BAC Craft Committees Continue to Guide Masonry r2p Partnership Safety & Health Priorities
JOURNAL: ISSUE 4 - 2016
Collaboration of Labor and Management continues to be central to the Masonry r2p Partnership’s efforts to reduce members’ risks for occupational injuries and illnesses (See Masonry r2p Partnership: Expanding Efforts to Keep Members Safe in BAC Journal, Issue 3, 2016). Earlier this year, members of BAC’s Labor-Management Craft Committees received updates on the Partnership’s work and provided input based on what they are seeing on jobs and hearing from members. Overall, the Craft Committees agreed that the most pressing safety and health issues are already being addressed by the Partnership in their work with researchers and CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training. These include reducing ergonomic injuries, identifying better controls to reduce silica exposure, and preventing work-related hearing loss, eye injuries, skin disease, and most recently the potential risk of exposure to RF radiation when working near cell towers.
In addition to obtaining feedback on current work, the Partnership also asked the Craft Committees for advice on ways to raise awareness, and get information and safety materials into the hands of contractors and workers. When asked about distributing information to contractors, they overwhelmingly agreed that email is the best communication method, followed by website postings, texts, meetings, and training programs. When asked about distributing information to workers, Craft Committee members listed texts first, followed closely by email, toolbox talks, and social media.
The Masonry Partnership is not only promoting existing materials, but is also focused on working with researchers to improve the industry’s understanding and use of best practices in safety and health. One of the projects that they have been assisting on for the last two years is SAVE: Ergonomics Training for Masonry Apprentices, described in more detail below.
Resources that address the priorities include:
Updates to silica-safe.org based on OSHA’s new Silica Standard.
