SAFETY REPORT:

PEER-TO-PEER PROGRAM ALMOST ROAD-READY

 

By Ralph Armstrong

A lot was accomplished in January to get the Peer-to-Peer lineman safety campaign ready for roll-out to the members in the field.  Dean Gurke has been instrumental in meeting and making contact with the employers and pulling this together, which is a huge task.

There were meetings held with both PG&E and SMUD management, as well as commitments by various other employers to allow our members to attend these roll-out meetings which will begin with SMUD on Feb. 3.  Dean will be working with all the reps to try to arrange meeting dates and times in an effort to get members to attend one of these meetings. Dean is also working with Local 396, Las Vegas to put together a joint program for NV Energy. There are approximately 25 meetings currently scheduled with more to come.

The committee met on Jan. 21 to go over the meeting schedule as well as other concerns as to the roll-out and full implementation which will require the appointment of “Excellence Stewards” in the field to provide support for when dealing with safety issues.

These stewards’ assignments for the union will be different than a current shop steward’s assignment and so will the process for selecting them. Criteria for the selection of the lineman peer-to-peer stewards will be the same for all other work groups when programs are established. Training is also required for these stewards and Dean will be attending a “train the trainer” class at the National Labor College, Feb. 5-11, specifically designed to develop worker-to-worker safety programs. Additionally, the Ninth District has committed to help in the development of steward training for our safety stewards.

Criteria for these stewards are:

• Must hold the classification of the designated peer group
• Credible
• Well-respected by members
• Able to interact effectively with management
• Good interpersonal skills
• Not afraid to stand up on difficult or controversial issues
• Dedicated to promoting a safe work culture
• Willingness to attend steward training sessions
• Act as a mentor to new apprentices and young linemen
• Appointed and removed by the Business Manager

Until all the stewards are in place Ralph Armstrong and Dean Gurke will be the resource persons for the program on safety issues.  More to come.

Serious Accident Communication

On January 12, at approximately 10:30 a.m., a journeyman lineman from Yosemite Division with 14 years of service sustained burns from an electrical contact and/or arc flash.  The incident occurred in the town of North Fork while the employee was in the process of moving a de-energized 12 kV underbuilt conductor below an energized 70kV transmission line.

Energy Delivery, Engineering and Operations, Safety Engineering & Health Services, Human Performance and IBEW employees are partnering on this serious incident investigation.

The employee was part of a four-person crew that was assigned to replace a damaged distribution crossarm.  The crossarm was in an underbuilt position, below an energized 70kV circuit.  The work was conducted while the distribution line was de-energized and cleared using an EPZ ground scheme at the work location.  The injured employee and the second lineman were working from the pole; while the third lineman, acting as the grounding observer, and the upgraded Electric Crew Foreman, were working at ground level.  During the repairs, the injured employee moved the outer phase of the de-energized 12 kV conductor.  At this point in the investigation, it appears the conductor made electrical contact mid-span with the energized 70 kV transmission line.  This generated an electric arc at the work pole location causing injuries to the employee.  The injured employee was wearing an Indura Ultra-Soft FR shirt (rated 10.9 cal/cm2) with a non-FR/non-natural fiber undershirt.

The second lineman on the pole, with the assistance of the third lineman, used pole-top rescue methods to successfully lower the injured employee to the ground.  Emergency Medical Services were immediately contacted and dispatched to the job site.  The employee was then transported to the hospital for evaluation and treatment.

The employee was released on Jan. 14 and is home recovering.

Cranes and Derricks

On Jan. 20 Ron Cochran and I attended the CalOSHA public hearings in San Diego pertaining to CalOSHA’s proposed new crane standard.  The new standard is mandated by Fed OSHA, which in November of 2010 implemented its own crane standard for the construction industry.

There were several concerns prior to this hearing stemming from CalOSHA’s current standard structure being all-inclusive. It did not distinguish between maintenance versus construction, the use of digger derricks and the addition of boom-mounted personnel platforms added to section 5004 of the CalOSHA standard pertaining to suspended platforms.

Most of the concerns were addressed prior to the public hearings.  I spoke on behalf of our concerns about the boom-mounted platform being treated the same as a suspended platform primarily due to the fact that under the general requirements it states that the use of these devices are prohibited unless there are no other means of accessing the work location or it was a greater hazard using the other conventional methods of accessing these locations.  Our employers have been using these boom-mounted platforms that are controlled by the worker in the platform on a regular basis, primarily in the transmission industry.  There are other ways of accessing these locations and are performed as well when the location of the structure is inaccessible by truck; however, these methods place our members in positions that would increase the severity of injury in the event of an accident based on the work position our members are placed in while performing that work.

I asked the standards board to please reconsider this language for the safety of our members.  The standards board has directed the standards committee to move to consider all the comments presented and to move to add the new standard to the construction orders and leave the current crane regulations for the general industry.  Over the next couple of months we should start to see how these new standards will impact our industry since the state has 180 days from the implementation of the Fed standard.  I will report as the information becomes available.

Safety Concerns at the Dispatch Centers

Local 1245 Business Rep. JV Macor met with management at Ignacio Control Center on Jan. 18 to discuss safety concerns raised by some of the operators.  We discussed each issue which was raised and management went over their plans to address each concern, most of which should be completed this year.

What makes these concerns unique is that most are a result of the consolidated control center effort where some construction in the facility needs to be completed.  We are confident these issues will get resolved and most are identified issues/concerns which deal with lighting, markings, pin board materials etc., which the operators feel could lead to errors.  There were also ergonomic concerns which will also be addressed as construction is completed.

Sensitive Ground Settings

This is still an open item and the company is looking into the history behind the concern over having this equipment turned on in some areas.  This was a topic in the 1990s and documents were provided as to where we thought we were with this equipment based on those documents.

Troubleman Work Jurisdiction and Safety

A concern was raised over the installation and testing practices on some equipment in the field such as regulators.  It appears there is some inconsistency in different areas as to who performs the testing and placing this equipment in service.  There were two different issues, one of which is a work jurisdiction issue and one is a safety issue.  The company has committed to addressing these safety concerns.  This appears to have been addressed in some areas but possibly not in all areas. We are waiting on clarification on how it is being addressed system wide.

Ralph Armstrong is Senior Business Representative, IBEW Local 1245