SEARCH
Las Vegas Construction Workers Win Safety Demands |
Some 6,000 construction workers are back on the job today at MGM Mirage’s CityCenter in Las Vegas, after the project’s general contractor agreed to the workers’ demands to improve safety on a job site where six workers have been killed in the past 18 months.
The workers, members of the unions of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council (SNBCTC), walked off the construction site for a $9.2 billion hotel, casino, condominium, retail and entertainment complex Monday night, when talks with Perini Building Co. to improve safety broke down.
Steve Ross, the building council’s executive secretary-treasurer says the agreement is
…quite significant, not only for union construction workers but for construction workers in general. We want them all to be safe….We want this to resonate up and down Las Vegas Boulevard. The important thing is for these men and women to come to work in the morning and regardless of what shift they’re working, go home and be with their families.
Perini agreed to a three-point job safety outline that includes:
-
An immediate worksite safety assessment by the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department’s (BCTD’s) Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR).
-
Conducting and paying for on-site safety training for all workers administered by the center.
-
Full job site access to union and safety officials.
The latest death occurred Saturday when Dustin Tarter, 39, a crane oiler, was killed when he was crushed between the crane’s counterweight system and the crane track. Five other workers have been killed at the CityCenter. Overall, 11 construction workers have been killed on Las Vegas Strip job sites in the past 18 months.
In March, a Las Vegas Sun investigative series reported a pattern of dangerous safety problems on city construction sites, including inadequate training, faulty equipment, job speed-ups, worker fatigue from excessive overtime and more.
Yesterday, Fred Medina, a member of Plasterers and Cement Masons (OP&CMIA) Local 797 told the paper:
We’re trying to make a statement that life is important. When you make a complaint about safety to safety managers, they keep saying, “We’ll fix it. We’ll fix it.” But nothing ever happens. They’re pushing to get stuff done. They’re more interested in the money, than keeping the job safe.
Ross said the agreement was a good first step in addressing the job safety problems in the estimated $32 billion building boom in the city.
I want to make this very clear, this isn’t the solution to the entire problem.
3 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Workplace Safety must be Job 1 on any work site. This important responsibility must be put in place and fully supported by the Employer and or General Contractor. As this process now goes forward, the true measure of success for this Employer Driven Responsibility can be, and will be determined by the RESULTS! Death and Injury to any worker on any job site is simply not acceptable in this day and age, Period!
This is a HUGE Project with Billions being spent, and all too often these large projects simply accept Death and Injury as a part of the “Cost of Doing Business!” This is not an acceptable practice in this 21st Century and every effort must be taken, and every dollar spent to make sure that workers return home to their friends and families every night!
It’s time to Change the Perspective that Death and Injury on the Job in this 21st Century is simply a part of the “Cost of Doing Business!” It’s a signal of the cheap price that someone is willing to pay for FAILURE!! Ask the Families that are left behind of those Dead and Injured Workers how they feel about the Price they must now Pay as they must now go forward with only the memory of what could have or should have been!
It’s time that the Public be fully exposed to the true facts and actual costs behind these words and actions. It’s time that the Working Public finally sees that far too often “Cost Containment” begins with cutting costs on issues related to workplace safety, and then ends up with further steps and legal tactics only to lower or eliminate the Full Cost and Liability of the Employer’s Responsibility after the damage has already done!
It’s The High Price of a Low Value placed on Human Life!
Remember, It’s the Healthy Workers of today, that live to become the Death and Injury Statistics of another Day!
SAFETY IS JOB 1! Every Day, in Every Way!!
If you work for a living, Your in this fight whether you know it, whether you like it or not… Work Safe & Smart!
Don’t Give Up the Fight!!
Craig Michie
NvVIAW@aol.com
Nevada Voters Injured at Work
I hope one of those safety demands was that everyone on the job speak English! Lack of clear and concise communication on the job can be just as deadly as the lack of safety equipment or the use of the wrong tools.
After 40+ years in the construction industry I see a direct correlation between the increase on death and injuries on the job, the lack of wages and benefits keeping up with the cost of living, and working conditions that reduce construction workers to automatons in the eyes of employers with the union density that now exists in the construction industry.
In the last 4 decades construction employers and their associations (IE: ABC & AGC) have mounted strategic warfare against the unions representing their workers. This MUST CHANGE!!! In is more important today than at any time in our history for workers to come together and join unions.
We will be mute in the ears of employers until we do! Our ability to support our families and our right to return home safe and in one peace is at risk… until we do!