N.S.C. Labor Division Meetings

October 26

-November 1, 2011 Philadelphia, P A

We opened with evacuation instructions, appointment of emergency responders and CPR/911 callers.

We opened with a guest speaker, Jeff "Odie" Espenship, an ex "WartHog" and fighter pilot, now a commercial pilot. His topic was "Striving for Safety Excellence". Don't become complacent with your work and your work safety ethics.

There was a Guest Orientation session with many first time attendees.

Training sessions included: Hazards of Composites Used in the Airline Industries, First Aid, Setting Expectations of a Zero Accident Culture, Physical and Pre-Job Warm Up and Navigating OSHA.

Many committee meetings and caucuses were held including Occupation and Environmental Health, Ergonomics, Maritime Industries Safety and Health (of which I am the chair) and Construction & Utilities Safety and Health.

Quotes of note include: "Leaders influence people's future behavior" . . . if you influence just one person to make a positive decision, it is good. "The brain has two sides that effect decisions ....the left side is logical and the right is emotional." Males tend to use the logical side most, while females tend to use the emotional side more.

 

IBEW Safety Caucus - Fall 2011

The business meeting was called to order by the chairperson. Evacuation and Emergency Responders were appointed, for example a CPR/Call 911 member was selected and AED locations were announced. The minutes were approved and members were introduced. Old and new business was discussed.

The Safety Director gave his report. It included:

 Political issues on work improvement are almost nonexistent.

1.The Republican Party wants the silica proposal pulled from OSHA's books. (Dust is one of the issues of emphasis right now.)

2. RF exposure has thousands of incidents of past exposure showing up now with many still not reported.

3. OSHA is being directed toward not issuing as many citations, but imposing much heavier fines as well as more critical and willful citations.

4. We need to get standards moving.

5. On the bright side, we have all regions filled by OSHA reps, which has not happened in many years, and all of the OSHA Heads and Directors come from labor backgrounds.

6. At the IBEW convention, the NFPA70E Resolution failed. The Voltage Detection Tester Resolution passed.

7. All Locals were reminded to file IBEW Form 173 for recordable accidents, injuries and deaths.

8. OSHA EMPHASIS IS ON DUST, HEAT STRESS, COLD STRESS, HEARING PROTECTION (which is geared somewhat to youth having damage from iPods, cell phones and loud music) AND WORK ZONE TRAFFIC SAFETY.

We had training sessions on Construction Maintenance, NAPA 70E 2012 Updates, Utility / Communications / Railroad Heat and Cold Awareness, Fall Protection and Overlooked Rescue Plans.