OSHA National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down Week! (9/14/20 - 9/18/20)

Good morning to all IDI employees,

Monday is the start of OSHA's National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down Week.  This is OSHA's 7th year of holding the Stand-Down and IDI has participated in this since it's inception.  OSHA's goal of the Stand-Down is to raise fall hazard awareness and prevent fall fatalities and injuries.  Falls are a leading cause of death for employees, accounting for 338 of the 1008 construction fatalities in the USA in 2018 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  IDI will be participating in the fall prevention stand-down again this year.  The founder of IDI, Tony Pintozzi Sr., opened the doors of the company in 1952 and ever since IDI was established, we have never had a fall related fatality.  In fact, IDI has never had a work related fatality and is something that Tony and the current leaders of the company, Butch Pintozzi, Bill Preston, Jim Gaszynski, Don Perrin and Matt Kiefer are very proud of!

The following is how IDI will be participating in the Stand-Down.  On Monday, 9/14/20, we need for our lead field supervisors & Safety Advocates to gather your crews together during your toolbox talk session and we want everyone performing the same toolbox talk from your manual.  The toolbox talk to perform is from the Fall Protection tab of your manual, topic # FP8 and the name of the topic is: What is Fall Protection?  During this session, advise our employees that the purpose of this toolbox talk session is for our participation in OSHA's National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down.  We are taking a time out for safety and recognizing that falls from elevations are a serious matter.  During this session, we are looking for all employees to participate.  Ask employees if they have ever witnessed a fall at a construction site, what that was like and what affect it had on them.  Ask if they know of anyone who has sustained a serious fall and again, discuss the affects it had on them, the affects it had on the victim's loved ones.  All employees should be sharing fall protection stories, safety tips and fall prevention related thoughts.  Also, many of the general contractors at the projects we are working at next week will be holding Fall Prevention Stand-Downs and we need for our employees to participate in those also.  Please remember to practice social distancing while gathering for the safety stand-down.

Falls from elevations are a serious matter and we need to take them seriously.  This Fall Prevention Stand-Down fits right in with our safety culture and our safety mission statement:  "Everyone Goes Home Alive And In The Same Condition As They Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It!  

We want to participate in this Stand-Down because we care about you!  You are part of the IDI family and family looks out for each other.

If you have any questions about this Stand-Down, please contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Status of our IDI Volunteer Quarterly Safety Meetings

Good afternoon to all IDI employees, 

As you know, IDI hosts in-person volunteer quarterly safety training meetings for all employees for the past 2 plus decades.  Due to Covid-19, we have been unable to host in-person safety training meetings for large gatherings of employees so we have been having to do things a little different for a while.  Our last in-person volunteer quarterly safety meeting held in our warehouse was in February 2020.  Our 2nd and 3rd volunteer quarterly safety meetings of 2020 that are typically held in May and August respectively, were held in a video type format with a 10 question quiz.  At this point, unless there are some big changes for the positive, it is looking like our 4th volunteer quarterly safety meeting, which is typically held in November, will most likely again be in video format with a quiz.  

We miss seeing everyone under the same roof.  We miss the camaraderie that comes with everyone coming together.  We will keep you posted over the next few months as to the exact format of our 4th volunteer quarterly safety meeting, but at this time, it is looking more and more as if it will be in video format with a quiz.  Please keep on the lookout for future email blasts with more details. 

In the meantime, don't let your guard down in the battle against injuries.  Keep doing what you have always been doing in keeping an eye on each other and looking out for your brothers and sisters.  Make your daily Task-Based Safety Awareness Huddles matter as your Loved Ones Count On It!

As always, if you aren't sure of something, stop, take a breath and discuss with your lead field supervisor or Superintendent.  You can also call our Safety Director, Safety Pete with any safety related questions, to consult or just to say "yo, yo Pete!"  

Have a Safe Day!