 GET READY — Jonathan Rosen and
Ross Aronson prepare to do emergen-cy training. —
Photo by Sherry Halbrook
250 activists to
get emergency response training
PEF draws on
9/11 lessons to help members head off future tragedies
By SHERRY
HALBROOK
The time to prepare for emergencies is before you’re
facing one. The tragic events of September 11, 2001 and
the anthrax attacks that followed have driven that
message home as nothing else could. That’s why PEF
is making it a priority to help its members get prepared
for whatever may come.
The union, with the help of PEF Membership Benefits, is
providing training on Emergency Preparedness, Response
and Evacuation across the state for health and safety
activists.
Our goal is to train them so they can go back to their
worksites or agencies and help them develop emergency
response plans,” said Ross Aronson, PEF chair of the
Joint Statewide Health and Safety Committee.
It’s impossible to foresee every possible emergency,
but this training should give them a starting
point,” he said. We want them to start thinking
ahead and start developing ideas and plans for how to
deal with different kinds of emergencies — such as
fires, chemical spills, bomb threats, natural disasters
and hostage situations.
Training our members on how to prepare for and respond to
emergencies is something we at PEF have wanted to do for
a long time,” Aronson added. “After September
11, PEF President Roger Benson gave us a mandate to get
it done.”
Finding
resources
“The big problem was how to pay for the
training,” Aronson said.
That’s when PEF Membership Benefits stepped up to
the plate to pay for a full day of training for 250
activists.
With that hurdle cleared, Aronson and PEF Director of
Safety and Health Jonathan Rosen could focus on
developing the training program and schedule in
conjunction with PEF regional coordinators.
The training is being given at seven sites throughout the
state and began in September with sessions in New York,
Albany and Norwich. Training for PEF Region 9 will be
held October 28, and tentative dates for November include
western New York on the 6th, Regions 2 and 4 in central
New York on the 7th and Long Island on the 14th.
In addition to PEF members and staff — Aronson,
Rosen, PEF health and safety trainers Shawn Bobb and
Geraldine Stella, and others — the union has
enlisted the help of a trainer from the International
Chemical Workers Union Council in Cincinnati to teach
members about emergencies caused by hazardous chemicals.
“We learned a lot from last year’s
attacks,” Rosen said, “such as how a special
evacuation device helped co-workers carry out a disabled
employee of the Port Authority, who was working on the
69th floor of World Trade Center 1 when the first plane
hit it. We want to pool and share everything we’ve
learned, so that all state employees, their clients and
the public can be as safe as possible.”
More training
offered
Meanwhile, some PEF members, such as vocational
instructor Mike Sicko from Greene Correctional Facility
and Chuck Vohwinkle from the state Transportation
Department in Buffalo, are getting three days and nights
of intensive training at the ICWUC Center for Worker
Health and Safety Education in Cincinnati.
Sicko and Vohwinkle are just two of the PEF members who
have been awarded scholarships from the American
Federation of Teachers to take the Nationwide Chemical
Emergency Response Training.
“That training was great. But it was a lot to
absorb,” Sicko said. “So, I took lots of
notes.”
Since he returned from the training in early August,
Sicko — assistant council leader of PEF Division 343
— said he has been taking a much closer look at how
chemicals are handled at the state facility where he
works.
Don’t wait
to be asked
Some agencies already are looking for ways to protect
their employees and services. For example, the state
Banking Department has developed emergency evacuation
kits for its employees.
At his own agency, the state Division of Parole, Aronson
is deeply involved as labor and management work together
through the joint Health and Safety Committee to train
employees to develop emergency response plans.
The Division of Parole will provide a day and a half of
“train-the-trainer” programs for managers and
union stewards who can go back and help develop plans for
their specific worksites.
“We can’t afford to be unprepared for disaster.
PEF members should take a pro-active role to get the ball
rolling and not assume their agencies are updating
emergency plans on their own,” Aronson said.
“The bottom line is: Good emergency plans save
lives.”
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