Region 9 News Release:   USDL-2
January 8, 2001
Contact: Frank Meilinger
Phone: 202-693-1999
Application: Cynthia Bencheck
Phone: 847-297-4810

The San Francisco-based California Labor Federation is among19 nonprofit organizations that will share more than $4.8 million in grants to develop and deliver safety and health training programs for immigrant and contingent workers, small business employers and employees, and workers in high-risk jobs such as construction.

"Those most at risk of injury, illness or death on the job must be given the tools they need to protect themselves," said Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman. "These grants are an excellent investment, providing training in the first year to more than 22,000 workers and small business owners across the country."

The California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, will use the $210,000 grant to develop and conduct a training program on how to create an effective health and safety program, basic workplace safety and health principles, laws, and problem solving. The workshop will target union stewards and health and safety committee members. An ergonomics train-the-trainer program will be conducted. In all, 510 people will receive training.

The 19 new grantees include four universities or colleges; six employer associations and non-profit organizations representing the forest, nursing, construction and solid waste industries; seven unions and two labor-management councils.

The new grantees were selected through a national competition announced last August. The grants may be funded for up to five years with an average first-year federal award of $250,000.

The training grants are named in honor of the late Susan Harwood, a former director of the Office of Risk Assessment in OSHA's health standards directorate, who died in 1996. During her 17-year tenure with the agency, Harwood helped develop OSHA standards to protect workers exposed to blood borne pathogens, cotton dust, benzene, formaldehyde, asbestos and lead in construction.