancy-boy? This is a situation that should be handled "off the books"

just a question

you say it is a union job,does your husband have a union rep...are union rules different than company rules...can the union rep do anything? I really dont understand why he didnt do anything the first time unless he is just the nice guy and decided that the 4 day suspension would teach the other guy a lesson and it would stop. If i were your husband,i would march right into the office and say,i didnt press charges last time but this time i will if it will get him away from me for good!! It sounds like the company wants him to press charges so they dont have to deal with any grievences filed by the other worker to the union. Maybe if he presses charges,it covers them with the union on firing the bad guy. Either way,your husband must go and address the situation again or nothing will change.