On January 31, 2017 in Lower Manhattan, tens of thousands of workers came together to collectively raise their voices outside of City Hall and the City Council chambers in support of a package of bills aimed at increasing safety in the construction industry. One bill in particular ‰ÛÒ Intro. 1447 ‰ÛÒ introduced by House and Building Committee Chair Jumaane Williams calls for additional safety training and qualifications for each worker employed at a major building site that is 10 stories or higher, and for workers on demolition sites 4 or more stories. The additional safety training should be commensurate with that required for registered apprentices.
Currently all workers employed at a major site are required to successfully complete, within the previous 5 years, a course that is at least 10 hours in length and approved by United States Department of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Local 3 and the employers enthusiastically support a better trained and safer workforce. In response to the sensible requirements outlined in this bill our industry leaders have agreed to provide the members of the RE/RW and M-Helper divisions with additional safety training enhancement courses. These courses will cover electrical lock-out/tag-out, ladders, fall protection, as well as First Aid/CPR. Our industry is committed, as always, to providing our members with on-going safetytraining.
The training and safety standards that come with apprenticeship programs has been proven time and again. Of the 30 construction-related deaths over the last two years in New York City, 28 have occurred on non-union sites. And it is the developers and open-shop contractors who run those non-union sites who are opposing these safety standards. They have decided that their bottom-line profit is more important than the workers who do the hard and dangerous work for them.
The enactment of Intro. 1447 will go a long way in reversing the rise of construction site deaths and severe accidents. It will help provide better protection for the public at large and construction workers whose jobs by nature are hazardous. Construction workers enrolled in registered apprenticeship programs receive safety training that far exceeds the minimum 10 hour OSHA safety training courses currently required on construction sites. This bill will ensure that major building and demolition sites will be staffed by experienced, skilled and properly trained workers. It is a win-win...the public’s safety will be better served and the worker’s odds of returning home to their loved ones greatly increased. Safety at any job, let alone a construction job-site, should always be in the forefront. Intro. 1447 moves the needle in that important direction.
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