Worker Health and Safety Training Cooperative Agreement

Steelworker Charitable/Educational Org, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

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Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) [unreadable] [unreadable] The Tony Mazzocchi Center (TMC) formed by The Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE), the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and the Labor Institute (together representing over 875,000 industrial workers) will conduct over the next 5 years approximately 3,800 workshops reaching 86,000 workers and community residents with 900,000 hours of training to prevent hazardous substance emergencies and to protect workers and communities should such accidents occur. The model training will consist of courses that meet the requirements of 29 CFR 1910.120, address environmental justice and health disparities, and assist worker-trainer development and evaluation. Specific Aims include to, 1) expand model site-based training, called ITS programs, to meld 1910.120-based training into broad, ongoing plant-wide prevention programs. The TMC will add 8 ITS programs per year (total of 40 new sites) to our existing 35 sites resulting in 72 total sites at the end of five years involving an estimated 30,000 workers and managers. In addition, the goals are to, 2) pilot a new Near-miss Initiative working with the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center of the University of Pennsylvania; 3) conduct community/labor workshops with regional environmental justice networks and Latino workers; 4) expand the use of advanced training technologies including web-based lessons learned, e-learning and emergency response simulation programs; 5) use participatory research and evaluation to monitor and strengthen the program; and 6) lead a multi-grantee (seven unions) initiative to work together on trainer, curriculum and evaluation development. With the HDPTP supplement the TMC will help protect workers and community residents from potential exposures to hazardous materials released during terrorist attacks on industrial facilities with large volumes of highly hazardous chemicals, specifically at the 306 Risk Management Program Sites (RMPs) at which PACE and USWA represent 75,000 workers. The TMC will reach 19,700 participants with 192,360 contact hours of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) prevention, preparedness and response training. The TMC will also recruit and train an entirely new, nation-wide, industrial catastrophic incident Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPR) Corps composed of 68 experienced workers from RMP sites. The PPR Corps, consisting of credentialed industrial responders, will work with OSHA, and through OSHA, the DHS to assist in OSHA's Regional Emergency Response Plans for high hazard sites. The PPR Corps will train industrial site workers, management and community responders, as well as conduct facility audits to evaluate prevention activities, emergency preparedness, and readiness to create site safety plans in the event of a catastrophe. [unreadable] [unreadable]