The final report of a project to build the workplace health and safety capacity of trade unions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Indonesia is now posted on the Web site of the Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network (MHSSN): www.igc.org/mhssn.

The project involved two 4-day training sessions in Jakarta, Indonesia in June 2000 and February 2002. The local coordinating organization was LIPS and the training sessions were organized by the MHSSN and the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) at the University of California at Berkeley. Funding was provided by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and initial support from the International Labor Rights Fund.

More than a dozen trade unions and two dozen NGOs participated in the training, which involved a one-day trip to a 8,000-worker sports shoe factory in Tangerang producing for Nike, Inc. The goal of the workshops was to build the knowledge and skills of the participants to understand basic concepts of workplace health and safety, to be able to understand and critique reports of organizations monitoring the labor practices of multinational corporations, and to build networks within Indonesia to expand the occupational health resources available to workers and community-based organizations.

The report's author, Diane Bush at LOHP, can be reached at dbush@uclink4.berkeley.edu and 510-642-5507; and the coordinator of the MHSSN, Garrett Brown, can be reached at gdbrown@igc.org and 510-622-2913.