Friday, May 3, 2013

100% Attendance at our Painters & Tapers Only Quarterly Safety Meeting!

As most of you know, we held a volunteer quarterly safety meeting on April 20th for the painters and tapers only.  The safety training topics included respirator training, fit testing on the respirators and stilt safety.  We wanted to report out to everyone that for the first time since we began tracking the attendance, we had a 100% show-up rate.  

We hope that the safety training session was beneficial to everyone in attendance. We had excellent participation and questions during the session.  We want to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy lives for the sake of your safety.  The main reason we provide safety training is because of you and our company's safety mission statement - "Everyone Goes Home Alive and in the Same Condition as They Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It."  

During the meeting, we also celebrated the story of our employees that saved a plumber's life. We had a crew working at a downtown tenant space on 4/12/13 and a plumber suddenly dropped to the ground.  He was unconscious and at times, not breathing.  Our very own employees, Gabe Macias and Tom Gracyk immediately began performing CPR on the plumber. Also assisting in the emergency situation was Jim Woods, Paul Baca, Joe Bellich, Rick Rizzi and Randy Francisco.  In the end, we found out that the plumber had a massive heart attack. He has had bypass surgery and we were told that he is doing well.  We were also informed that our employees saved his life.  The CPR kept him alive until the paramedics arrived!  What an awesome team effort and great work under some extreme pressure!

What about you?  Are you trained on CPR?  Are you prepared to save a life?  Will you be ready to step in when someone literally needs you to save their life?  If you have not been trained in CPR, please contact Safety Pete at 847/417-1689 and he could provide you with information on how to get trained in CPR or contact your union to obtain this training.  Below is the contact information for your respective unions:

            Painters District Council #14:  www.pdc14.com                     312/421-0046
            Painters District Council #30:  www.paintersdc30.com           630/377-2120
            Chicago Carpenters:               www.chicap.org                      847/364-8367

We urge you to be prepared like Tom & Gabe are!  Don’t forget to give your family an extra hug & kiss tonight!

Below is a video from the quarterly safety meeting celebrating the story! Below that is another video showing the painters being fit tested on their respirators by Luis Moctezuma of 3M and some photos taken during the safety meeting.




I.D.I.'s President, Butch - demonstrating how in the old days, some employees would wear a dust mask and punch a hole in it so they could smoke a cigarette.  This was obviously not condoned at the time and no one does this anymore!