Consecutive Days With No Lost-Time Injuries - Exceeds 500!!!!!

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

We have reached another safety milestone regarding our consecutive days worked streak without anyone sustaining a lost-time injury.  You may recall that back on July 28th, 2014, we posted an article about our consecutive days worked streak reaching 438 days, which was a record for the past 15 years.  We have now passed the 500 day mark as today we are now 501 consecutive days worked since our last lost-time injury which had occurred in May, 2013. 

Awesome job Everyone!

Great job on looking out for each other's well being and for your own personal safety.  Let's continue to work together as a team to help us reach our next safety milestone date of November 1st, 2014.  If we can work up to 11/1/14 without sustaining a lost-time injury, we will not only have worked 533 consecutive days without a lost-time injury, but we will have also gone a full worker's compensation insurance policy year without a lost-time injury occuring.  Twice in the past 15 years, we have gone a full worker's compensation policy year with having 1 lost-time injury but never having zero. 

Please continue to do your part by making good choices and choosing to work safe.  Please continue to look out for each other's well being.  If you see one of our I.D.I. family members not making the right choice and working in an unsafe manner, you are obligated to approach them to encourage them to work safe for the sake of themselves, their loved ones and for International Decorators, Inc.  Safety is everyone's responsibility and you do have the personal choice to work safe.  If you have any questions regarding safety, please contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Volunteer Quarterly Safety "Make-Up" Meeting, Wednesday, September 17th at 4:00pm

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

As you all know, we held our volunteer quarterly safety meeting on Saturday, 9/6/14. 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, 9/17/14 at 4:00pm at our Barrington office. The main safety topic for this meeting is Aerial Lift Safety!  Two of our largest projects that we are working on require all tradesmen & women that will be working in aerial lifts to have had current aerial lift training and to be able to prove it with documentation. We will be using a numerous amount of aerial lifts at both of these large projects. By attending this volunteer safety training session on aerial lift safety, you will be qualified to work at these projects. Without having current/recent aerial lift training, it would be difficult to place you at these projects.  You will be issued an aerial lift wallet training card following the safety training session.  

If you plan on attending, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689 or by e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com, no later than Tuesday, 9/16/14. We need to know an approximate head-count for the meeting as we have to prepare materials and for chair rental purposes.

If you have any questions, please call Peter at the above-mentioend phone number.

Have a Safe Day!

How You Can Benefit By Attending our Volunteer Aerial Lift Safety Training on 9/6/14

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

As most of you know, our next volunteer quarterly safety meeting is being held on Saturday, September 6th at 7:00am. The main safety topic for the meeting will be Aerial Lift Safety.

We use aerial lifts almost daily at one job site or another and it is important to know the do's and dont's of working in aerial lifts. Struck-By and Caught-Between type injuries are 2 of OSHA's Focused Four topics as they cause a signifacant amount of fatailities in the construction industry. We will include training on how to prevent Struck-By and Caught-Between type injuries involving aerial lifts.

We feel this is a very important topic as we use a numerous amount of aerial lifts on a given day and employees are required to have had aerial lift training before they can operate an aerial lift.

Besides your own personal safety, here is another way that you could benefit by attending this volunteer safety training session.  Two of our largest projects that we are working on or soon to be working on require all tradesmen & women that will be working in aerial lifts to have had current aerial lift training and to be able to prove it with documentation.  We will be using a numerous amount of aerial lifts at both of these large projects.  By attending this volunteer safety training session on aerail lift safety, you will be qualified to work at these projects. With out having current/recent aerial lift training, we cannot place you at these projects.  Shortly after this training session, you will be provided with an aerial lift training wallet card to carry with you. 

This volunteer safety training session will be held at our usual location at our shop at 28059 W. Commercial Ave. in Barrington, IL. We will continue to advertise this meeting as we get closer to the meeting date. In the meantime, we are asking for everyone's help to spread the word of the meeting date, time and topic.
 

If you have any questions about this volunteer safety meeting, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham. Peter can be reached by e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com or by calling (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Table Saw Safety!

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

The table saws that we provide come with a blade guard that is bolted in place.  The blade guard is there for a reason.  The blade guard is there to protect you from the blade so that you don’t cut off a finger or your hand.  It also is there to help keep debris from the materials that you are cutting from flying towards you.  Our Safety Director, Safety Pete, was at a job site recently where he came across one of our table saws that had the blade guard removed.  No one was using the table saw at the time and in fact, we didn’t have any carpenters on site at the time.  On occassion, table saws are returned to the shop with the blade guard removed.   

For your personal safety, you cannot use a table saw with the blade guard removed.  Using a table saw with the blade guard removed is an OSHA violation and a violation of our company’s safety policies.  This unsafe act can lead to serious injuries and high dollar fines.  We don’t want to have to call one of your loved ones to tell them that you cut off your hand because you were using a table saw and you intentionally removed the blade guard.  In addition to the above, table saw users must wear eye protection. 

 

The photo above shows a table saw with the blade guard removed.  This in turn exposes the table saw user to the spinning blade.  Please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham with any questions.  He can be reached at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Next Volunteer Quarterly Safety Meeting on 9/6/14!

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

We have scheduled our third volunteer quarterly safety meeting of 2014 and it will be held on Saturday, September 6th at 7:00am.  The main safety topic for the meeting will be Aerial Lift Safety.  We use aerial lifts almost daily at one job site or another and it is important to know the do's and dont's of working in aerial lifts.  Struck-By and Caught-Between type injuries are 2 of OSHA's Focused Four topics as they cause a signifacant amount of fatailities in the construction industry.  We will include training on how to prevent Struck-By and Caught-Between type injuries involving aerial lifts.  We feel this is a very important topic as we use a numerous amount of aerial lifts on a given day and employees are required to have had aerial lift training before they can operate an aerial lift.  This safety training session will be held at our usual location at our shop at 28059 W. Commercial Ave. in Barrington, IL.  We will continue to advertise this meeting as we get closer to the meeting date.  In the meantime, we are asking for everyone's help to spread the word of the meeting date, time and topic. 
 

If you have any questions about this volunteer safety meeting, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham. Peter can be reached by e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com or by calling (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Record Breaking Safety!

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

Congratulations goes out to everyone for achieving a new record.  International Decorators record for the past 15 years for consecutive days worked between lost-time injuries was 435 days.  We have broken that record as we are currently at 438 consecutive days since our last lost-time injury.  Awesome job, attaboy, pat on the back goes out to everyone for helping to break this record.  It takes a lot of team work for a company to come together to have such an achievement.  This is what our safety culture is all about.  It's about you "Going Home Alive and in the Same Condition as You Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It."  We cannot let our guard down against safety as your safety is never ending.  Let's keep this rolling and look forward to our next safety milestone date which is November 1st, 2014.  If we can work up to 11/1/14 without sustaining a lost-time injury, we will not only have worked 533 consecutive days without a lost-time injury, but we will also have gone a full workers compensation insurance policy year without a lost-time injury occuring.  This would be a win/win for everyone as this would mean that no employees sustained serious injuries, less pain and suffering to our employees and their loved ones, we should be able to bid work more competitively meaning that there is a potential for more work to be obtained so fewer employees are sitting and not working.  For the sake of your loved ones, yourself and for Pete's sake, we encourage you to continue to look out for one another and work as safe as you possibly can.  If you observe an employee not working in a safe appropriate manner, please stop them as you are doing them a favor and possibly preventing them from being injured.  If you are working at a job site that has unsafe conditions, please notify your lead field supervisor and contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689 so we can help get the unsafe conditions rectified. 

Awesome job Everyone!

Have a Safe Day!

Construction Worker - Pinned Between Beam & Aerial Lift.

Good morning to all I.D.I. employees,
Below is a news article about a construction worker accident that occurred yesterday at a project that we are working at called Project Onyx which is also known as the Amazon Distribution Center.  The constuction worker involved in the accident is not an employee of International Decorators.  
 

KENOSHA (WI.) — Kenosha police and fire officials were called out to a construction accident that occurred at the site of the Amazon Distribution Center complex being built on Burlington Road in Kenosha. The call came in just before 3:30 p.m.  Officials were dispatched for a report of a worker pinned between a beam and an aerial lift in the Onyx Building on the construction site. Before emergency crews responded to the scene, co-workers were able to free the worker who was trapped. We’re told no one saw the accident happen, or how the worker became trapped. The 35-year-old worker was taken by ambulance to the hospital. It is believed he suffered a torn or dislocated shoulder. His injuries are not believed to be serious. Flight for Life was put on standby for this incident but was not dispatched to the scene. Kenosha police have contacted OSHA regarding this incident and OSHA is investigating. It is unclear the company the injured worker was working for as there are several construction companies working on the job site.

(Posted 5:47 pm, July 23, 2014, by Katie DeLong, Updated at 09:49pm, July 23, 2014

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this story.)

 

Fortunately this construction worker was not killed as he/she easily could have been.  Please keep this unfortunate accident in mind as you are working in aerial lifts to serve as a reminder of the dangers that can happen.  This is in part as to why International Decorators provides ongoing safety training for our employees.  To help enable you to "go home alive and in the same condition as you arrived; your loved ones count on it."

 

OSHA has what they call their Focused Four or Fatal Four which are the 4 main categories of accidents in which OSHA is trying to prevent.  Struck-By and Caught-Between types of accidents are two the Fatal Four topics on OSHA's list.  The other two topics are Falls and Electrocutions.  The accident mentioned above would fall under the Caught-Between category and since this falls within one of OSHA's Focused Four, OSHA is now investigating this accident. 

 

If you have any questions related to aerial lift safety or safety in general, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689.

 

Have a Safe Day!