EPA Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program. The long-term objective of the Construction Consortium is to ensure that crafts workers who are called upon to work in EPA Superfund environments, have the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to protect their health and safety, and that of their co-workers, their families, their communities, and the environment. Our members perform a vast array of remediation and construction tasks at hazardous waste sites. With The Center to Protect Workers' Rights as the lead and coordinating organization, the consortium, which has recently grown to include ten international/national union members with the addition of the Electrical Workers, Plumbers and Pipefitters, and Bricklayers, has been providing effective training for our members who may work at EPA sites for the past nine years. In the first year of this grant the consortium will deliver 90 hazardous waste classes to 1,762 students and 133 hazardous waste refresher classes to 2,102 students. OSHA 10, scaffold user, and confined space classes will also be offered. Lead and asbestos worker courses will be delivered where specifically required by site contractors. The consortium, with its nationwide network of over 1,700 spacious and well equipped training centers, highly skilled national and local peer-trainers, containerized, craft- specific, and up-to-date training equipment, and centralized training support organization, can respond rapidly and effectively to requests for training from anywhere in the country. Consortium training is highly participatory, peer-led, and trade specific. Safety and health information is presented within a real-world context that readily transfers to the trainees' workplace environment. Problem solving exercises will guide trainees to help bring about health-related changes in their workplaces. Master trainers and program managers will work with training and evaluation experts to develop and improve training exercises, as well as classroom and web-based presentations. Extensive and rigorous trainer and master trainer preparation and enhancement programs will be coordinated by CPWR. It is a construction consortium objective to prepare a cadre of certified master trainers who can ensure the quality of their organizations' training well beyond the completion of this grant.
