GLENS FALLS — CSEA’s Peer Trainer Program provides the information and skills to ensure that every worker’s right to a safe and healthy workplace is upheld, and that everyone goes home safely at the end of each day.
Our union’s peer trainers recently met in Glens Falls to gain more expertise to bring back to their workplaces and peers.
Through this labor-management initiative, participants are trained in best practices to prevent workplace injuries and fatalities, with courses such as hazard communication, work zone traffic control, disaster preparedness and confined space entry.
Funded through federal grants, CSEA provides these trainings at no cost to the worker or employer. It brings together CSEA and other union members, as well as management, to learn how to keep their workplaces safe for all.
“What makes this program really successful is that it’s coworkers and management working together,” said CSEA Standing Occupational Safety and Health Committee Chair Tom Skabry, who is employed at Town of Southold Public Works and has seen the program evolve over 20 years. “This program takes real-life scenarios in the workplace and teaches off of that.”
Different from other safety trainings, this program is taught by workers and for workers who are tasked with hazardous responsibilities across a variety of worksites, including Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP), the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and Department of Transportation (DOT).
Like Skabry, many peer trainers have been part of the program for years. Some see the program’s continued implementation in their workplace as helping grow a culture with safety at the forefront.
“What the Peer Trainer Program has done in my workplace, and what it continues to do, is foster occupational safety and health culture, which is so important,” said CSEA’s High Peaks State Local President John LeFebvre, who has been in the program for 17 years.
LeFebvre, who also serves on the Standing Occupational Safety and Health Committee, has remained part of this program for nearly two decades of his career because he sees “what it accomplishes” and “actual results on the ground of people being safer.”
During his 25 years at Letchworth State Park, Tim Schroeder has also seen a culture of safety grow both in his workplace and in himself.
“I can drive down through the park and be looking at a job, and safety is one of the first things that pops into my head from being in these trainings,” said Schroeder.
The refresher saw some new faces, such as Town of Orchard Park Highway Department’s Brian Osieja, who has been in the Peer Trainer Program for six months. Osieja has seen his workplace become safer through an increase of wearing safety vests and using personal protective equipment, as well as bringing agency to his crew.
“This program gives our union brothers strength to say we’re doing work by the law, we don’t have to do it an unsafe way,” said Osieja, who is looking forward to returning to the job to share all he has learned about safety and health.
This program resonates so strongly with those a part of it due in part to the trust built with both one another and CSEA’s Occupational Health and Safety Department (OSH) staff.
“The support we get from CSEA is amazing,” said Kevin Masterson of the Town of Orchard Park Highway Department. “We know we can always pick up the phone.”
When facing a safety question or concern, Peer Trainers can always rely on the OSH Department staff, including OSH Grant Training Coordinator Janet Womachka-Sourey, who oversees the Peer Trainer Program. However, they also can rely on one another.
Many trainers have gained essential safety skills and friendships throughout this program.
“It’s opened doors for me,” said Schroeder. “I’ve met people I otherwise wouldn’t have met, and I’ve made friendships.”
This refresher had a few special recognitions. The Charles A. Noble Outstanding Service Award was presented to NYSCOBPA member Angel Johnson, who works at Auburn Correctional Facility, for unwavering dedication to promoting safety in the workplace. Genesee State Parks Local member Nicholas Warner was presented with an award for 10 years of service to the Peer Trainer Program.
The Peer Trainer Program arms our members with the ability to be conduits for information that keep one another safe on the job.
“The knowledge that we as peer trainers can bring back to our membership gives them what they need to handle everything that comes at us, and hopefully get us all home safe,” said Tim Hoffman, Town of Brookhaven Highway Department.
— Alexandra Whitbeck