Posted:
March 5, 2008
The Local 1245 Safety and Health Committee met on February 28, 2008 in Vacaville at the union hall. 1245 Safety Committee members are Keith Hopp, Al White, Michael Gomes, Art Torres, Robert Burkle, Thomas Greer, Sergio Munoz, Larry Pierce and Ralph Armstrong. All members were in attendance. It was announced to the committee that Ralph Armstrong would be taking over as the new chairman to replace Larry Pierce.
First order of business was the discussion involving an agenda for all future meetings and all agreed that this would help to facilitate these meetings in the future. The Committee Chair will provide an agenda for future meetings and all committee members will provide him with any new items prior to the monthly meeting.
Confined Space Rescue
Requirements
The subject of confined space rescue was brought up and
whether or not anyone was aware of any group that has specific training
requirement for this. All in the
committee that work in confined spaces said that they do not train or practice
this and that Fire and Rescue are what is relied upon in case of an
accident. Fed-OSHA requirements require
qualified workers whose work in the electric industry to be trained in pole top
as well as manhole rescue to provide rescue to injured workers. This committee is unaware of any Ca-lOSHA
standard that requires the same training requirement. Copies of the Federal and State Standards will be viewed for
clarification on the state requirements as well as the requirement to train and
practice pole top rescue.
Backhoe Bucket for Lifting
It has been past practice to use Backhoe buckets as
lifting devices to set secondary boxes.
There has been some research and data that was submitted to this
committee with information obtained from PG&E Fleet Engineering as well as PG&E
Livermore facility that suggest this is an unsafe practice. The main concerns are the lack of holding
valves in the hydraulic system which will cause the lift cylinder to leak
down. The committee will follow-up on
the provided documents and try to gather more information regarding this.
Near Miss Program
On the Business Managers recommendation the topic of
implementing a 1245 Near Miss Program were discussed. All committee members were in agreement that this would be a
great tool and are all for it. There
was also a recommendation from the committee to research a way for our members
to communicate with each other regarding work practices and safety topics via a
blog on the 1245 Safety Committee site.
It is the consensus of this committee that it is important to provide
our members a secure way of communicating with each other as well as an
interactive way of providing safety related guidance to members who have safety
concerns. We will look into the feasibility
of enhancing the Safety Committees web page and possibly creating a forum for
our members to discuss safety topics and concerns. We will also gather
information and guidelines for creating a near miss program
Distribution of Minutes from the 1245 Safety Committee
A long-standing issue with the 1245 Safety Committee is
an appropriate avenue of providing minutes from this committee to all our
members. The committee has discussed
with Chris Habecker about her role in providing these minutes to the unit
chairs for discussion at the unit meetings.
Another venue to display these minutes is on the 1245 Safety Committee
web site. The committee will work on posting this report as well as future
reports on the safety Committee web page as well as provide a copy to Chris for
distribution
Commercial Motor Vehicles
There were several questions regarding Commercial Drivers
Licenses (CDL) and Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMV) laws during this
meeting. Topics ranged from Hours of
Service to physicals to DUI’s. There
are concerns and rumors floating around from our members over these topics. The committee chair will contact the
California Highway Patrols, Commercial Industry Educational Program to have one
of their trainer come by our safety committee meeting to answer questions as
well as provide information about their free program to provide to our
signatory employers as a means of education to our members.
PPE Safety Article for the
Utility Reporter
The Business Manager has suggested that the Safety
Committee come up with a full-page poster add for the back section of the
Utility Reporter. It was agreed that
all members of this committee will work on the wording and possible PPE safety
poster design and submit their ideas to the committee chairman prior to our next
regular meeting.
Accident Reporting
The committee discussed the lack of accident reporting to
this committee by employers who do not have members on the committee. We feel that more needs to be done to get
accident information out to our members to discuss at safety meetings. The committee will come up with some
suggestions on how to improve this reporting process. Chairman will gather information regarding updating our 1245
Safety Committee web site to provide an easy access approach to getting generic
information regarding accidents that have occurred in our jurisdiction.
Avian Flu on Towers
The committee reviewed a letter from one of our members
expressing concerns over the possibility of contracting the bird flu while
climbing around bird droppings on towers.
It was mentioned that this topic was also brought up during the IBEW and
PG&E Safety Committee Meeting, which took place on Feb. 25th. During the IBEW/PG&E Safety Committee, PG&E
brought in 2 employees that PG&E has on staff that are working on PG&E’s
Pandemic Plan. It was noted in the
IBEW/PG&E meeting that in all of North America there has never been any
cases of the Avian Flu being passed on to humans from birds reported. We will continue to monitor this subject for
any new developments.
PG&E Storm Concerns and
Recommendations
The committee reviewed a list of concerns that were
brought up by one of our members in the wake of January’s winter storm. Topics such as using non-traditional
personnel for stand-by, the use of qualified personnel to assess locations, the
use of qualified people to run the storm room, generators and back-feed, rubber
gloving and hot sticking in the rain, man on line tagging, working procedures,
overweight vehicles and constant communications. The committee was asked to review the current recommendations
listed in the e-mail and provide any new ones they had. After reviewing the recommendations listed
the committee agreed with the current recommendations that were made however
some members mentioned this stuff is not new.
These issues have been brought up before during storm work with similar
recommendations being made afterwards.
The feeling is these things will not be corrected and they will
resurface during the next big storm.
Training for Meter Workers
The topic of who can connect or disconnect electric
meters was discussed. Depending on the
employer, employees from different organizations within the company such as
finance are assigned to connect and/or disconnect electric meters. Questions on the level of training these
employees receive are unknown. The committee will try to gather more specifics
on which properties use non-electrical employees to perform this work as well
as what specific training these employees receive. circumstances.
Round Table Topics
There was several side topics discussed with no action required such as,
Fall Protection and 100% attachment requirements in
Canada and some U.S Utilities as well as fall protection devices used for that
purpose.
Switching errors that have taken place and communications
between dispatchers and field personnel.
Equi-potential grounding and the increased number of
accidents in the industry while working on de-energized lines due to induced
voltages.
The large number of pieces of equipment identified on the
PG&E system as well as the SMUD system that are listed as inoperable.
FR Clothing and PG&E pending implementation of
it. No real specifics to
manufacturer. Specifics of the program
and implementation will be discussed and worked on with the IBEW at a later
time.
National Safety Councils 2008 Spring Labor Division
Meeting. 4 members from this committee
to attend including the Chairperson in May.
Final names will be provided ASAP.
SPI Meter Accident with pictures was reviewed.
Next Meeting will be on March 27, 2008 in Vacaville.