Chemical Workers Union Consortium Trains Trainers in Disaster Response While Building Both Resiliency in Disasters and Preparedness.

This paper studies disaster training work of one of the original grantees of the Worker Training Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences: The International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC) and its consortium of unions and national organizations. The consortium developed disaster train-the-trainer curriculum in English and in Spanish, so worker trainers would be poised to do training during, after, and in prevention of disasters. This paper reviews the program and its impact on affected communities - with both a historical perspective and with interviews of 20 of those who were trained to be disaster response trainers. At least half the trainees actively trained at one or more disaster sites provided important information to keep community residents safer and to help them build resilience in their communities. Other trainers have used their knowledge to improve their workplaces during a disaster or to help prevent mold contamination and other post-disaster hazards in underserved neighborhoods.

Worker Trainers as Workplace Experts: How Worker Trainers Enhance Safety and Health at Department of Energy Facilities.

Worker trainers not only teach health and safety in the classroom setting but also serve informally as important peer resources on the shop floor. They are often the "go to" people, for both hourly workers and managers, when there is a health or safety question-be it about tank vapors or personal protective equipment, confined space, or specific chemicals. These worker trainers actively use health and safety resource materials, both hard copy and online. Documented here, through two surveys of worker trainers-at U.S. Department of Energy facilities, trained through the International Chemical Workers Union Council Consortium of the Worker Training Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences-is documentation of this additional contribution that worker trainers make toward safer and more healthful work places.

Perception of Impact of Frequent Short Training as an Enhancement of Annual Refresher Training.

Introduction of facilitated hands-on drills as often as monthly and the use of online modules prior to annual refresher training for emergency response teams were investigated through surveys and group discussions. This research explores how these drills are perceived by emergency response team members, emergency response team coordinators, instructors, and management at the company. Using these tools throughout the year, members of emergency response teams from automobile manufacturing facilities reported an increased ability to maintain their skill sets, build teamwork, and continually refresh and strengthen their ability to protect their fellow workers as well as plant operations and equipment. The results also document examples of how this innovative program that incorporates frequent training has led to workplace improvements.

The Social and Economic Impact of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on Maintenance-of-Way Railroad Workers.

: Thousands of railroad maintenance-of-way (MOW) workers develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from their work. OBJECTIVE: This study calculates the social and economic burdens of COPD borne by thousands of MOW workers. METHODS: Economic calculations are derived from the literature and also from a survey of 4800 MOW respondents, 155 in-depth interviews, and two focus groups. RESULTS: COPD alone costs at least $179 million over the course of cases currently diagnosed among MOW workers. Many individuals work through significant pain and breathing difficulties or have to leave the profession. Some are crippled for life. CONCLUSION: When a worker has COPD, beyond pain and suffering, there are often financial burdens that affect families, railroad companies, insurers, communities, and taxpayers as well as the injured workers.

Assessing the impact of health and safety training: Increased behavioral change and organizational performance.

BACKGROUND: Annual health and safety refresher training is mandated for workers in a number of employment sectors and also is used to maintain and enhance skills when not legally required. METHODS: One year following training, hazardous waste worker training participants were asked if the training had been applied at their work or in the community, corresponding to Kirkpatrick levels of training evaluation. Likely response themes were drafted by the authors using qualitative data coding. RESULTS: Of the 1,726 refresher participants, 1,094 (63%) provided an entry. Eight theme categories were adapted from the originals, spanning the activities trainees reported as applications of their training: events, actions, awareness, emergency response, equipment, planning and standard operating procedures, training, and use of written resources. CONCLUSIONS: Asking participants to reflect on how training has been applied provides an opportunity to describe workplace changes made during the past year. Participants documented that training resulted in actions to protect them from hazardous exposures. Specific events where training was used and where actions were taken to improve health and safety represent Kirkpatrick Levels III and IV applications of training. Collecting similar data may be useful to others wishing to identify impacts of training and can be integrated into routine program assessment.

Labor-Management Cooperation in Illinois: How a Joint Union Company Team Is Improving Facility Safety.

This study of Afton Chemical Corporation's Sauget facility and its International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC) Local 871C demonstrates how significant safety improvements can be made when committed leadership from both management and union work together, build trust, train the entire work force in U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration 10-hour classes, and communicate with their work force, both salaried and hourly. A key finding is that listening to the workers closest to production can lead to solutions, many of them more cost-efficient than top-down decision-making. Another is that making safety and health an authentic value is hard work, requiring time, money, and commitment. Third, union and management must both have leadership willing to take chances and learn to trust one another. Fourth, training must be for everyone and ongoing. Finally, health and safety improvements require dedicated funding. The result was resolution of more than one hundred safety concerns and an ongoing institutionalized process for continuing improvement.

Workplace safety and health improvements through a labor/management training and collaboration.

Seven hundred thirty-nine workers at Merck's Stonewall plant in Elkton, Virginia, have a safer and healthier workplace because four of them were enthusiastic about health and safety training they received from the union's training center in Cincinnati, Ohio. What emerged was not only that all 739 plant employees received OSHA 10-hour General Industry training, but that it was delivered by "OSHA-authorized" members of the International Chemical Workers Union Council who worked at the plant. Merck created a new full-time position in its Learning and Development Department and filled it with one of the four workers who had received the initial training. Strong plant leadership promoted discussions both during the training, in evaluation, and in newly energized joint labor-management meetings following the training. These discussions identified safety and health issues needing attention. Then, in a new spirit of trust and collaboration, major improvements occurred.

The social costs of dangerous products: an empirical investigation.

Defective consumer products impose significant costs on consumers and third parties when they cause fatalities and injuries. This Article develops a novel approach to measuring the true extent of such costs, which may not be accurately captured under current methods of estimating the cost of dangerous products. Current analysis rests on a narrowly defined set of costs, excluding certain types of costs. The cost-of-injury estimates utilized in this Article address this omission by quantifying and incorporating these costs to provide a more complete picture of the true impact of defective consumer products. The new estimates help to gauge the true value of the civil liability system.