Thanks to a $1.8 million contract from the State Accident Insurance Fund (SAIF) corporation, the University can now offer training in health and safety programs to labor union members off campus.
SAIF, a public corporation that settles worker compensation claims, offered the University’s Labor Education and Research Center the contract to increase the availability of safety and health training programs for labor union members throughout Oregon on Dec. 12. The funding will also help University students explore labor issues.
Established in 1977, LERC hosts workshops on labor law and history, provides guest lecturers for University departments and occasionally offers classes on labor-related topics.
“Our goal is to look for sectors within the labor communities with the biggest safety problems that we can have the greatest effect on,” said Steven Hecker, associate professor and director of occupational safety and health programs at LERC.
Hecker said SAIF members, along with various labor union workers, will work with the research center on its advisory board to determine the areas that need the most training based on SAIF’s injury claim data.
“We will be looking at health-care problems such as sprains and infectious diseases and high-hazard industries like construction,” he said, adding that training programs will be developed where they are most needed.
“We want to give people an overall better understanding of the elements of workplace safety,” he said.
David Thurber, vice president for policy holder services for SAIF, said the contract is already in effect.
“The plans are forming and the advisory committee is underway as we speak,” he said.
Thurber said the company was seeking to provide a safety education system with longevity, which is why it chose LERC.
“They’re designed to educate on that same issue, so it was a valuable place to partner and train Oregon workers,” he said.
One way the research center is preparing to educate more people is by hiring more employees. Hecker said the organization is currently in the process of adding two full-time positions that should be filled by spring.
Marcus Widenor, associate professor and interim director of LERC, said there may also be more graduate teaching fellows and student interns hired if the program expands.
“We will be able to reach a lot more people with this funding than we’ve had in the past,” he said.
Margaret Hallock, a LERC professor who also supervises the center’s internships, said students will benefit from the contract.
“The funding will provide for more internships that will give students a hands-on experience about concrete issues of the labor workplace, so students will be left with a better understanding of the labor economy,” she said.
University to provide safety, health programs for workers
Daily Emerald
January 11, 2001
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