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Air Today . . . Gone Tomorrow Article
Largest Federal Union
Blasts Bush Administration for Failing to Equip Workers to Aid First Responders
PR Newswire, October 27, 2004
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bush Administration has failed to provide adequate
training and equipment to employees designated to assist first responders in the event of
a nuclear, chemical, or biological emergency, the American Federation of Government
Employees (AFGE) charged Oct. 25.
AFGE, which is the largest federal employee union and represents bargaining unit employees
at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said in a grievance that NIH failed to train
and equip its "Code Red Alert Critical" employees to help first responders or to
even include them in an emergency response training drill held Oct. 21. First responders
include personnel such as emergency management squads, fire and rescue agencies, hazardous
materials teams, and others.
The union also charged that NIH has failed to provide such equipment as protective suits,
gloves, gas masks, helmets, pocket dosimeters, or radiation meters. Moreover, it has
failed to train its Code Red alert employees in basis first aid, cardiopulmonary
resuscitation, chemical/biological/nuclear agent awareness and response, decontamination
procedures, and other areas.
"The agency has failed to draft, create, or publish a standard operating procedure
for Code Red Alert Critical employees," the AFGE said in its grievance, and accused
the NIH of violating several articles of the Occupational Safety and Health Act's general
duty clause.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee
union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the
District of Columbia.
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