safer work
Training the trainers
Keeping workers safer on the front lines
Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s right in front of you until you step away and see it in a new light. That’s what happened to Henry Pires after he participated in the UAW’s Train-the-Trainer health and safety program.
“We learned a lot of things we never knew before that we can now use [in our workplaces],” said Pires, a 20-year member and president of UAW Local 470 in Avon, Mass., near Boston.
The Massachusetts local represents about 150 UAW workers at Masoneilan, an industrial valve company there and division of Texas-based Dresser Inc.
“I got back to the shop and noticed all kinds of areas that are fall hazards that I never noticed,” said Pires, 53.
Pires learned how to recognize workplace hazards – and how to train co-workers to prevent them – at a program presented in February by the UAW Health and Safety Department at the Walter and May Reuther UAW Family Education Center at Black Lake in Onaway, Mich.
Pires and UAW members from all regions learned the basics about training their co-workers on industrial emergency response awareness, right-to-know issues and confined space entry.
Nicole Jones of UAW Local 6000 is a probation agent in the Michigan Department of Corrections’ Detroit office. Jones said she has been doing staff training for her job, but this program brought it to a new level.
“I learned how to teach people to go online to find information about air quality recognition, the location of safety data sheets and warning information about chemicals to ensure that management has labeled a certain chemical appropriately,” said Jones, 38.
