Retrained for What?

For the 80 laid-off aerospace workers in Southern California, the future suddenly appeared brighter than it had in years. After completing an eight- week course in handling hazardous materials, the students looked forward to new white-collar careers in pollution control. But fewer than one-third of the graduates landed the principal jobs available: on-site work cleaning up toxic spills. "They would be the people out there exposing themselves to hazardous waste," says Robert Nelson, director of government relations for the Los Angeles-based Labor Employment Training Corp., which ran the program from September 1991 until early last year. "A lot of the people...

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