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American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Training and Education Institute


WETP Cooperative Agreement Awardee:

Principal Investigator/Institution


James August

Tel (202) 429-1233
Fax (202) 223-3255
jaugust@afscme.org

  

AFSCME Training and Education Institute
1625 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
http://www.afscme.org/issues/73.cfm (http://www.afscme.org/issues/73.cfm) Exit NIEHS Website








Target Training Populations

AFSCME logo Employees who work in AFSCME-represented workplaces in public works, streets and highway maintenance, water and waste water treatment, health care and other jobs with chemical emergency responsibilities will be targeted. AFSCME also is targeting custodial and facilities maintenance workers who may be asked to clean mold-contaminated building materials.

Program Description

The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Training and Education Institute (ATEI) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to develop workers' ability to successfully and safely respond to unplanned or intentional releases of hazardous substances and to participate in efforts to improve workplace safety. AFSCME-represented occupations likely to respond to emergencies include: road and bridge construction/maintenance, sewer maintenance, water/waste water treatment, sanitation, public safety and security, and health care, which comprise about half of AFSCME's 1.4-million members. ATEI plans to train over 6,000 workers for the five-year project in programs mandated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) Standard and other related activities including confined space entry and trenching safety, along with annual refreshers. ATEI also plans to conduct training on worker protection in mold prevention and clean-up programs designed for custodial and facilities maintenance staff (primarily in schools). The Western Region Universities Consortium will assist in adapting Spanish language training materials and in developing Spanish-speaking peer trainers.

The successful peer trainer program will be expanded to reach more workers and target the train-the-trainer programs in locations with large groups of minority or underserved workers. There will be collaborations with other awardees in trainer and evaluator development workshops each year. The AFSCME Evaluation Team includes peer trainers, training staff (AFSCME) and evaluators (University of Massachusetts at Lowell), and conducts both local evaluation projects as well as activities to assess the impact of program-wide training. Peer trainers also assist in curriculum revision efforts.

ATEI will coordinate with the consortium member, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) to provide training on hazardous materials and community right to know at CBTU's annual convention and community meetings, and to provide technical assistance to community groups.

ATEI will utilize advanced training technologies by delivering workshops on accessing health and safety resources on the Internet. We will also utilize the Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute/Kirkwood Community College's on-line hazmat course to increase access of public works employees at AFSCME-represented worksites in small or remote jurisdictions. ATEI trainers will follow up with 2.5 days of hands-on training for participants from facilities in a targeted geographical region.

Project Duration

  • September 1, 2005 - July 31, 2010

Grant Number

  • U45ES07823

Other Participating Organizations

USA.gov Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health
This page URL: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/careers/hazmat/awardees/afscme.cfm
NIEHS website: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/
Email the Web Manager at webmanager@niehs.nih.gov
Last Reviewed: May 07, 2007