A centerpiece of LOHP’s work over the last 48 years is direct worker engagement and leadership development to transform the role workers play in their worksites and communities. Our training programs build knowledge and skills that enable workers to take individual or collective action. We also build the capacity of unions and community organizations to expand support for workers and integrate a worker health lens into their work and campaigns. Our “training of trainers” model prepares participants to conduct workshops and serve as health and safety resources. We also provide training for employers to build their understanding of workers’ rights and the key elements of an effective health and safety program, including the importance of worker engagement.
We train over 2,500 workers and hundreds of others each year, including supervisors, teachers, worker leaders and staff from unions and community organizations. We offer training in different languages, and many of our programs are in Spanish.
LOHP is involved in several statewide education initiatives, including the Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program, the School Action for Safety and Health Program, and the Injury and Illness Prevention Program, and we offer Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) trainings.
In addition to specific training projects, we can provide training on:
- Hazard awareness: learn about jobs hazards, how they affect workers’ health, and solutions to protect workers.
- Health and safety in organizing: for organizers and worker leaders to learn how to use health and safety campaigns to educate and involve workers.
- Workers’ rights: review the key rights on the job – health and safety, wages and breaks, workers’ compensation, protection against sexual harassment, and the right to take action without being punished.
Examples of projects:
WOSHTEP
The Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program (WOSHTEP) is a statewide initiative aimed at building worker leadership and providing resources to employers to address health and safety, with the goal of reducing occupational injuries and illnesses and workers’ compensation costs in California workplaces. The program includes the WOSH Specialist leadership training, training and resources for small businesses, and a leadership academy for teen workers. Each year, we also carry out projects for specific worker groups or issues – for example, day laborer training and materials for use in worker centers and street outreach, and trainings on sexual harassment and workplace stress. Learn more.
Pre-Appreticeship Training for Careers in Construction
The Hazardous Waste Project at LOHP has had a long relationship with the Cypress Mandela Training Center (CMTC), which is located in Oakland and provides pre-apprentice construction and life skills training along with employment assistance. Since 2000, LOHP has trained approximately 175 pre-apprenticeship students each year, providing HAZWOPER certification courses and awareness training on construction hazards including silica, hearing loss, ergonomics, and most recently – COVID 19. CMTC’s Director notes that “We have developed an exceptional partnership that exposes our students’ to high quality certification programs from professionals that understand and know how to develop best practices in health and safety for the construction industry.”
Hotel Housekeepers and Musculoskeletal Disorders
We collaborated with UNITE HERE to develop training to provide hotel housekeepers with skills and tools to effectively use Cal/OSHA’s new standard (GISO 3345) to prevent ergonomic injuries in their worksites. The standard is a “first in the nation” regulation that requires hotels to develop musculoskeletal injury prevention plans and involve housekeepers and their union in the process. We trained UNITE HERE staff and worker leaders to lead training on ergonomics and the new standard, with materials in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
Protecting Temporary Workers: Training for Staffing Agencies
When faced with health and safety problems, temporary workers are often caught between their official employer – the staffing agency – and the “host employer,” or place where they work. By law, both employers have responsibilities. LOHP developed training to help small staffing agencies understand what they need to do to protect temporary workers. The training emphasizes practical tools and best practices, and to date we have conducted trainings in California and other states around the country, each year reaching over 100 employer representatives from staffing agencies. This effort supports OSHA’s Temporary Worker Initiative.