Local 11 BM-ST Jess LaBuff second from right, accepts the top NACBE safety award on behalf of Local 11 (Helena, Montana). Joining in the presentation are (l. to r.) IP Newton Jones, NACBE President Greg Purdon, IVP-WS J. Tom Baca and NACBE Exec. Dir. John Erickson.
Safety records improve in two areas
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of Construction Boilermaker Employers (NACBE) presented its annual safety awards to the 2016 top-performing locals from the Boilermakers’ four U.S. vice-presidential sections during the Construction Sector Operations conference held at Marco Island, Florida on March 5-9.
Local 11 (Helena, Montana), representing the Western Section, took national honors, with zero lost-time accidents, zero compensable injuries and zero OSHA recordable injuries. Jess LaBuff, L-11 business manager, secretary-treasurer accepted the award. The award was based on safety performance during 2016.
The three other lodges finishing first in their sections included Northeast Local 193 (Baltimore), Daniel Weber, BM-ST; Great Lakes Local 85 (Toledo, Ohio), Tim Timmons, BM-ST; and Southeast Local 454 (Chattanooga, Tennessee), Scott May, BM-ST.
NACBE Executive Director John Erickson said the safety index covered just under 60 percent of all construction Boilermaker man-hours worked in 2016. Incidents are calculated per 200,000 man-hours worked.
The compensable injury rate stood at 4.09 percent, down from 2015’s 4.49 percent. By comparison, the rate stood at 83.02 in 1990, the first year NACBE began tracking safety performance. OSHA recordables dropped from 1.54 percent in 2015 to 1.39 in 2016.
The lost-time injury rate for 2016 showed a slight uptick to 0.21 over 2015’s 0.17. The record low since the index began stands at 0.12, achieved in 2013. Thirty-seven locals came in at zero lost-time injuries, down from 39 in 2015. Fourteen locals recorded zero compensable injuries for 2016, up from 13 in 2015.
The nearly 23 million man hours worked in 2016 finished 5.3 percent down from the previous year and clocked in at the lowest since 2013 — the second lowest in ten years.
Safety awards are based on the lowest injury rates followed by the highest percentage of Boilermaker man-hours from NACBE contractors participating in the index.
