DOE Funds Driver Training

WASHINGTON (AP) - In an effort to revive jobs at the Nevada Test Site, a new federal grant offers former warehouse workers the chance to learn how to drive big-rig trucks.

The Energy Department is providing $1.2 million to create the program in an effort to help find jobs for some of the thousands of test site workers laid off this decade. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will teach 42 people the basics of driving big rigs and another 20 how to drive specialty trucks.

"Too many workers have been tripped up when their skills no longer fit the rapidly changing job market," said Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. "We know this is just the beginning."

Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who helped secure the grant, said replacing jobs will begin restoring the test site that had once been a "teeming city" and was vital to developing nuclear weapons during the 1950s to 1990s.

"What we're doing here is more bread and butter work," he said.

The truck-driving program is part of a $10 million retraining effort that follows a dramatic reduction in jobs at the former nuclear testing site in the wake of the end of the Cold War and the end of underground nuclear testing.

Since the high-water mark in 1992, the number of workers at the test site has dropped from 11,000 to about 2,500 today.

Although the number of people to be trained is relatively small by comparison, federal and Teamsters officials expect the program to expand and continue beyond this initial two-year grant. Officials will solicit grants from other federal agencies and from companies that need truck drivers.

"It's a significant number to start," said Kathy Carlson, the Energy Department's field office manager at the test site.

Because of the construction boom around Las Vegas, which is 65 miles southeast of the test site, the truckers are expected to find jobs easily.

"There's a demand for the drivers right now," said Glen Woodworth, a Teamster who will lead the training.

Part of the grant will pay to create the school at the test site, refurbish trucks and train the Teamsters who will in turn train the drivers. The training is expected to cost $5,000 to $6,000 per driver once the program is running.

The first applicants will start training in about two months. About six workers will be enrolled in each six-week course that will introduce the basic skills required for a Commercial Driver License. Specialty training, such as for water trucks, cement mixers or flatbeds, takes up to a month.