Hotel Housekeepers and Ergonomics: Policy to Action – Building on UNITE HERE’s advocacy for a landmark Cal/OSHA standard to prevent musculoskeletal injuries, we trained 27 worker leaders and staff, who in turn trained 162 housekeepers on the new regulation and strategies for ensuring its implementation.    Sexual Harassment in Janitorial Industry – Trained 93 promotoras from SEIU-USWW through 6 “training of trainers.” These promotoras will provide peer training to janitors throughout CA using curriculum we developed that is trauma-informed and centered on workers’ experiences.   Young Worker Leadership Academy – 24 teens from 6 communities across the state participated in our annual 3-day academy, and teams went on to promote safe jobs for youth in their own communities. One team got the Los Angeles Unified School District to proclaim May as Safe Jobs for Youth Month, calling on Los Angeles Unified schools to promote awareness! Staffing agencies – Trained 124 employer representatives from staffing agencies around the country about their responsibilities to protect temporary workers. Our new “train the trainer” model prepares University of Washington trainers to teach the classes in the Northwest.

We are collaborating with the CA Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative on community-based participatory research focused on worker leadership development and reducing harmful chemicals that may put workers at risk for breast cancer. Together with Vietnamese nail salon workers, we are building the partnership, designing focus group and interview research, and developing a leadership development curriculum. In the project kick-off last fall, we drew our “rivers of life” – the paths that led each of us to our current collaboration. Workers shared powerful stories from their experiences as refugees, highlighting their resilience and readiness to improve working conditions in nail salons.

In response to the devastating wildfires in CA, we are involved in multiple efforts to provide training and resources to outdoor workers and to expand our reach to Butte, Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties. We have developed training on wildfire smoke hazards, safe clean-up, and the new Cal/OSHA emergency standard. We collaborated with the California Domestic Worker Coalition and Hand-In-Hand to produce  tips for household employers , and this spring we will launch training for farmworkers in partnership with California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) Foundation and CRLA Inc. We are also carrying out qualitative research to better understand farmworker experiences and identify ways to improve community preparedness and response to such emergencies.

LOHP believes that all workforce development programs should include comprehensive health and safety training as an essential component in creating high-quality jobs and careers. We have developed training and resources that workforce development programs can use to prepare their students to be active participants in workplace health and safety. We piloted the trainings with a pre-apprenticeship program for auto mechanics and  Career Technical Education (CTE)  programs for agricultural mechanics and logistics operators.  We conducted outreach through labor and community-based job training programs to promote the new materials and tools, which can be used to improve the health and safety of 1.2 million CTE students enrolled in community college and high school programs each year.

Sexual Harassment Training – Videos and lesson plans for workers and supervisors, in English and Spanish School Safety – Active shooter fact sheet    Career Technical Education (CTE) – New guide for administrators and instructors and teaching activities to develop problem-solving and communication skills Webinars – on Effective & Interactive Training and Active Shooter Awareness in Schools Online soon! – Peer educator training guides in English and Spanish for early childhood educators

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