AWCI’s Safety and Health Committee conducted two peer safety reviews during 2024. These reviews have been an excellent source of networking and information transfer among companies, in a non-competitive framework of encouraging and helping fellow safety professionals.
The first peer safety review was at OCP Contractors in Cleveland, Ohio, April 29–May 1. Representatives from six member companies visited OCP’s regional office and three active job sites, providing recommendations and review of systems and procedures.
The second peer safety review was with PCI in Kansas City, Kansas, from October 21-24. Mike Hill with PCI facilitated and coordinated interviews with 16 individuals; some worked at PCI headquarters and included PCI’s CEO and COO, as well as their general manager and superintendents from their Kansas City branch. The review was primarily of the Kansas City branch and included tours of the new branch office, “Project Kansas” (a large facility for Panasonic) and the University of Kansas football stadium.
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AWCI presented multiple webinars on safety topics, ranging from “Lessons Learned from Peer Safety Reviews,” “What Keeps You Up at Night,” and “Workplace Violence Prevention Plan: What You Need to Know.” While we had many attend these live webinars, we saw an uptick on YouTube.com with more than 1,000 views of the Workplace Violence Prevention webinar.
Prioritizing Safety in Tool Innovation and Design
Speaker: Gregg Malanga, Arrow RevealCUT
Opioid Risk Reduction: First Dose Prevention Strategies for Home and the Workplace
Speaker: Cal Beyer, SAFE Project
The Human and Financial Costs of Substance Misuse in Your Workplace
Speaker: Cal Beyer, SAFE Project
OSHA Safe + Sound Week is a nationwide event held each August that recognizes the successes of workplace safety and health programs and offers information and ideas on how to keep America’s workers safe. AWCI spread the word with several emails and social media messaging across all communications channels, sharing information and resources with our members about staying safe.
The safety and success of any construction project is determined by the individual decisions and actions of every team member, the things they see, communicate and act on day in and day out. Each person on the job, regardless of their role, has a deep responsibility for the safety of their entire team, and must commit to always taking initiative when it comes to safety, to own the choices they make and the outcomes that result from those choices.
That’s why it’s critical to create an engaging, supportive environment that promotes communication, ownership, and teamwork, where everyone can express their ideas, needs, and concerns without fear of judgement or repercussion, be accountable for their choices and actions, and work together toward the safest solutions and outcomes.
AWCI shared social media and email messaging and graphics daily in support of this campaign, May 6–10.
AWCI is an active member of the Construction Industry Safety Coalition (CISC), which is made up of 29 trade associations, representing associations from all sectors of the construction industry, including commercial building, heavy industrial production, home building, road repair, specialty trade contractors, material suppliers and construction equipment manufacturers. Workplace safety and health is a priority for all members of the coalition, and each is committed to helping create safer construction jobsites for workers. CISC was formed in 2013 to provide data and information to OSHA on regulatory, interpretive and policy initiatives.
AWCI is committed to supporting CIASP and increasing awareness regarding mental health in the construction industry.” Mental health and suicide prevention are major issues in the wall and ceiling construction industry. In 2024, AWCI continued a social media awareness campaign to provide resources and information about this important topic during the month of September. We will keep this as a top priority not only as a safety and health concern, but also to provide resources for our members dealing with at-risk individuals and situations.
