[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 183 (Tuesday, November 29, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RECOGNIZING GERMAIN HARNDEN'S REMARKABLE CAREER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BRIAN HIGGINS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 29, 2022

  Mr. HIGGINS of New York. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Germain 
Harnden and her remarkable 42-year career.
  Germain has dedicated her career to safety, health training, 
education, and advocacy for workers. For the last decade, she has 
served as the executive director of WNYCOSH.
  Before beginning her career at WNYCOSH, Germain studied at the 
University of Buffalo. She worked as an editor of the Humanist Magazine 
at the Center of Inquiry, and she would go onto enroll in the Cornell 
Cooperative Extension Labor Studies program, where she took several 
courses on collective bargaining, labor history, and mediation. Germain 
worked as a certified mediator and volunteered in numerous community 
mediation cases.
  In 1978 and 1979, Germain participated with Cornell Extension staff 
and other labor activists in the formation of what would become the WNY 
Council on Occupational Safety & Health. She helped organize the first 
kick-off event of WNYCOSH at a winter safety and health conference, 
which drew over 300 labor union participants. Germain took an official 
staff position at WNYCOSH in 1979 and was instrumental in creating 
safety and health training under OSHA's New Direction grant program.
  In 1980, she also worked on advocating for the Right-to-Know 
legislation, which would become the nation's first law in the country 
to require employers to provide workers with information on the 
chemicals they were working with and protective measures to reduce or 
eliminate hazardous exposures. Throughout the 1980s, Germain organized 
safety workshops and seminars.
  Germain served as WNYCOSH Program Director from 1986 until 2012. 
Germain wrote all WNYCOSH grants, including the annual contributions, 
and organized worker training which regularly draws 6,000 participants 
each year. Her work as Executive Director allowed WNYCOSH to continue 
its significant presence in the Buffalo area.
  Germain's career was focused on bettering the lives of workers in our 
community, and I will always be grateful to her for those efforts. On 
behalf of countless workers, I sincerely thank Germain Harnden for 
being a dedicated community leader, advocate, and vital player in 
Western New York for over four decades.

                          ____________________