Report of the MCAA Safety Committee

Words: Zach Everett

Safety Forum Webinars

2012 was our second year to present safety forums in the form of a webinar. A short webinar is presented lasting from 15 to 30 minutes on a given topic, a question/answer/discussion period follows related to the topic and then the participants are welcomed into an open forum on any safety related topic or issue that is on their mind. We had presentations on the Competent Person, Silica, HazCom, Defending an OSHA Citation, Building a Safety Culture, Fall Protection, and more. We plan to continue these Safety Forums in which the presenters and the topics have grown considerably.

Please plan ahead to sit in on these free webinar forums by going to www.masoncontractors.org/safety/forum and signing up. Put it on your calendar and participate in a worthwhile and educational Safety Forum.

MCAA Safety Awards Program

The new MCAA Safety Awards for 2011 were given out at the Mid Year Meeting. For under 100,000 hours Restore Masonry of Chicago took 1st place and A. Horn, Inc. of Barrington, Ill. took 2nd. For over 100,000 hours Lang Masonry of Waterford, OH placed number one and Stone Cold Masonry of Phoenix took 2nd. We are proud of these guys!

We are now looking for numbers to present the winners for 2012 at this coming Midyear Meeting. The Awards are for safety performance based on the contractor’s Incident Rate. This is, in my opinion, the most important award that is presented by the MCAA, because it pertains to life, health and family. If we do not give our team a safe place and procedures to work within then we are hurting them and their families. We hope that these awards will in some small way motivate towards safety.

The Safety Advantage

The new MCAA Safety Advantage program is still in its infant stages. The goal of this program is to show the masonry industry (and beyond) that there is definable value to true safety. It is designed to give members an advantage in the market by having a better safety record, lower worker compensation cost, happier, healthier, more motivated employees and the list could go on.

Parts of the program so far are the weekly safety meetings, written safety program, the monthly Safety Forum Webinar and the Safety Advantage Newsletter. This newsletter comes out in email form monthly and highlights the advantages to having a comprehensive safety program. Each issue has an article from a safety person, a CEO or business perspective and a teaser to the week’s safety meeting. We enjoyed these that have gone out and we look forward to many more as well as the expansion of the Safety Advantage mission at large!

Growing A National Safety Committee

I guess I am one of those guys that are never satisfied. I have been longing to see agitated enthusiasm and participation in the safety committee and it is still not grown the way we would like, but to all of you that have been the dedicated enthusiasts, our undying gratitude is manifest. We have been able to meet together regularly in the monthly safety forums and in person at the Convention and Midyear Meetings.

In addition we have thoroughly enjoyed and learned from several “emergency” email queries where a member had a question on how to handle a particular situation and put it out to the safety committee. Then numerous responses come back from the committee members based on their expertise and experience. Some of these questions were on employees getting bed bugs while staying out of town, prescription safety glasses, etc.

If you are not a part of the MCAA Safety Committee and would like to enjoy the benefits and be a benefit to others, please contact me at zeverett@brazosmasonry.com.
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