Michigan DLEG Director Cooley Announces More Than $1 Million for Worker Safety and Health Grants

Twenty Statewide Grants Will Provide Training Activities To Help Protect Michigan Workers Employed In High-Hazard Work Environments

December 4 , 2007 - Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth Director Keith W. Cooley today announced the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) has awarded 20 Consultation Education and Training (CET) Grants for Fiscal Year 2008 totaling $1.035 million to promote worker safety and health. The MIOSHA program is part of the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth (DLEG).

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"This $1 million dollar investment will help Michigan employers provide a work environment where every worker goes home healthy and whole every day," said DLEG Director Keith W. Cooley. "Working collaboratively with our CET Grant partners, we can expand our safety and health efforts to protect Michigan's working men and women."

The MIOSHA Consultation Education and Training (CET) Division provides outreach services to employers in a variety of formats. The CET Grant program provides additional options for safety and health education and training to employers and employees.

Most of the grants will focus on the performance goals identified in the MIOSHA strategic plan, with a particular emphasis on hazard recognition and prevention for high-hazard manufacturing industries. Many of the grants offer interactive computer-based training modules and may include text, video, interactive questions, and retention testing.

The 20 statewide projects will include a wide range of training activities and proficiency levels. Strategic training topics include: emergency planning, response, and recovery; workplace violence prevention; firefighter rescue; food processing; long-term care; asbestos awareness; ergonomics; trenching safety; road construction; fall protection; and construction onsite walkthroughs.

The objectives of the CET Grant program are to:

1. Increase the number of employers and employees receiving occupational safety and health education, training and prevention services.
2. Increase the number of small establishments (with less than 100 employees) receiving occupational safety and health education, training and prevention services.
3. Encourage the development of strategies different from those being provided by the CET Division for providing safety and health education, training and prevention services.
4. Encourage alternative providers of occupational safety and health education, training and prevention services for employees and small establishments.
5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the alternative strategies and providers of occupational safety and health education, training and prevention services.

CET grants are awarded on a competitive basis to nonprofit organizations, such as universities, management/employer groups, labor/employee organizations, hospitals and service agencies.

Grant recipients must detail in their proposals how their efforts will meet one or more of the objectives. Grant recipients file monthly activity reports and quarterly financial reports with MIOSHA to ensure compliance with CET Grant reporting requirements. MIOSHA representatives monitor the proposal programs and observe on-site each program's operations.

For many years the CET Grants have increased the awareness of safety in the workplace. The FY 2008 CET Grants continue MIOSHA's commitment to greater training of safety practices and fewer workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.

FY 2008 Consultation Education and Training (CET) Grant Projects

Alpena Community College will deliver targeted safety training in the high hazard industries of construction, machinery manufacturing, and wood products manufacturing. This proposal incorporates high hazard industry training, primarily with smaller employers, to satisfy MIOSHA objectives.

Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Michigan will deliver an interactive computer-based training program for the construction industry. The program is designed to provide easy access to the 14 standardized modules which include: Asbestos Awareness, Confined Space, Electrical Safety, Fall Protection, Fire Safety, Hazard Communication, Lockout/Tagout, PPE, Trenching and Shoring, Scaffold Safety, Cadmium Safety, Silica Safety, Ladder Safety and Lead Safety.

Bay De Noc Community College will provide safety training and technical assistance to owners and employees in the wood products industry with an emphasis on sawmills and secondary wood manufacturing. The program will offer on-site training on: employee awareness of hazards, personal protective equipment, chain saw safety, safe work habits, employee safety responsibility, sound ergonomic practices and proper lockout procedures.

Cassie Stern Home Health Care/SEIU will provide safety training in the home health care field. This program will bring critically needed health and safety instruction to a home-based statewide workforce of independent providers by creating a network of peer mentorship and training. The program will develop feasible best safe practices for home caregivers, and accessible educational materials that target clients and caregivers.

Center for Workplace Violence Prevention, Inc. will develop training and instructional videos in Emergency Management and Workplace Violence. Training sessions will focus on emergency response capabilities, and provide information to help employers develop crisis management programs that address both terrorist events and workplace emergencies.

Eastern Michigan University Organization for Risk Reduction will offer an asbestos awareness course to address and help prevent inadvertent exposure of employees to airborne asbestos fibers. The course will cover the nature of asbestos, the health affects of exposure, identification of asbestos-containing materials, and the MIOSHA General Industry and Construction Standards for Asbestos.

International Union of Operating Engineers will provide safety training in the areas of building maintenance, HVAC, and steam boiler maintenance. This program will provide 10- and 30-hour OSHA outreach courses, the creation and monitoring of Joint Safety Committees, and safety seminars developed from the identification of site specific safety concerns.

Lansing Area Safety Council will provide safety and health training to employees in long-term care facilities. The topics in the training program will include aggressive behavior, bloodborne pathogens and tuberculosis awareness, disaster preparedness, ergonomics, slips, trips and falls, hazard communication, and safe lifting and transfer of patients/proper use of lifting equipment.

Lansing Community College Fire Science Program will develop and deliver flashover fire fighting training. The training will focus on developing and implementing a safety and health management system through policies for aggressive interior attack procedures, awareness of personal protective equipment, and modeling new fire department standard operating procedures.

Michigan Association of Rehabilitation Organizations (MARO) will provide training to rehabilitation organizations and their staff with disabilities. Training will be presented in two formats: customized on-site and a computer-based program. DVDs will be developed for training in conjunction with on-site consultation.

Michigan Association of Chiropractors will provide back safety and ergonomics training to workers in the nursing home, manufacturing and construction industries. Through its WorkSafe program, the training is designed to increase employee awareness of the workplace safety issues related to back and other ergonomics injuries.

Michigan Construction Trades Safety Council will produce a "MIOSHA Walkthrough for Construction" CD-ROM. This CD will be a high-end, interactive training tool that makes safety and health training interesting and memorable. It will be distributed to more than 120,000 construction companies throughout Michigan.

Michigan Farm Bureau will provide on-site and classroom safety and health training that targets agricultural employers, managers, service providers and owners. The project will develop and provide hazard identification guidance and minimization practices utilizing computer and DVD formats. Host facilities will be provided with onsite surveys to determine current safe work practices and possible hazards, particularly in the areas of pesticide training and injury response management.

Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA) will develop specialized company training sessions and statewide conferences to reduce injuries in the road construction industry. The grant will allow MITA to build a 3-tier training program to help protect workers from road building, bridge building, and excavation hazards. MITA will also produce an All-Trade-Training program that goes beyond federal safety standards to specifically address MIOSHA safety standards.

Michigan State AFL-CIO Human Resources Development, Inc. will provide training to new employees and incumbent workers affected by new technology and new work processes, equipment or operation. Training topics will include back injuries, lifting techniques, workplace hazards and recognition, right-to-know and hazardous substances. In cases where generic training does not meet the needs of an employer, staff will identify worksite needs and issues and will customize a training program to meet their needs.

Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice will offer a train-the-trainer Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) training for firefighters and a firefighter survival course. These trained personnel can then go back to their fire departments and train their own employees. The training will be directed to firefighters, their officers, and fire chiefs because all fire service personnel have responsibilities related to the rapid intervention team.

Parents for Student Safety Employment Standards (PASSES) works with high schools to provide construction technology classroom training, utilizing the web-based PASSES curriculum. PASSES has organized district wide safety committees that assist with the program. PASSES reaches young workers in the hazardous fields of home and commercial construction, adding this year a fall protection component to the curriculum.

Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) will provide health and safety injury prevention training in food processing facilities through safety and health committees. These committees will focus on training sessions in areas such as repetitive motion injuries, facility emergency preparedness, and proper lifting techniques.

United Auto Workers (UAW) will provide workplace safety and health training to industries with fabricated metal, stone, clay, and concrete products. The training will include a facility walkthrough and hazard evaluation followed by hazard prevention training. They will continue to train and develop onsite health and safety committees to implement health and safety programs at small companies. The train-the-trainer approach will be used to conduct site-specific hazard training. The details of technical prevention (lockout, ergonomics, confined spaces chemical hazard control) will be shared with employers and employees in joint sessions.

University of Michigan Center for Ergonomics has developed and will deliver on-site customized ergonomics seminars, ergonomics job analysis, follow-up activities to document workplace changes, and development of ergonomic programs, to small and medium-sized companies. Scholarships to attend a two-day open enrollment course will also be provided.

Source: Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth