Safety and Health

BAC Launches New Safety and Health Webpage for Members

In November, BAC was proud to launch a new safety and health webpage, which will serve as an easy-to-access hub for safety, health and jobsite-injury prevention information. Whether it’s videos from the BAC Department of Safety and Health’s webinar series, BAC/IMI training programs, COVID resources, recent articles, related legislation, or other industry resources, you’ll find it at bacweb.org/ safety.

One of the most useful resources on the site are the webinars conducted by the BAC Safety and Health Department, which are micro-trainings on the latest research and safety trends in the construction industry. They cover a variety of topics including ladder safety, fall protection, working in the heat, silica dust prevention, and OSHA/MSHA updates. Members can also find and register for upcoming webinars directly on the page.

“Every worker has a right to come home from work every day in the same physical condition as they left,” said BAC Safety and Health Manager Liliana Calderon. “We hope this safety and health webpage will serve as an informational and educational portal for all hardworking BAC brothers and sisters.”

If you have any suggestions or comments for the safety and health page or a future webinar topic, please contact Sister Calderon at lcalderon@bacweb.org. //

INTRODUCING SC-SMIS:

A Tool for Continuous Safety Management and Safety Climate Improvement

Over the last two decades, it has become clear to construction companies and safety practitioners that a company’s safety record comes down to the climate that it has onsite. “Safety climate” — defined as the shared understanding among workers regarding what is rewarded, expected, valued and reinforced at the jobsite with respect to safety – is directly associated with the numbers of injuries and their outcomes. To strengthen a company’s safety climate, the company needs to improve its safety management practices, policies, and procedures used on the jobsite.

To help companies, particularly those with fewer personnel and financial resources, effectively carry out these activities, CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training (www.cpwr.com) — created the Safety Climate-Safety Management Information System or SC-SMIS (www.scsmis.org). It is an easy-to-use, interactive webbased system that any company can access, at no cost, to:

Measure jobsite safety climate across eight leading indicators using CPWR’s reliable and valid safety climate assessment tools.

Download evidence-based safety management policies, procedures, guidelines, and templates from a large resource repository to strengthen low-scoring indicators. All ninety resources are available

in English and Spanish, and formatted in Microsoft Word or Power Point so companies can tailor them to their specific needs.

Develop a Plan to put the selected resources into action, keep track of current and completed plans, and schedule reminders to conduct future assessments for continuous safety climate and safety management improvement. //

Resolutions on Safety and Health Adopted at the 2022 Special Convention

During the 2022 Special Convention, the Committee on Safety referred five Resolutions — Resolutions 52–56 — to the Convention floor. Each of the Committee’s recommendations was unanimously adopted by the Convention.

Resolution No. 52 urged OSHA to continue to effectively enforce its critically important comprehensive silica standard and to regularly update Table 1 of that standard to make sure that the most effective controls are in place to protect worker safety. The Resolution also called on IMI and local training centers to continue to provide robust training and support for new tools and technology that will minimize the risk associated with silica exposure.

Resolution No. 53 called on BAC to continue to work with others in the industry and the labor movement to protect all workers’ lives through a strong commitment to occupational safety. It also called on the United States and Canadian Governments to vigorously enforce worker safety laws to further reduce the number of injuries, illnesses and fatalities on the job, including swift passage, signing, and enforcement of the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act.

Resolution No. 54 concerned climate change and jobsite effects like extreme heat. It called on BAC Local Unions and ADCs to enforce the provisions of their collective bargaining agreements that ensure such workplace provisions as rest breaks and ready access to drinking water, and to reinforce the role of stewards in monitoring potentially dangerous work sites or conditions, as well as individual worker response to adverse conditions. The Resolution also called on BAC Locals and ADCs to continue to seek improved regulations and enforcement both at the federal, state, provincial, and local levels, including adoption of a national heat stress standard under OSHA and new state standards influenced by those of California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington.

Resolution No. 55 called on BAC to continue to urge OSHA to implement a COVID-19 standard that will keep all workers safe on the job, and to conduct classroom, online, and webinar training on pandemic preparedness to ensure BAC members are afforded the right to work safely in the event of another similar viral outbreak.

Resolution No. 56 reaffirmed the union’s commitment to safety training at the International and local levels. It called on BAC Local Unions and ADCs to ensure that their apprenticeship and training programs participate in IMTEF’s Train-the-Trainer Safety Programs and that their trainer(s) are certified to perform OSHA 10, OSHA 30, and MSHA training.

“These resolutions help set our tone and focus for the next few years,” said BAC Executive Vice President Jerry Sullivan. “Safety has always been one of the union’s top priorities and I thank all the Safety Committee Members for their work.”

For more on the 2022 BAC Special Convention, see page 3. //