IBEW 1245 Health and Safety Committee members Art Torres and Dan Boschee attended the National Safety Council Labor Division meeting in St. Louis Missouri. They were accompanied by Senior Assistant Business Manager Ralph Armstrong and Business Representative Rich Lane. The NSC Labor Division is a collection of American and Canadian labor unions who meet to discuss matters related to worker safety and health, changes in federal regulations and caucus’ within industries to record worker injuries and fatalities. The NSC also provides industry related training for two days to attendees who sign up for specific subject matter classes.
This year classes included subjects such as “Dealing With an Active Shooter,” training designed to help people survive an active shooter scenario by making the proper choices on when to flee or fight, “Accident Investigation”, conducted by Fed OSHA investigators, “Workplace Investigations” and “Evolution of Flame Resistant Materials” a class on how FR clothing was developed. In all there were 22 training classes and 6 labor caucus and industry committee meetings.
The big focus for those in the electrical industry was two days of classes conducted by IBEW International Representative Jim Tomaseski on final rules changes to the General Industry Electrical Transmission, Distribution and Generation 29 CFR 1910.269 and Construction Industry 29 CFR 1926 Subpart V. These changes were released by Fed OSHA and have been 5 years in the making and encompass safety regulations related to fall protection, arc flash protection, minimum approach distance calculations, host employer communication requirements and tree trimmer training rules. The utility industry has not seen such sweeping changes since 1995.
Timelines for implementation of these rules are set for early and mid-2015 to allow employers time to study the new rules and request interpretations from OSHA. Tomaseski, who is a recognized authority on electrical work rules and language interpretation and who attended all OSHA and congressional hearings related to the rules change announced that he would be retiring from his post after 13 years of service with the IBEW effective at the end of June. He will be greatly missed, especially by the labor division.
On the last day of the IBEW labor caucus IBEW Local 77 business manager Lou Walter gave special recognition to Local 1245 for their work in the peer to peer programs Hold the Pull, Control the Pressure and Keep the Clearance. Brother Walter and three representatives of Local 77 attended the April 1 safety stewards summit with the purpose to take away information that would help in the formation of their own peer movement. Local 1245 has offered support to her sister locals up North as they develop their programs.