Summary

A North American trade union provides international leadership in an emerging environmental industry through the formation of training partnerships that provide its members and associated employers with a competitive edge in the areas of hazardous waste cleanup and remediation. In so doing, it demonstrates how a union can build on strength gained through collective bargaining to establish a place for itself in the key areas of education, training and technology.

The Laborers’ International Union of America (LIUNA) has developed a model for the type of ambitious and forward-looking partnerships required to tackle the massive clean-up operations necessitated by years of unsustainable development and neglect. These projects require exacting training and state-of-art technical knowledge, and LIUNA has responded with a model that provides constant improvement to maintain its leadership and the confidence of contractors, end-users and the public.

The model was originally developed in the United States, where it has won a reputation through Superfund and other high profile projects. It is now being promoted in other parts of the world, most significantly in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and the Republics of the former Soviet Union.

The Participants

At the center of the Laborers' successful training program is the long list of public agencies and businesses that the Union has involved in partnerships at the local, state, national and international level. These all rest on the foundation of collective bargaining relationships that LIUNA has established over the years with the country's most successful contractors and employers, many of whom were able to win contracts in the environmental cleanup field because of their relationship with the Union. On this basis, the Union was able to design new and innovative funding and partnership programs.

The Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA, located in Washington DC), represents approximately 700,000 members in over 625 autonomous locals across Canada and the United States. It includes all types of worker: construction, environmental, health care, food service and landscape workers, postal employees, public workers, clerks and correctional officer, and many others.

LIUNA Tri-Funds exist by virtue of collective agreement provisions for employer contributions to union health, education and welfare plans. They include the Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund; the Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America; and the Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust.

The Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund (L-AGC) was designed in 1969 as a jointly-administered labor-management trust fund under American law to serve as an umbrella for local training funds established through negotiation at the local level. The Fund provides education and training materials, consultation, and assistance to local efforts to provide competent and extensive programs to their members.

The two main parties to the Fund are the Laborers International Union of North America and the Associated General Contractors of America. In addition, about 70 affiliated training funds rely on the L-AGC organization for support, and many environmental clean-up projects have involved "partnerships" with local and regional Fund administrations and institutions.

The Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North America (LHSFNA) is a partnership between LIUNA and signatory employers designed to provide occupational health and safety services to LIUNA members, locals, and employers. Its primary aim is a safer and healthier workplace and a productive workforce, while increasing the competitiveness of union contractors.

The Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) is a partnership established in 1989 between LIUNA and signatory contractors to generate business opportunities for union contractors and jobs for Union members in environmental cleanup and traditional construction fields. Over 20 local and regional trusts utilize the National Trust to provide market services to union contractors and LIUNA members.

Partners in the Environmental Partnering Project Agreement LIUNA has signed Partnering Agreements for some of the largest clean-up projects in history. An Agreement not only allows employers to bid on some projects; they also gain access to the Tri-Fund services and projects established under them. Agreements have been signed with a full range of government agencies, such as the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA), and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as well as with private sector enterprises ranging from the largest to smaller companies. Partnerships often involve a local or regional Fund, a local contractor, as well as the national Union.

LIUNA's International Affairs Department is committed to establishing an international presence through contacts with such international agencies as the ILO, International Trade Secretariats, the ICFTU, as well as individual trade unions and labor institutions. Two non-profit international institutions have already been created, separated from LIUNA by their national statutes:

• The International Affairs Department through the Interamerican Partnership for Environmental Education and Training (IPEET) for Latin America, is located in Washington D.C.
• The European Institute for Environmental Education and Training (EIEET) for Eastern and Central Europe has offices in Geneva and the Hague.

The Context for Environmental Clean-up

While one branch of the Agenda 21 is concerned with the future - changing to more sustainable patterns of consumption and production - another branch is concerned with the past - undoing the damage of past decades of unsustainable production, building and lifestyles. Safe and effective environmental clean-up and remediation is now unavoidable, as the bill for treating the environment as a "free good" is being presented in the United States and around the world. The Laborers have responded.

Environmental cleanup highlights the link between working and living environments, as the hazardous, demanding nature of the work reflects the hazard which these sites posed to nature and surrounding communities. This is why the US EPA's Superfund targeted the clean-up of hazardous, toxic and radiological sites, at a cost of $100's of millions. Likewise, the abatement of asbestos and lead-based paints in public housing and other public buildings can often be more hazardous than the original application.

An understanding has emerged in the USA that cleanup must be done properly, that the damage of unsustainable environmental practices will not be remedied by work which display the same shortsightedness that created the problem. LIUNA's General Secretary-Treasurer, R.P. Vindall, said of this determination, "Our tax dollars are too valuable to squander on shoddy work performed by contractors willing to exploit under trained, ill-equipped employees. Such work often has to be repaired and even redone, resulting in higher and long-term building costs for all of us." (The Laborer, Vol 49, No. 1)

Laws passed in both Canada and the USA require standards of work and protection for workers in environmental clean-up. Primary legislation in 1971 established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA Regulation 29 CFR 1910.120, for example, provides standards for safe work training for workers in hazardous waste removal. LIUNA's capacity to accommodate such standards was the key to a competitive advantage for both the Union and its associated contractors.

The overwhelming need for clean-up in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Republics which were formerly part of the Soviet Union is only now becoming apparent. Experts have pegged the cost at over US$120 billion for the CEE alone; in fact; the expected cost and concern over liability is emerging as a major impediment to many of the privatization projects which those governments have planned.

Serious environmental problems are being encountered in almost every conceivable area, from inadequate water management, dangerous agricultural practices, and inefficient, obsolete industrial plants and nuclear facilities, and uncontrolled landfill and waste disposal. There is likewise massive evidence of severe implications for human health, in both the workplaces and the communities. The true extent of pollution from hazardous wastes and other residue of unsustainable production is still being assessed.

Similar problems are now being addressed in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, which face huge ecological backlogs owing to years of unsustainable development. As with Central and Eastern Europe, they will only succeed if they receive massive amounts of assistance from outside, including education, training and technology.

Education for Safe and Effective Environmental Clean-Up

LIUNA developed a model in stages for education, training and technology to help employers, employees and unions meet the rigorous demands and standards in environmental clean-up and other sustainable development practices in stages. It began by doing what a union does best; negotiate on behalf of its members. Over the years the Laborers have established a solid relationship through collective bargaining with contractors and government at all levels.

Secondly, the Laborers’ competence and extensive infrastructure for education and training is due in part to its existence as a construction trade union. As a "closed shop" supplier of labor, each "trade" defines an area of knowledge and skill, which translates into a mandate to develop educational programs and rather impressive institutional structures as a way of maintaining a position for the Union in the market.

Another factor is health and safety law in the USA and Canada which requires that employers train their employees in health and safety aspects of their jobs. As the safety of both workers and the surrounding communities are at stake, OSHA instituted requirements that anyone involved in Hazardous Waste Work must take a minimum of 45 hours of training in health and safety before they are eligible to work on these sites.

By utilizing the resources of its Tri-Funds, LIUNA was able to provide much of this training on behalf of the employers, integrating safety and health requirements into construction and environmental skills training programs. The Union was thus able to offer contractors skilled, safety conscious workers with the required training. This was the basis of the Hazardous Waste Worker Course, a comprehensive course developed by L-AGC with a team of technical experts which exceeds requirements of OSHA regulations by providing twice the number of hours of training.

The Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund (L-AGC)

The purpose of this partnership is to increase employability of members and the competitiveness of union contractors in environmental cleanup as well as traditional construction projects through a program of comprehensive skills training. The L-AGC Fund is mainly supported by labor-management cooperation in the form of negotiated contributions; over $200 million since 1990. In addition, the L-AGC has struck a number of partnerships with government, with training and development grants from federal, state and municipal agencies totaling over $50 million.

Today, L-AGC programs are offered in 70 training facilities throughout North America, with approximately 40,000 Laborers participating each year, totaling nearly 250,000 since 1990. Over 15,000 members have completed the 80-hour Hazardous Waste Worker (HWW) course alone. Years of development have led to a training program that offers over 30 standardized courses for construction, environmental clean-up, support for Construction Craft Laborer apprenticeship, train-the-trainer, and a process to improve the professional and technical level of the program.

Courses cover the complete range; e.g., Construction, Craft Orientation, Construction English as a Second Language. Hazard Communication, General Construction, Asphalt Worker, Line & Grade, Highway Grade Checking, Basic Construction Plan Reading, Concrete Practices and Procedures, Mason Tending, Trench Protection and Principles of Pipe Laying, etc. A complete catalogue of audio-visual materials has been developed, including a full eight pages containing entries for materials that are available in-house, many developed by and for the Union itself.

Courses devoted specifically to environmental work include; e.g., Hazard Communication, Environmental Laborer, Asbestos Abatement, Lead Abatement, Hazardous Waste, Radiation, Underground Storage Tank Remediation, as well as refresher courses for Asbestos, Lead and Hazardous Waster Workers. Supervisor courses include: Foreman Preparedness, Asbestos and Lead Abatement, and Hazardous Waste Worker. Specialized training is offered in such areas as Hazardous Waste Remediation, Asbestos, Lead Paint Removal, Nuclear Remediation and Underground Storage Tank Removal.

One of these, the Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program has already won acclaim as being, without question, the most sophisticated hazardous waste worker training courses in the industry. It provides advanced training and certification for everything from asbestos to nuclear waste removal. It furthermore offers more "hands-on" training, instilling a sound understanding of health and safety practices at a clean-up site, and provides successful participants with a certificate.

In addition, courses and programs related to specific clean-up projects have been offered through 70 affiliated local and regional training funds and institutions. A successful "partnership" of this type was struck, for example, with the New England Laborers' Training Academy (NELTA) at Connecticut to provide a 45-hour Hazardous Waste Operations course. In addition, NELTA offers fully-equipped mobile training units to take state-of-art training, including health and safety training on-site.

Partnering initiatives with government agencies have included the Department of Labor, the Housing and U Department, NIEHS, DOE, Environmental Protection Agency, OSHA, DOD, and the Department of Education. The Fund has also formed a partnership with the American Legion to assist personnel leaving the Armed Forces make the transition to civilian life, by providing training and guidance.

Maintaining the Edge With Continuous Upgrading

L-AGC administrators and instructors are engaged in a constant process to upgrade training programs, to maintain an edge for Laborers and associated contractors. The L-AGC Education and Training Fund undertook two surveys in 1989. The Training Fund Survey, compiled data on all training fund activity, and the Need Assessment Survey identified industry skill needs and attitudes regarding training. These indicated priorities for program development and are now being conducted annually.

In 1991, representatives of LIUNA, training directors, management and union trustees began work on a Strategic Plan for Laborers' Training to the year 2000 in which five Strategic Planning Sub-committees developed ways in which L-AGC training programs and services could grow and expand. As a result, the L-AGC now tracks, monitors and evaluates its training and trainees to determine the overall effectiveness of its training, its net impact and value to the employer, end-user and training participants. Furthermore, it has expanded its L-AGC instructor training into a world-class instructor development and certification program, to insure that LIUNA instructors stay abreast of latest developments and upgrade their teaching skills.

L-AGC Curriculum Review Committees made up of industry and union representatives refine and update curriculum, and build support for the program. Recognizing the need for advanced research and communication to stay abreast of change and expanding knowledge, the L-AGC works with other Tri-Funds to monitor appropriate sources for information related to: learning advances and opportunities; instructional materials, instructor training, funding opportunities, legislation and regulation, new products and applications, training demand and need, innovation and research on constituent trades, and training activities throughout the system.

To establish Laborer's work as a skilled craft, and to build public confidence in its training, LIUNA initiated a process of public certification in conjunction with institutional improvement. Towards this end, the Fund provides liaison with the Training Fund Accreditation Committee and affiliate Funds, as well as with educational institutions and governmental agencies. Constant performance assessment insures quality as well as public and employer confidence. Finally, L-AGC Program are being woven into a vision of lifelong learning leading to higher levels of learning and enhanced employment opportunities. The excellence of LIUNA's training programs was recognized in May 1994 when the US Bureau of Apprenticeship Training designated the Construction Craft Laborer as an apprenticeable occupation, and cited LIUNA's training program as a model of innovation.

The Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North America (LHSFNA) provides leadership on occupational health and safety issues for LIUNA members, locals and employers. Its purpose is to create a safer and healthier workplace and a more productive workforce, while increasing the profitability and competitiveness of union contractors.

A primary task is to ensure that employers and union members stay abreast of developments such as revisions to OSHA or EPA standards. LHSFNA staff assist trainers and contractors with analysis of new and proposed legislation and regulations, draft of state and federal testimony, and then assist in development of work site safety programs to comply with these. It provides: visits from health and safety experts to resolve present and potential work hazards; written workplace safety plans backed by technical assistance; access to credentialed safety and health consultants, among other services. As well, it assists them in applying for state and federal grants which require labor-management cooperation as a condition of funding. It also oversees and reviews activities of non-union contractors.

LHSFNA also assists signatory employers with health and medical programs, working with trustees of health and welfare funds to improve the design of benefit plans as a means of managing health care spending. They provide recommendations from a hazardous waste worker physical examination to comply with OSHA standards; access to top-flight occupational medicine specialists; implement jointly-sponsored Membership Assistance Programs, and provide health and safety informational materials, among other services.

As another strategy to stay on the cutting edge, LHSFNA presented six regional OSHA 500 training courses to L-AGC instructors and safety and health representatives from signatory contractors and employers in 1995. The Basic Instructor Courses in Occupational Health and Safety Standards for the Construction Industry increases the quality of health and safety training offered in construction and environmental skills programs and site-specific training provided by L-AGC and signatory employers. Instructors who complete this course are authorized to instruct OSHA 10- and 30- hour construction outreach programs, with OSHA recognition and approval.

Over 20 local, state and regional trusts now utilize the services of the Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) established in 1989 to generate business opportunities and other market services for signatory employers and jobs for LIUNA members in environmental cleanup and traditional construction fields. It markets the services of the three Funds, and promotes the concept of labor-management cooperation. The Project and Job Tracking System, for example, tracks as many as 20,000 hazardous waste remediation projects as well as other construction projects. It provides information on contractors and enterprises, legislation, research, seminars and conferences, and construction and environmental cleanup initiatives.

Environmental Partnering Project Agreements

Project-specific Environmental Partnering Project Agreement are designed to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of both employees and contractors. As of January 1996, 29 signatory contractors had signed agreements for almost 90 separate projects covering projects from: military installations, large and small processors and manufacturers, office buildings, Superfund sites, hospitals, cooling towers, libraries, universities and school buildings.

A Project Agreement provides contractors with standardized terms and conditions, and allows them to make application for agreements on a project-by-project basis. Perhaps the best-known are the Superfund Projects; e.g., the Enserch Environmental Corporation project for $260 million was for a Total Environmental Restoration Contract (TERC) awarded by the New England Division of the Army Corps of Engineers for the clean-up of hazardous, toxic and radiological waste contaminated military installations and EPA Superfund sites in six states. It proved so successful that a subsequent contract was signed by Enserch for a $100 million TERC in New Mexico.

Another involved the Waterbury, Connecticut site of the former Scovill Manufacturing Company, a supplier of munitions from 1812 through to the Vietnam war. With 140 buildings on 92 acres, the site required some 200 Laborers to prepare it for demolition, primarily because of hazardous waste and asbestos. NELTA met demanding time limits, providing training and certification to over 100 workers in Hazardous Waste and Asbestos Abatement, using West Virginia and Iowa mobile units, the NELTA facility in Connecticut and the Hazardous Waste Regional Training Center in New York.

By working with city and state officials, the Connecticut Laborers' District Council, the New England Regional Office, New England LECET, and Laborers' political forces were able to forge a 100% union site. In return, LIUNA was able to provide training was provided not only to the LIUNA members, but for supervisory personnel and City of Waterbury residents as well. The job was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Many of the new members are being retained by contractors for other jobs.

Other projects involve different demands. A partnership formed between the Laborers', NELTA, Lead Pro Contractors, the New Haven Housing Authority, and the Elm Haven Resident Council, Inc. provided minority, inner-city residents with a 3-week in-residence training course in Asbestos and Lead Abatement, including lead encapsulation. Another partnership with the Environment Protection Agency (EPA)-funded Asbestos Program allowed hundreds of workers to be trained and certified under a grant program in asbestos abatement. Extended after the disastrous California earthquake of 1994 necessitated asbestos abatement in devastated buildings.

Encapsulation as a model for lead abatement was developed as a temporary measure in public housing. A demonstration project for the Philadelphia Housing Authority served as a model for a series of projects funded by a special Congressional Appropriations for Youth Apprenticeship. Hundreds more were trained in New York under a State of New York Occupational Safety and Health (NYOSH) training contract. In addition, LIUNA coordinated meetings in Missouri to bring together representatives from neighboring states to update Asbestos Abatement training manuals.

Likewise, in 1994, the L-AGC formed a partnership with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions to win a $485,000 contract from the Department of Defense to expand the HWWTP on sites in the Southeast, establishing a link between the Fund and 17 predominantly African American, Hispanic and Native American serving institutions with Clark Atlanta University acting as the lead institution.

A partnership involving NELTA, the Laborers' Regional Office and Local, Stone and Webster contractor, Northeast Utilities and Millstone Nuclear Power Plant consolidated and improved training for workers at a Nuclear Power Plant to reduce costs. Instructors and course were approved by Northeast Utilities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and this led to further work at the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, and now serves as model for training throughout the USA.

In 1994, the Department of Energy (DOE) approved the L-AGC Radiological Worker II Manual for use in its Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program. This training has been provided to over 1700 workers in 11 different courses (133 presentations) for which the DOE provided a $2.1 million. As success requires constant monitoring and innovation, Environmental Remediation Task Force was established in 1993 to oversee progress in hazardous waste training and clean-up. In the first year of its existence, LIUNA signed agreements for over $800 million worth of work.

Bringing Success in Environmental Cleanup to the World

LIUNA programs have shown that partnerships can be formed across national boundaries to provide the strength required to tackle massive clean-up operations and occupational health and safety training in other parts of the world. LIUNA's International Affairs Department cooperates with such international agencies as the ILO, the International Trade Secretariats, the ICFTU, as well as individual trade unions and labor institutions to identify potential recipients for cooperative training efforts. Once identified, both labor and management become involved in program development, insuring a relevant and balanced curriculum for the worker.

The European Institute for Environmental Education and Training (EIEET) targets partners in the Central and Eastern Europe and the emerging Republics of the former Soviet Union, where the diverse needs of employers and unions demand a robust and adaptable curriculum. EIEET works closely with local partners using the built-in flexibility of its programs to create a curriculum and provide training materials and expertise adapted to local needs. Several L-AGC training programs and materials have already been adapted and translated for use. The L-AGC Program Catalogue is usually first to be translated and provides a framework for further collaboration; it has already been provided in Russian, Turkish, Czech and Slovak.

The Hazardous Waste Removal Course has been most broadly accepted and adapted in this regard. It is being used, for example, by the Trade Union of Chemistry Workers of the Czech Republic, who now employ the L-AGC Program as a model for the training of over 4000 health and safety representatives that will be required under new legislation being passed by the Czech Parliament. It is used, as well, by the Oil Gas and Construction Workers' Union, the Electrical Workers' Union, the Timber and Related Industries Union, and the Chemical and Allied Industrial Workers' Union in Russia; the Bulgarian National Federation of Labor; and the Trade Union of Chemistry Workers of the Slovak Republic. Asbestos Abatement Worker materials are also being employed by the same Russian and Bulgarian unions.

LIUNA's International Affairs Department is also involved in Latin America through the Interamerican Partnership for Environmental Education and Training (IPEET) with offices in Washington D.C. Training is being provided through this non-profit organization established by LIUNA for government officials overseeing remediation efforts in Mexico City and in other Central and South American countries.

The North American Free Trade Agreement has allowed the Laborers to develop a close working relationship with the Mexican labor movement, which held training seminars modeled on L-AGC programs in 1994-95. As well, in October, 1995, the LIUNA International Affairs Department sponsored a meeting of some 40 trade union leaders from Latin America with an equal number of LIUNA representatives, at which time it formed the Interamerican Labor Forum to provide for an ongoing exchange of increasing flows of information on trade union issues and related matters, and to prepare for Common Market Developments scheduled for 2005.

Agreements are being signed with trade unions and other institutions which provide for the exchange of information, education and experience. These accords are with labor centers such as the National Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CTM) and the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela (CTV), as well as with other institutions and labor bodies: e.g., the Municipality of Caracas, Venezuela, the Federation of Workers of the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil (FETIESC), the Federation of Workers of Parana Curitiba in Brazil, the Union of Electrical Workers of Sao Paulo Brazil, and the National Technological University of Argentina.

Agenda 21 Objectives and Lessons

LIUNA not only participates in sustainable development as described in Chapter 29; it has taken the lead with the employers in a way that also ensures economic success and job security for its members. Its success proves the value of freedom of association and the right to organize, as collective agreements form the basis of its environmental action. It also shows that trade unions are capable of managing industrial change that leads to employment policies, industrial strategies, and technology transfers that promote full employment in safe, clean and healthy environments, at work and beyond.

It has highlighted the pivotal role of education and training in this process, as discussed in Chapter 36 (Education, Training and Sustainable Development). It has also developed a model for international cooperation and the transfer of technology to countries whose economies are in difficulty or in transition, as in the case of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, where the need to address an environmental backlog is set against a background of social and political change.

Advances in training and standard-setting in environmental cleanup and remediation achieved by LIUNA have illustrate several aspects of Agenda 21; e.g., restoring land as in Chapter 10; protecting and managing fresh water from pollution by toxic wastes, as provided in Chapter 18; aspects of Chapter 19 (Safer Use of Toxic Chemicals); and have special implications for Chapter 20 (Managing Hazardous Wastes) and Chapter 22 (Managing Radioactive Wastes), in which case LIUNA is prepared to offer technical assistance to other countries facing problems in this area.

Where governments recognize the need to identify contaminated waste disposal sites and populations at risk, and to take the necessary remedial measures, they can tap into the wealth of information and expertise that LIUNA has assembled, as provided in Chapter 39. It shows why countries must build on the experience of other countries in preparing Agenda 21 action programs, as described in Chapter 37 (Creating Capacity for Sustainable Development), which also suggests a role for the United Nations system in facilitating exchange and transferal. LIUNA's model calls for both Union and employer to take a stand against lowering of standards for dealing with waste.

This case points the way to Chapter 34 (Technology Transfer) to countries and regions that lack the material means, the know-how, services, equipment, organizational and managerial skills to make them work. A central place is given to the systematic training of crafts persons, technicians, managers, scientists, engineers and educators, as well as the role of international centers of expertise in this process. Just as importantly, it shows that this expertise can be made available without prohibitive charges, an especially crucial point of Chapter 33 (Financing Sustainable Development), especially where foreign debt impedes progress towards Agenda 21 objectives.

Much of LIUNA's success lies in its ability to work with and through government programs, standards and agencies. LIUNA has shown how a Union can work with local authorities to find answers in key areas, as described in Chapter 28, and at the same time, it exemplifies the role responsible entrepreneurship can play in improving the efficiency of resource use, minimizing wastes and protecting human health and environmental quality, as described in Chapter 30 (Business and Industry). In this case, sound environmental management is the key to survival in the industry.

For further information contact

Michael D. Boggs
Director, International Affairs Department
Laborers' International Union of North America
905 - 16 St. NW
Washington, D.C., USA
10006 - 1765
tel: 202-942-2332 fax: 202-942-2367