In another blow to GCIU and other workers' job safety, the Bush administration canceled the grant program that provided GCIU the opportunity to train local union members in safety and health.

Last year, the Clinton administration provided GCIU with a $1.5 million grant under a "train-the-trainer" program that would have allowed thousands of GCIU members to eventually receive safety and health training. The grant terms were $285,000 per year for five years, with a renewal application required each year.

The International, in conjunction with The Labor Institute in New York, already had developed the training program and held the first train-the-trainer session in Milwaukee in March for some 30 local union members.

As a budget-cutting measure, the Bush administration eliminated the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program under the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Immediately canceled were 19 training grants for $4.8 million to unions and other groups that had been provided by the Clinton administration in January.

Since the GCIU's Harwood grant funding was included in a previous budget, the funding will most likely be eliminated at the end of the fiscal year in September 2002 unless action is taken to restore the grants.

AFL-CIO Pres. John J. Sweeney said that, "just weeks after Congress killed the OSHA ergonomics standard at the behest of George Bush and his wealthy corporate backers," the elimination of the training grants "is just another political payback to Bush's big business supporters at the expense of average working citizens."

"These training grants provide workplace safety and health education to traditionally underserved and at-risk populations who are exposed to health hazards," Sweeney said. "Fully funded by Congress in this year's budget, the grants targeted the most vulnerable workers – immigrant and contingent workers, small business employees, and workers in such high risk jobs as construction and sanitation."

GCIU Vice Pres. Leonard E. Adams, who worked on obtaining the grant, said training GCIU members about safety is crucial because persuading OSHA to inspect a workplace has become difficult. "The government does little to nothing to help us with safety and health in the workplace," he said. "So, now it's more important than ever to have the availability of funds to train our members, and they in turn can train their union brothers and sisters."

GCIU Vice Pres. Edward J. Toff, who directs International safety and health activities, said there is very little hope of the continuation of the GCIU grant after 2002 "unless we get some moderate Republicans to push for their constituents as well as our members. We'll have to fight politically to keep the program going."

GCIU Vice Pres. Lawrence Martinez, who directs legislative action for the International, urged all GCIU families to send e-mails, letters, or faxes or telephone their members to Congress to ask them to restore the Susan Harwood grants.

Martinez said Bush is creating "vicious circles" for working people. "Bush is working with Republican leaders in Congress to cut worker-friendly programs in the budget to give a $1.3 trillion tax cut primarily to the richest individuals and corporations in the nation," he said. "Meanwhile, energy prices and prescription drug prices are soaring, which hits working families and retirees the hardest. Yet they won't get enough tax relief under Bush's plan to offset those price increases, so they will be worse off."

"Not only that," Martinez noted, "now workers will run an even greater risk of being injured on the job for lack of training and an ergonomics standard but won't be able to afford prescription drugs necessary for their injuries."

"Contact your senators and representatives to let them know that working people and retirees should come first before wealthy corporations and individuals," Martinez said.