UMaine Bureau of Labor Education Grant to Help with New On-Site Construction Safety Programs
Contact: Bill Murphy, 581- 4124
George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — The Bureau of Labor Education at the University of Maine has received a $120,000 Susan Harwood Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to create a series of safety programs for Maine construction workers.
In construction work, both employers and employees on many different types of building sites face serious on-the-job hazards. Risks are multiplied still further when construction contractors and employees work in hazardous manufacturing sites.
Through this grant, which is funded jointly by OSHA and the University of Maine, the Bureau of Labor Education will utilize an innovative consortium approach to construction site safety. Working with the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council and a joint labor-management leadership committee known as LEAD of Maine, the bureau will deliver safety and health programs to at least 300 LEAD workers and employers at their job sites.
LEAD stands for Labor Education and Development and includes signatory small business contractors, construction trade unions, and the university. Project programs will focus on recognizing and preventing construction safety and health hazards involving falls, caught-in, struck-by and electrocution situations.
Participants in the safety programs also will receive a construction safety handbook, currently under development by the Bureau of Labor Education. The plan for the one-year project calls for the research, development and production of the handbook to be accomplished during the first three months, and the implementation of the project programs during the following nine months.
The Bureau of Labor Education, created by the state legislature and trustees of the University of Maine System in 1966, provides educational programs and conducts research on labor and labor-related issues of interest, for workers, students, educators, members and officers of union organizations, and public policy makers.
The bureau can be reached by telephone at 207-581-4124.