ASBESTOS NEWS
Washington Navy Yard Case Study Report Update: Job Placement Efforts

Asbestos program: Job placement efforts to staff Washington Navy Yard.

The attorneys at the personal injury law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg have decades of experience defending victim’s rights in practice areas that include: accidents/general injury, dangerous drugs, medical malpractice, and environmental pollutants.

NEWS UPDATE:

Asbestos-related cleanup program: Read about job placement efforts to staff the Washington Navy Yard environmental cleanup.

At the end of every training session, AHOHC/ Institute for Workplace Safety and Health and STRIVE DC host several job fairs at the training facility. Contractors with job openings and local unions are invited to exhibit at the fair.

Many interviews and job placements occur during the fairs. As of January 2004, the program has graduated approximately 475 students, according to AHOHC. The program has achieved a job placement rate of over 70 percent.

Several graduates have continued their environmental education by attending university or advanced study in environmental clean-up technologies while several other students have entered a local asbestos union’s apprenticeship program.

The program has excelled in job placement efforts. Fortunately, the gloomy economy between 20002003 has not affected the job market for hazardous waste cleanups. Graduates of the program have been involved with large national and area-wide cleanups.

Approximately 20 trainees have spent time participating in the cleanup of the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon site or the anthrax decontamination projects in the New York and Washington D.C. metropolitan areas. A few graduates participated in the mercury spill decontamination at a Washington, D.C.-area high school in 2003.

While most trainees are placed with a variety of local companies, 38 of the graduates have been placed at the Navy Yard Superfund site with either the Public Works Center (a quasi-governmental agency responsible for construction and construction management at Naval District Washington facilities) or with Navy contractors.

Other area contractors such as Envirocontrols and Southern Insulation (a signatory contractor with the Asbestos Workers Local Union #24) have hired many of the graduates.

A trainer for the class specifically mentioned that because of lack of funding for follow-up, it was difficult to track graduates employment status. According to the trainer, employment figures could be much higher than accounted for, but it was ultimately up to the graduate to inform him whether they were employed or not.

One of the earlier problems affecting the Washington Navy Yard SuperJTI program was a mismatch of jobs with the number of trainees graduating at a particular time. While this problem still exists to an extent, the trainers have improved their communication with employers about when work will be available and have been able to schedule a program’s graduation date appropriately.

A trainee provider said the excellent job placement rate is due to the broad range of training given. Furthermore, he said, “Nothing substitutes for caring trainers, appropriate funding, and contacts within the community and nearby employers for a successful program.”

Courtesy of the EPA