IAM members get haz-mat training

PORTLAND, OR -- People were giving double-takes to the parking lot of Machinists District Lodge 24 in southeast Portland March 6. That's because it looked like an invasion from another planet, as more than two dozen union members garbed head-to-toe in hazardous material suits were training for how to respond in the event of a chemical emergency.

The three-day session was conducted by the International Chemical Workers Union Council Center for Worker Health and Safety Education.

Operating under federal grants from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency through a consortium with the Machinists, Steelworkers, Aluminum, Brick and Glass Workers, American Flint Glass Workers, and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based center offers a variety of "haz-mat" training programs in-house and in the field.

The Chemical Workers' health center, under the direction of International President Frank Martino, is one of 18 national union programs that receive federal grants to provide training.

Former Portlander Michael Sprinker is project director of the training center.

"We've been all over the country, but this is our first time in Oregon," said instructor Joe Abshire of Machinists District Lodge 725 in California. The center has trained more than 20,000 workers, including those who work at nuclear power facilities at Hanford, Wash., Rocky Flats, Colo., and Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The center has 14 full-time staffers with 175 trainers located throughout the country. Classes offered can range from four to 40 hours and are marketed to affiliated unions, businesses and labor-management groups.

The Portland event drew 28 Machinists from a half-dozen businesses including Freightliner, ConMet Rivergate and Clackamas, Nabisco, Johnson Controls and some striking workers from Voith Sulzer Papertechnology.

They received hands-on training in hazardous materials response, how to suit up in safety gear and respirators, how to wash down, and they were put into action to contain mock benzene, sulfuric acid and other chemical leaks in pipes and barrels strategically located in the parking lot.

"We approach this from a worker's perspective and how to protect them," said instructor John Alexander, a member of the Steelworkers (formerly the Rubber Workers Union before a merger) in Akron, Ohio. "We'll go above and beyond to get information to workers," he said, which is unlike some consultants who are in it for the money and unlike some companies whose only goal is to do the minimum necessary to meet federal regulations at the least cost. "It's information that is good to know," said Russ Dickman, a Machinist employed at Nabisco. "It's kind of like CPR training, you may never have to use it, but if you do, it's good to have the information."

Dickman said there isn't a lot of hazardous material at Nabisco, "but if something were to happen I now have some idea of what procedures to take."

Other instructors at the Machinists Hall were Darrell Hornback and Greg Malone of the Chemical Workers Union, and trainers Eric Alberty of the Electrical Workers and Ken Howard of the Machinists at Hanford.