by Tom Price

Longshore workers have no choice but to be ‘first responders’ in hazardous situations on the docks—that’s because it happens right in front of them. Any hazardous spill would affect them and their families both as workers and as members of the community.

The ILWU has again taken the lead in port safety and security by training 20 members in a “train the trainer” hazardous materials response course June 11 – 15 in San Francisco.

“When it comes to safety the union is fed up with the Pacific Maritime Association’s training,” longshore Local 10’s John Castanho said. “PMA’s training is a 7-8 hour classroom course offered every three years, taught by a non-ILWU person with no practical longshoring experience.”

The union saw the need to have real training, conducted by ILWU members and professionals through the Labor Occupational Safety and Health Programs from both UC Berkeley and UCLA, Castanho said. All the participants are now certified in first-stage hazardous material instruction.

The trainers will be able to train others in their locals in basic first response procedures. The first step is identifying the hazard. “Say I see something leaking out of the container, and I don’t know what it is,” Castanho said. “I have identified a hazard. Next I warn others to stay away, then I contact supervision, and leave the area.”

The training began with an introduction to hazardous materials, their properties, and how to identify them. Other topics included scene control, protective equipment and decontamination. The instruction used role playing, lectures and discussions.

One of the problems discussed is the difficulty in determining just who is the responsible authority. The course taught that just where the incident occurs generally determines who takes control. If it’s on the ship or in the water it’s federal, on land it could be fire dept, or the state, FBI, or customs. Having the members know who to contact speeds the response. They would take instruction from whoever is in charge and help evacuate the area.

“The course brought us an awareness of just how to deal with the hazards and the tools to train our members and make the waterfront a safer place to work,” Local 8’s Jim Daw said.

Union members and the Western Regional Universities Consortium designed the course. Steve Hecker, Senior Lecturer at the Univ. of Washington also participated.

“We did an internal audit in Local 10 and we found about two-thirds of our members live in Alameda Co.,” Castanho said. “We live where we work, we work where we live.”