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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 12, No. 4
Publication Date: April 25, 2024
DOI:10.14738/abr.124.16858.
Allen, S. G., Morawetz, J. S., & Ruttenberg, R. (2024). Chemical Workers Union Consortium Trains Trainers in Disaster Response
While Building Both Resiliency in Disasters and Preparedness. Archives of Business Research, 12(4). 123-136.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Chemical Workers Union Consortium Trains Trainers in Disaster
Response While Building Both Resiliency in Disasters and
Preparedness1
Shari Glines Allen
Center for Worker Health and Safety Education,
International Chemical Workers Union Council
John S. Morawetz
Center for Worker Health and Safety Education,
International Chemical Workers Union Council
Ruth Ruttenberg
Ruth Ruttenberg & Associates
ABSTRACT
This paper studies disaster training work of one of the original grantees of the
Worker Training Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences: The International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC) and its
consortium of unions and national organizations. The consortium developed
disaster train-the-trainer curriculum in English and in Spanish, so worker trainers
would be poised to do training during, after, and in prevention of disasters. This
paper reviews the program and its impact on affected communities – with both a
historical perspective and with interviews of 20 of those who were trained to be
disaster response trainers. At least half the trainees actively trained at one or more
disaster sites provided important information to keep community residents safer
and to help them build resilience in their communities. Other trainers have used
their knowledge to improve their workplaces during a disaster or to help prevent
mold contamination and other post-disaster hazards in underserved
neighborhoods.
Since 2015 a consortium2 built by the International Union of Chemical Workers (ICWUC) and
funded by the NIEHS Worker Training Program (WTP), has been holding Disaster Train-the- Trainer Courses. These specialized trainers have responded to disaster sites in Texas, Puerto
Rico, New Jersey, North Carolina, and other locations. They have also established their own
training programs, either through their sponsoring organizations or on their own.
1 This work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) under Award Number U45ES006162 to the International Chemical Workers Union Council.
2 Consortium members are: International Chemical Workers Union Council/UFCW, International Association of
Machinists and Aero Space Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Coalition of Black Trade
Unionists, American Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Government Employees, Labor Council for
Latin American Advancement, University of Cincinnati’s Department of Environmental Health, National Council for
Occupational Safety and Health, National Nurses United, American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, and the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics.
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Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 12, Issue 4, April-2024
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
BACKGROUND
The primary NIEHS Worker Training Program grant is the national Hazardous Waste Worker
Training (HWWT), begun in 1988. Since the beginning, the ICWUC has operated a union-based
consortium which has expanded from three to, currently, eleven other partners. The core
program since its inception is a basic multi-day chemical emergency response class. This
program has been effective in demonstrating that participants effect changes at their facilities
approximately six months after participating in the multi-day emergency response class
(Becker, 2004). The ICWUC has conducted wall-to-wall OSHA authorized general industry
training at several facilities, including the development of cooperating labor and management
trainers who assist in delivering these courses (Mahan, 2013; Mahan, 2018). One of the main
strengths of the ICWUC program is the development and use of worker trainers who assist in
many of the ICWUC programs and are a cost-effective in-house resource to both labor and
management available as continuous resources and assets at their facilities (Morawetz, 2019;
Ruttenberg, 2020).
NIEHS Disaster Work
The Worker Training Program has been funding and supporting disaster training for over two
decades. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, tragically demonstrated that terrorist
attacks could be catastrophic with significant loss of life and property. It mobilized the country
and the NIEHS Worker Training Program provided recovery and remediation assistance
through training. In 2003 NIEHS began funding disaster work through one-year supplementals
after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and named Weapons of Mass Destruction
(WMD) grants.
The NIEHS grantees at the time were equally, if not more, concerned about disasters that
workers face more frequently, and pushed for these grants to be “all hazards” and cover natural
and human caused disasters. This viewpoint was also supported by a 2003 Presidential
Directive #9 which required a national domestic all-hazards preparedness approach. In 2004
NIEHS initiated the funding of a new component of the proposed 2005-2010 Hazardous Waste
Worker Training (HWWT) grant that broadly covered all disasters, Hazmat Disaster
Preparedness Training Program (HDPTP: referred here to HDP). This component has continued
as an essential part of the five-year NIEHS funding opportunities.
To support these programs, NIEHS produced several “Protect Yourself” Booklets that covered
the basic hazards that recovery and remediation workers might encounter at a particular
disaster. These were: Hurricanes (2005), Floods (2005), Mold (~2006), Avian Flu (2007),
Earthquake (2008), Oil Spill (2010) and Wildfires (2014) with many translated into Spanish
and the Hurricane booklet into Vietnamese. These small booklets easily fit in a worker’s pocket,
gave consistent educational material for the NIEHS grantees, and were widely distributed and
used. Recently mobile apps and other resources became available.
ICWUC Disaster Work
ICWUC received one of these initial one-year WMD supplemental grants, working with its
partners to ensure response plans were in place in the event of future terrorist attacks. The
ICWUC Consortium had several unions directly affected by the September 11 attacks (New York
Public Employees Federation, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which
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Allen, S. G., Morawetz, J. S., & Ruttenberg, R. (2024). Chemical Workers Union Consortium Trains Trainers in Disaster Response While Building Both
Resiliency in Disasters and Preparedness. Archives of Business Research, 12(4). 123-136.
URL: http://doi.org/10.14738/abr.124.16858
lost 34 members at the World Trade Center). Although not a part of the ICWUC Consortium
until 2004, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) represented many
OSHA, EPA, and NIOSH workers at the Pentagon and federal workers who responded there and
in lower Manhattan.
The focus of the ICWUC Supplemental was on the nation’s schools and, secondarily, given the
reports of chemical facilities being targeted on September 11 the chemical infrastructure. The
ICWUC program relied on its partnership with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and
the location of schools near most of the potential terrorist targets. During this initial period
ICWUC and other NIEHS grantees stated that disaster grants should cover natural as well as
intentional disasters. This was the orientation of the five-year Hazardous Disaster
Preparedness grants announced in 2004 and funded in 2005 (and every five years to date).
Hurricanes and Oil Spills
The ICWUC’s disaster effort has increasingly been focused on responding to natural disaster
events as rapidly as possible, conducting Spanish and bilingual programs and developing bi- lingual worker trainers to deliver these programs. The consistent focus of ICWUC has been
preparing and responding to hurricanes, a frequent natural disaster - growing in frequency,
strength, and destructive power recently, largely due to climate change. Worker trainers have
been key to providing the staffing to the Center to allow the delivery of these programs, keep
the delivery close to people who lived in the community, provide Spanish and bilingual
programs, build ties to local unions and community organizations, and develop additional
worker/community trainers. ICWUC programs generally have focused on three hazards:
Hurricanes, Floods, and Mold. Programs on floods and mold are part of hurricane training and
have also been presented as stand-alone classes.
2005 Hurricane Katrina
Although the ICWUC hurricane training began with Hurricane Katrina, the Consortium interest
and material development began before Katrina due to interest and requests for mold training,
a common hazard after hurricane and flood-related water damage. Given the significant
presence of mold in communities of color and poor communities, the Coalition of Black Trade
Unionists (CBTU) had discussed with the Center the development of mold curriculum with
trainer materials. By the end of July 2005, a mold focus group was scheduled and experienced
trainers invited to the Cincinnati Center.
Shortly after Katrina struck New Orleans a month later in August 2005, the NIEHS staff and the
National Clearinghouse at the Worker Training Program produced a Hurricane hazards booklet
for the grantees and other remediation organizations. The focus was on the hazards that
workers would face in the aftermath of a hurricane and how to protect themselves. This would
result in more than a dozen “Protect Yourself” booklets in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese
that have proved to be an invaluable resource to many organizations in preparation and
response to a range of hazards.
NIEHS has encouraged cooperation among the grantees in their semiannual meetings and
workshops and the ICWUC has a strong working relationship with a number of these grantees,
helping to build a national network of disaster response trainers. The NIEHS Community