CREATING A SAFER WORKPLACE
DETROIT – In early December, nearly two dozen brand-new Health and Safety reps plunged into an unprecedented, intensive eight-day training session designed to earn them certification as Health and Safety Specialists as quickly as possible.
This big group of brand-new Health and Safety reps, ergonomic specialists and trainers was on hand for the expanded December certification training conference. On the far right is UAW Health and Safety Coordinator Todd Penn; Chrysler Coordinator Kevin Waszak is at far left.
Click on the picture for a larger view. |
The new reps, including both management and UAW members, were part of a larger group of more than 65 H&S reps from Chrysler Group LLC facilities around the country who are in various stages of the training that leads to credentials ranking them as experts in their field.
The unusually long session of the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center's Health
and Safety Specialist Certification Program, was specifically aimed at immersing the new reps in the process because many are replacing older, more experienced reps who have recently retired or taken buy-outs.
"It’s six straight days – giving them essentially two weeks of instruction when they would normally get only one week," said Todd Penn, UAW health and safety coordinator at the NTC. "We feel this will help our reps, especially all the new people, get certified more quickly."
TTC instructors give reps the detailed knowledge they need to take back to their facilities and make them even safer.
To view a list of the reps who were to receive H&S Specialist credentials after the December conference, CLICK HERE. |
H&S reps are certified only after completing 240 hours of coursework and testing, and following this most recent training and testing conference at the UAW-Chrysler Technology Training Center (TTC) in Warren, Mich., 20 more of the reps were to receive their certification credentials.
"It’s important the health and safety reps go through this training; they become more and more knowledgeable about health and safety with each certification session," said Kevin Waszak, Chrysler health and safety coordinator at the NTC. "Then the health and safety reps can go out into the facility and work with the employees on the floor to create an even safer work environment."
Vickie Parson had been a rep for just two weeks when she began her certification training at the TTC. |
Among the new reps was Vickie Parson, a UAW Local 1086 member from the Memphis (Tenn.) Parts Distribution Center, and Parson – a rep for just two weeks – said she was excited about the task ahead.
"I want to be a good rep," she said, "and I’m trying to learn what I need in order to take knowledge about health and safety back to the plant floor in Memphis."
Parson said she found the Noise Overview class – one of 30 courses available to reps during the session – especially interesting. "The instructor had a lot of information that I found really useful," she said.
Holly Duhamel takes notes during one of the courses. |
Two other new reps were also finding the training not only useful, but eye-opening.
Holly Duhamel, a Local 1435 member from Toledo Machining in Perrysburg, Ohio, has been an ergonomics analyst there since April, and it was her first experience with certification training. She said she was especially impressed by the Hazardous Waste Management course.
"I didn’t really know about all the hazardous substances and chemicals, so that’s important for me," she said. "Some of that’s hard to see or know, versus like when a (machine) guard’s missing or something – you can spot that a lot easier.
"I know we can impact employees in a more efficient way," said Danny Quinzy. |
Danny Quinzy, a health and safety manager at the Orlando (Fla.) PDC, said that though "I've been a rep just under a year, I'll now be able to take the information I've gotten here and spread it to the floor to address issues we are having – especially ergonomic issues.
"After getting the plant safety instruction," Quinzy added, "I know we can impact employees in a more efficient way."
Other reps were old hands at the training, but were finding it just as important as their novice counterparts.
It was the third time that UAW Local 164's Donald Jones, a health and safety rep and hi-lo driver at the Sterling Stamping Plant in suburban Detroit, had been in one of these training sessions, and he is only about 20 hours shy of earning his certification.
UAW 164 Rep Donald Jones |
It has all been valuable, Jones said. "The training has given me more awareness of different health and safety procedures, like lockout, tagout and control strategies, that I can take back to the plant."
This time, he said, the most interesting class he was taking was Shop Safety, where “the instructor was very knowledgeable; he was passing some great information, things I never knew."
Steve Arrieta, a health and safety supervisor for Mack Ave. Engine Plants I and II was also a veteran of the training. He said he expected to "test out this week" and gain his certificate, but that graduating from the training was just the beginning.
Steve Arrieta earned his credentials at the December conference and says he's "started on a long journey." |
“It means that I’ve started on a long journey of a lot more learning," Arrieta said. "The whole area (of health and safety) is much, much more involved than I ever knew it was before when I was just a regular supervisor or a union employee. Now I can see its real importance.”
Arrieta said that among the things he liked most about the training conferences was "the ability to network. Because there are so many different regulations and standards and sources of information, being able to know I can call someone at a different plant really brings the strength of a team together for the benefit of the folks at Mack I and II.
Since it began in 1996, the National Training Center's program has administered more than 10,000 proficiency tests in a broad spectrum of training and provided certification for more than 300 health and safety reps from both union and management.
Union and management reps get the same training at the same time, which allows them to work together and help each other. |
"We train union and management reps at the same time because we want them to leave with the same knowledge, allowing them to work together and help each other," said Penn, the program's UAW coordinator.
Waszak, the management coordinator, agreed:
"In all our facilities we have Local Joint Health and Safety Committees that work together on a daily basis," he said, "so obtaining the same knowledge and going back and applying that to the plant environment produces a win-win situation for both management and union."
Health and Safety program leaders attending the conference included (from left) UAW International Rep Arpatsy Oldham; Chrysler Senior Manager for Health and Safety Mike Stamper; Chrysler Director of Health, Safety and Medical Operations Michael Jessamy; UAW Coordinator Todd Penn; Assistant Director of the UAW's Chrysler Department John Stallings; Chrysler Coordinator Kevin Waszak and UAW International Rep Paul Greathouse.
Click on the picture for a larger view |
Most of the reps who were at December's training session will return to the TTC next year for additional instruction and testing as they move toward certification.
"We bring them into the TTC because we can have them focus more than they could in the plants," Penn said. "We have the same equipment they have in the plants to train on – we can get anything we need brought in – and we have great classroom training as well. We want to make sure that we start using our own facility to its maximum potential.”
For more information about
the NTC's Health & Safety Program, click
here, or contact Todd Penn or Kevin Waszak at
the NTC (313.567.3300).
