By Ralph Armstrong
Work continues with both the PG&E Barehand Oversight and Barehand Committees. Some of the big issues that have become priorities that both the union and the company are working together to resolve are:
Barehand/Helicopter use: There has been an issue obtaining a current approval letter for the use of helicopters as part of the barehand procedures. PG&E several years back received a variance from CalOSHA to perform Live-Line Barehand work. This variance contained specific criteria regarding what needs to be done when any changes other than editorial are made and requires approval from CalOSHA.
The helicopter procedure approval was sought and given several years back; however, trying to find the approval documentation yielded nothing. We were able to obtain this from CalOSHA after weeks of searching from CalOSHA due to the fact that things over a certain timeframe are archived which takes a lot longer to obtain.
There are still questions related to the letter and the current work practices, so as of this writing the use of helicopters for barehand work is still suspended. We have a meeting including myself, PG&E, OSHA attorney and CalOSHA next month to discuss this issue along with the criteria in the original grievance in hopes of getting approval to perform the work that is currently a concern with helicopters as well as seek guidance on the best way to streamline future changes or additions to the current barehand guidelines with CalOSHA. More to come on this.
DCPP jumpers: Both the Barehand Committee and the Oversight Committee are working to come to agreement on a written procedure to remove jumpers at DCPP so scheduled maintenance work can be performed. This work has been performed in the past; however, the absence of written specific procedures for this task has required the methods group to write them. There were some disagreements in the way a few things should be done but good work between the group helped develop a procedure that addressed everyone’s safety concerns.
Ralph Armstrong is assistant business manager for IBEW 1245