Volunteer Quarterly Safety "Make-Up" Meeting - 6/17/15 at 4:00pm (Ladder Safety!)

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,

As you all know, we held a volunteer quarterly safety meeting this past Saturday, 6/6/15. We offer a volunteer make-up meeting for those that could not attend the regularly scheduled safety meeting either due to working for I.D.I. on the Saturday of the meeting or due to unforeseen circumstances, etc.

The volunteer quarterly safety make-up meeting is being held on Wednesday, 6/17/15 at 4:00pm at our Barrington office. The safety topic for this meeting is Ladder Safety!

We are asking everyone to help spread the word to all of our employees so they have the opportunity to attend.

Also if you are planning on attending, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham, no later than Tuesday, 6/16/15 at 5:00pm to let him know as we need an approximate head-count for the meeting as we have to prepare materials and for chair rental purposes. Peter can be reached by e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com or text to (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Final Reminder - Volunteer Quarterly Safety Meeting, Saturday, 6/6/15 at 7:00am (Ladder Safety)

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,

Just putting out a final reminder that our next volunteer quarterly safety meeting is being held this coming Saturday, June 6th from 7:00am to 9:00am. We have finalized our safety training topic and it is going to be on Ladder Safety. We have had a few incidents over the past couple of months involving employees incorrectly using ladders, which fortunately did not lead to any injuries. We will have a representative from Werner Ladders at our meeting helping out with this safety training session.

Ladder related fatalities are one of the number one killers in construction. It is difficult to find current exact data on how many construction workers died involving a ladder, however, in 2011 there were a total of 34,500 employees of companies who sought medical care for ladder related injuries. There were 15,460 employees of companies who had lost-time injuries involving ladders and 113 ladder related fatalities. We don't want for our employees/family members to become one of these statistics.

Please mark your calendar for June 6th at 7:00am. The meeting will be held at our usual location at our office located at 28059 W. Commercial Ave., Barrington, IL.

Final note - our last 2 volunteer quarterly safety meetings went way past 9:00am and that can be aggravating to those who expect to get out of there by 9:00am. We understand this aggravation and we will ensure that our June 6th meeting is over by 9:00am.

If you have any questions about this meeting or about safety in general, you are encouraged to contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Painting Company Cited for 30 Violations, Fined $199,000 Following Fall Fatalities

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees:

Please see the article below.  This is why we preach safety - so that all of our family members can: "Go Home Alive and in The Same Condition as You Arrived, Your Loved Ones Count On it!"

 

April 27 — Two painters killed in a fall in Ohio might have survived if they had been provided safety equipment, according to the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has issued proposed fines of $199,000.

The painters, who worked for V&T Painting LLC, died when an electric suspension scaffold failed and they fell from a Southwest Ohio Regional Water District water tower they were painting in Butler County, OSHA said in a statement April 22.

Following the October 2014 deaths, OSHA investigators identified 17 serious safety violations at the site, as well as 13 others at a nearby V&T Painting work site.

At the time of their deaths, the painters weren't wearing safety harnesses, the Butler County Sheriff's Office said. They fell about 100 feet.

Ken Montgomery, OSHA's Cincinnati-area director, said in the prepared statement that "making sure protective equipment is in use and working properly is a common-sense way to save lives and prevent injuries. Companies that put their workers dangerously high above the ground must provide protection to stop their falls."

OSHA inspectors found that, apart from failing to protect its workers from falls, V&T used scaffolds that weren't designed by a competent person; the scaffolds' U-bolts weren't installed correctly; and damaged wire ropes, slings, electrical cords and other faulty equipment were in use.

In addition, the company didn't inspect rigging equipment and scaffolds before use or conduct regular job-site inspections, OSHA said. The company also failed to train workers about fall protection equipment and standards.

Suspension scaffold support devices didn't rest on surfaces capable of supporting at least four times the load imposed on them, the agency found, nor were they inspected for visible defects by a competent person before each work shift.

OSHA has directed the Farmington Hills, Mich., company to correct all of its serious safety violations by June 2.

V&T Painting declined to comment to Bloomberg BNA on the citations.

OSHA said falls continue to be a leading cause of death for construction workers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bebe Raupe in Cincinnati at braupe@bna.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Stimson at jstimson@bna.com

Source: Bloomberg BNA

From the "I Caught You" Series

At International Decorators, we have a habit of catching our employees working safely. Below are a few action shots of our employees being caught in action working in a safe manner.

Great job everyone! You are helping us to live up to our safety mission statement which is:

"Everyone Goes Home Alive and in the Same Condition as They Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It."

Rodrigo Galvan was caught working safely on a ladder while tied off with fall arrest equipment using a Spider Bolt concrete fall protection anchor, retractable lanyard and safety harness.


Great job - Rodrigo!

 Jamie Martinez was caught doing the exact same thing as Rodrigo mentioned above.

You guys are doing it right!

Also, great job to Reynaldo Lagunas for coming up with this fall protection plan for this challenging situation!

Nelson Martinez was caught appropriately tying off with fall arrest equipment while working on a roof that has a low parapet wall.

Nelson is using a Standing Seam Roof Anchor as his 5,000 lb fall protection anchorage point along with a 30' cable retractable.       Great job Nelson!

Framer, Vince Cavanaugh, was caught working safely on a concrete roof while building a parapet wall.  Vince had some help with his fall protection planning from our "Competent Fall Protection Person," Kent Cutshall. Great job with planning and implementation - gentlemen!

 Drywaller, Jose Perez was caught using a portable A-frame step ladder in a safe appropriate manner.  Alejandro has the spreader arms fully open and in the locked position and he is standing on the ladder at a safe rung level height.  Jose remembered that you cannot stand on the top 2 steps of portable step ladders!

 Our tapers at Centegra Hospital have installed rebar caps over the end of their mud mixing paddles to serve as impalement protection.

Great job - Gildardo, Rafael, Fernando and the rest of your crew!

Filimon Mendez was caught safely tying off with fall arrest equipment while climbing in and out of a shaft at Centegra Hospital.

I asked Filimon what he was doing and he said - "Safety Pete, I am just hanging around."

This is what International Decorator's safety culture is all about and it is our employees/family members that make it happen!

Have a Safe Day!

I.D.I. to Participate in National Fall Prevention Stand-Down on 5/11/15!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,

OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) is promoting to all construction companies to participate in a National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down.  The purpose of the Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down is to raise awareness of preventing fall hazards in construction.  Fatalities caused by falls from elevation continue to be a leading cause of death for construction workers, accounting for 302 of the 828 construction workers that died at work in 2013.  Those deaths were preventable!

What is a Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down?  A Safety Stand-Down is a voluntary event for employers to talk directly to employees about "Fall Hazards and to reinforce the importance of the "Fall Prevention."

OSHA is promoting this Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down on billboards in the Chicago Area.

I.D.I. will be participating in this Safety Stand-Down and here is how: 

On Monday, 5/11/15 we are advising all Safety Coordinators to gather our crews and to all perform the same fall protection toolbox talk.  The toolbox talk that we want everyone to perform is in your Safety Coordinator Manuals.  It is under the Fall Protection tab of your manual, it is toolbox talk # FP8 and it is called:  What is Fall Protection?  After gathering your crews and performing the toolbox talk, have our employees, including yourself, sign the toolbox talk signature roster and turn that into our Safety Director as usual.  We in turn have to advise OSHA as to how many employees participated in the Stand-Down.  OSHA's goal is to have 1 million construction workers participate in the Stand-Down. 

Let's work as a team to make this Safety Stand-Down a success by getting everyone involved and participating.  We thank you in advance for your help and for being a leader of safety.  Your efforts help us to live up to our safety mission statement:  "Everyone Goes Home Alive And In The Same Condition As They Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It!"  Should you have any questions, please contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Ladder Safety - 6/6/15!!!!

Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees, 

As most of you know, our next volunteer quarterly safety meeting is being held on Saturday, June 6th from 7:00am to 9:00am.  We have finalized our safety training topic and it is going to be on Ladder Safety.  We have had a few incidents over the past couple of months involving employees incorrectly using ladders, which fortunately did not lead to any injuries.  We will have representative from Werner Ladders at our meeting helping out with this safety training session. 

Ladder related fatalities are one of the number one killers in construction.  It is difficult to find current exact data on how many construction workers died involving a ladder, however, in 2011 there were a total of 34,500 employees of companies who sought medical care for ladder related injuries.  There were 15,460 employees of companies who had lost-time injuries involving ladders and 113 ladder related fatalities.  We don't want for our employees/family members to become one of these statistics. 

Please mark your calendar for June 6th at 7:00am. 

Final note - our last 2 volunteer quarterly safety meetings went way past 9:00am and that can be aggravating to those who expect to get out of there by 9:00am.  We understand this aggravation and we will ensure that our June 6th meeting is over by 9:00am.

We will advertise this meeting further as we get closer to the meeting date.  If you have any questions about this meeting or about safety in general, you are encouraged to contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689. 

Have a Safe Day!

Da Hawks Win!

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,

In case you live under a rock and just crawled out from under it this morning, the Blackhawks won a triple overtime thriller last night that ended around 1:30am in the morning.  Many employees of I.D.I. are Blackhawk's fans and many of the diehards may have stayed up until the very end of the game.  We could have some fatigued employees this morning.  For everybody's safety, we need to ensure that our employees are "fit for duty."  We are asking everybody to keep an eye on eachother today.  If you notice an employee is overly fatigued, drowsy, etc., please talk to that employee about stopping work and going home safely.  If you observe an employee working unsafely due to the fatigue, it should be reported to your job site supervisor or superintendent for the safety of the fatigued employee so that he/she doesn't get injured or injure somebody else.  Please help out our family members by keeping an eye on eachother for everybody's well being.  If you have any questions, you are encouraged to call our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689. 

Go Hawks - Have a Safe Day!