Massachusetts Unions Train Working Teens in Workplace Safety and Health

by Mike Hall, Jan 24, 2009

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO, along with several local unions, is part of a new alliance in the Bay State that will provide workplace safety training for the state’s alternative high school students.

Working with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and several state education and labor agencies, the alliance partners will conduct OSHA’s 10-hour construction and general industry course. In addition, alliance members will develop and conduct a broad workplace health and safety program for the teenagers—many of whom work while attending school—and also address other teen workplace safety issues.

Says Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes:

The most important thing about a job is the ability to make it home safely each night and return healthy the next day. We are involved with this program because it will not only provide valuable safety training so these students will be protected on the job, but it will also give them a leg up on employment opportunities in this tough economy.

Along with providing general education, the alternative education programs also prepare students for various career paths and higher education. Says Marthe Kent, OSHA’s New England regional administrator:

These students will be able to carry this vital information with them on whatever career paths they choose to follow. Their employers will also benefit, since a motivated and safety-conscious workforce can lead to reduced injuries and illnesses and their associated human and financial costs, enhance productivity and increase employee morale.

Unions taking part in the program include the Metropolitan Boston Building Trades Council, Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2321, IUE-CWA Local 201, UAW Local 1525, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445, Teamsters Local 25 and the Boston Carpenters Apprenticeship and Training Center.

Says Haynes:

Our unions look forward to working with OSHA under the new Obama administration, which we hope will strengthen this agency and return it to its core mission: enforcing the workplace safety protections that organized labor fought so hard to enact.

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