Care and Safety

Saied Alavi, operations manager at Marek Brothers Systems Houston, recently visited Guadalupe “Lupe” Ramos at a job site where Marek is installing drywall in medical office space for Baylor Clinic & Hospital.  Lupe came through Marek’s workforce development program, and is currently an employee with the rank of “Helper” on the Marek Career Path.  In the video below, Saied talks with Lupe and his Marek “Coach”, Kevin Mathews, about how Lupe came to work for Marek and the difference his job has made in his life.

Lupe was familiar with the construction industry growing up because some of his uncles install ceilings for companies in California and Texas.  A few weeks after graduating high school, he filled out an application at Marek in Houston after hearing about the company from one of his uncles.  He was initially planning to apply to be an acoustical ceiling trainee, but while he was at the office applying for work, someone pointed out Buddy Britt, training coordinator at Marek, Read more »

One of the biggest safety issues on the complex jobsite is to know where the workforce is at any time without walking the site and visually identifying each individual.  Technology can solve that issue, and it is not somewhere out in the future.

The future is here according to an article in Constructech that talks about using radio-frequency identification chips, or RFID chips, in the nametags for workers on any jobsite.  Companies like ADR Software are providing that service for over 15,000 workers on jobsites around the country.  Then, according to the article, if an accident occurs on a jobsite, the superintendent can immediately see where everyone is located on the site, and can make Read more »

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) will host their annual Safety and Health Committee Conference in San Antonio, Texas in January.  The three-day event will be held at the Hyatt Regency San Antonio on January 11-13, 2012.  Today they issued the following announcement:

"Construction safety and health is vital for the success of the industry.  Join more than 150 industry professionals and participate in the development of regulatory and legislative activity on both a national and local levels, assist in the development and creation of new safety training programs and products and hear the latest initiatives from OSHA and other industry experts.   Read more »

Check this safety site out: Unsafe TV.  It is a blog by Fiona Burke that takes a critical approach to the DIY (Do It Yourself) world of home remodeling.  The Caution sign on the site warns:

Don't try this at home!
(Or on the job site, for that matter!)
Just because you see it on TV does not mean it's a good, or safe, or smart work practice.

One of her recent posts, “In Full Swing”, refers to an episode of “Room Crashers” with a guy taking down a wall in a house by climbing on it with no safety gear and in a way that could have landed him Read more »

Tompkins County Workers’ Center in Ithaca, New York offers a Living Wage Employer Certification for businesses who wish to publically commit to certain criteria regarding the treatment and compensation of their employees.  The employers agree to pay at least $11.67 per hour (or the current Tompkins County Living Wage rate) to all regular employees, offer them partially paid health insurance, and be free of health and safety violations.

The Workers’ Center website points out that the benefit to employers goes beyond just knowing that they are “doing the right thing”.  The website affirms:

“By paying your employees fairly, you take advantage of the service/profit cycle. When you invest in staff rewards, both tangible and intangible, their satisfaction Read more »

Construction site risks can come from many directions.  A worker twists his back while unloading a dolly of sheetrock.  A new employee misses a briefing on PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and cuts his finger.  A site supervisor rushes his crew to meet a deadline, taking shortcuts with fall protection procedures.

The construction industry has one of the highest rates of injuries and fatalities among all industries.  Building a strong safety program that provides clear recommendations and procedures can help identify and mitigate potential risks.

While Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations set standards, construction firms can go above and beyond these requirements to strengthen safe practices.  The benefits include fewer at-risk behaviors, lower accident rates, less turnover, lower absenteeism, and high productivity.  Many accidents and injuries lead to recuperation away from work, transfer to another job, restricted duties or a combination of these actions – sometimes resulting in lost wages or reduced income for workers and their families.   Read more »

Jim Stevenson, CEO of Bellows Construction, talked recently about his view on the Ethics Matrix, which is a way to explain what we consider to be right versus wrong as a society and as individuals. 

Jim introduced the topic by stating that although many people might think that the laws a society makes are the highest form of law, in fact these are actually the lowest.  These laws which communities enact are called Human Positive Laws, and reflect what the community and society regard as important and “moral” at one particular point in time.  Above these laws are Ethics, which include standards which groups such as doctors or lawyers hold themselves to across regions and throughout history.  Read more »

Last year, the Workers Defense Project in collaboration with the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin and with a grant from the Sociological Initiatives Foundation undertook a study of the state of the construction industry in Austin, Texas.  In a combination of research and controlled interviews, they compiled the report entitled Building Austin, Building Injustice: Construction Working Conditions in Austin, Texas.

Austin is the state capitol of Texas.  The findings of the report were revealing if not downright shocking.  Those findings were most likely indicative of the current state of the construction industry in the rest of Texas as well as the United States.  Read more »

In light of the video that we shared with you last week where several folks with a video camera walked onto a jobsite and started questioning workers about their immigration status, we began thinking about jobsite security.  The video crew weren’t US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or labor representatives, although they might have been union reps.  We wondered why no one challenged them until about halfway thru the YouTube video.

The question we asked ourselves is how can you prevent random people from wandering onto your site, Read more »

The blue van pulled up to the curb in front of the trauma center in one of the largest medical centers in the county.  The side doors slid open and a man in workers’ clothes was shoved unceremoniously onto the sidewalk where he fell into a crumpled heap.  The van then sped away and the body lay there motionless – bleeding out until the guard spotted him and called for a gurney and a team to get him into the trauma unit where he could be triaged and then treated for his unknown injuries.  The blood pool on the sidewalk was a signal that the injuries were serious and that the person needed immediate attention.  Read more »