The GCIU won a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Labor Department to develop and implement a "train-the-trainer" program for safety and health.

GCIU Vice Pres. Leonard E. Adams, who initiated the grant proposal, told convention delegates that he is "really enthused about this program, and it's certainly going to help our members."

Photo by Thomas R. Koeniges, Nassau County 406C

Leonard E. Adams

The grant provides $298,000 per year for five years. The GCIU must reapply for the grant every year.

Adams noted that "if that guy from Texas [Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush] gets elected, there probably won't be funding for things we want to do."

"So, not only is safety and health important to us," Adams said, "the political process is as important to us. Because if we don't get the right people where we want them, we're not going to have the programs that you folks deserve."

The first phase of the grant program will involve three GCIU rank-and-file members who will work with the New York Labor Institute to write a survey that will ask GCIU local officers what should be included in the safety and health training program. The three GCIU members must have 15 release days from work and will receive lost time and expenses for this period.

During the next phase, 34 GCIU members will be trained to work in the 17 regions identified by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration as having the highest risk plants in the printing and publishing industry.

These 34 people will need to take a week off work to go to the Rutgers University Continuing Education Center for the training. Again, Adams said, lost time and expenses will be paid.

In return, the 34 members must commit to returning to their locals and surrounding areas to hold two sessions in the first year to train a minimum of 20 people each.

Adams said there also is money in the grant to translate materials developed in the program into two languages, one of which will be Spanish.

Adams said the final outcome of the grant over the five-year period would be to train more than 1,000 GCIU members per year on important safety and health issues and protections.

"It's like putting money in the bank," Adams said. "If the interest compounds, it keeps growing. That's what this is about."