I’m not retiring soon, but I find myself occasionally falling into the ramblings of a retired old guy. You know the talk—the “back in my day” speech—the kind of idle chat that can bore you to death in a minute. Take the subject of safety as an example. Back in my day we had young kids on the job site cleaning up (I was one of ’em ), brought our dogs to work and had the radio blasting with not a hard hat in sight. We worked on three-legged ladders and stole the plasterer’s planks when we needed to reach a bit farther out. Oh, the stories we could tell, the safety risks we would take. Well, much has changed in the past few decades. None of those practices are around anymore, and crews no longer complain that wearing a hard hat is a burden.
With this issue of AWCI’s Construction Dimensions magazine being devoted to safety, it is great to see how seriously AWCI contractors take it. We’ve come a long way to assuring our employees make it home injury-free each day.
AWCI’s 2013 Excellence in Construction Safety Award contest had twice as many applicants as the prior year, all from very strong contenders. Our congratulations go to the winners, all of whom are officially announced April 2—just days after this magazine is sent to you (in addition, winners will be featured in the June issue of this magazine and on www.awci.org).
AWCI also helped deliver safety information via the many booths at our Intex Expo that featured products to help us work safer than ever.
To expand our safety efforts even further, AWCI is looking for more participation from safety directors working for your companies. Their assistance in our Safety Forum will greatly improve your safety efforts as you share the best of the best programs and how you implemented them. Contact AWCI’s technical director, Lee Jones, for information on the next meeting. He can be reached at [email protected].
In the meantime, it was great seeing many of you at AWCI’s Convention, and I look forward to seeing and meeting you at many more. Heck, we can share some “back in my day” stories. In the meantime, Be Safe.
In addition to being 2013–2014 president of the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry, Daley is president of Daley’s Drywall & Taping, Inc., San Jose, Calif.
