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News Briefs

Date Posted: September 14 2007

Construction fatality list led by falls
According to preliminary, 2006 data (the most recent available) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 1,226 construction workers lost their lives in on-the-job incidents in the U.S., an increase of three percent from 2005.

"Each day in 2006, we were reminded of how dangerous a construction site can be," said Laborers General President Terence M. O'Sullivan, responding to a Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America analysis of the most important causes of construction tragedies in 2006. "This is not a pleasant analysis. Yet, it's only by knowing how these workers were hurt that we can focus our prevention activities so that each member can return safely to their home and family at the end of their work shift."

The report found that 27 percent of construction workers killed on the job were laborers.

Also in the report: falls (428 cases), as usual, was the leading cause of death for construction workers. Followed by transportation accidents (322), contact with objects and equipment (215), exposure to harmful substances and environments (189) and electrocutions (124)

Laborers Health and Safety Fund Division Director Scott Schneider said with a combination of stronger safety programs, more consistent implementation, better supervisor and worker awareness, improved OSHA standards and more OSHA enforcement, many of these deaths could have been prevented.

For example, he said fall fatalities could be dramatically reduced by designing fall prevention into projects (to make it easier to tie off) and requiring 100 percent fall protection at heights of six feet or more.

Trades picket over German hires
Detroit Diesel is installing a new assembly line and related equipment at its plant at Telegraph and Plymouth Rds.

It's an "all-union" job employing a number of Michigan-based Hardhats - but many of the workers are German nationals who were brought over here to install equipment.

The building trades picketed the site Aug. 29-31 in an effort to call attention to the situation.

"It's all about local jobs for local people," said Michigan Building and Construction Trades Business Rep. Ed Coffey. "They're taking our market share. You can bet they'd do the same thing in Germany if our people went over there to do their work."

Pete Accica, a business representative for Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1, led the effort to establish the pickets, which included about 150 supporters. He said there is very little information available about the extent of the work inside the Detroit Diesel plant, although the job is was winding down earlier this month.

"They're outsourcing us, they're cutting out local workers and we brought the situation to light," he said. "They pledged that in the future they'll look more closely at who they hire."

No letup for nonresidential work
Washington, D.C. - "Nonresidential construction shrugged off the turmoil in homebuilding and credit markets in July to post another solid gain," Ken Simonson, chief economist for The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) on Sept. 4. He was commenting on that day's construction spending report from the Census Bureau.

"Although total construction spending slipped 0.4 percent in July, seasonally adjusted, and residential fell 1.4 percent, nonresidential spending climbed 0.6 percent, the 10th consecutive monthly gain," Simonson said. "For the first seven months of 2007 combined, total construction was down 3.4 percent and residential plummeted 18 percent compared to the same period in 2006."

However, he said those figures obscure the 15 percent jump in nonresidential spending.

In other sectors noted by the report:

  • Public construction was up 11 percent year-to-date through July.
  • *Highway spending could drop next year," Simonson said, as states are running short of money due to lower gas tax receipts - the result of lower consumption.
  • Commercial construction was up 15 percent year to date.