September 29, 2008

U.S. crane industry faces struggle over public image

IAN HARVEY

correspondent

The U.S. crane industry needs to step up and take control of its image or risk being legislated into the ground, attendees at a Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association workshop were told recently.

Jim Robertson, managing partner of General Crane USA and a member of the Florida Public Task Force on Workplace Safety told the group that the industry is vulnerable to the politics of knee jerk reactions driven by gory headlines.

Several high-profile crane accidents and fatalities have put the spotlight on the industry and the issues around safety have become highly politicized, he said.

The result in his home state of Florida was a push by 67 local counties to draft and try and pass regulations around cranes — and each one was different, resulting in a nightmare of compliance.

Robertson led the push to block Dade County’s legislation after discovering some of the standards set were unachievable and in some cases made crane-lift situations more dangerous.

The result of a long struggle is an emerging national certification program, says Robertson, which will make it easier for operators to comply and understand what is expected of them.

He said the industry hasn’t been helped by a couple of high-profile accidents, including the death of a worker at a Miami condominium construction site in 2006 that also injured five others. “Media are always looking for stories and the headlines grab attention,” he said. “Then there’s a public outcry and a demand for answers as to why there are so many accidents in such a short period of time.”

Indeed, the Miami accident was followed by several others, including another one in the same city in which two workers died when a crane collapsed on another condo project as well as accidents in Oklahoma, Las Vegas and two others in Manhattan.

“The result was that crane safety for a while was a prime topic,” he said.

To offset their image, he said, the industry, through organizations like SCRA must step up and confront the issues much like the makers of Tylenol did when a would-be blackmailer laced bottles of the pain medication and set them back on the shelves resulting in several deaths and a crisis for the brand.

“But they didn’t hide,” said Robertson. “They confronted it and spoke up,” said Robertson. “We need to do a little of that.”

He said part of the task is reaching out to the media: “They report crane collapses, but in 95 per cent of cases, it’s human error.”

Still, he said, zero accidents and zero fatalities are the only acceptable stats.

His frustrations were echoed by Rob McGee of Gwill Cranes in Burnaby, B.C. McGee said that while legislation hasn’t been as politicized in Canada, there is always pressure for tighter regulations after an accident.

Still, he said, most of the provinces have clear standards on safety and certification and those that don’t are in the process of enacting them.

Bob Low, director of human resources and staff development at the Matcom Group in Vaughan and an active member of the Construction Safety Association of Canada, said industry safety is improving.

“Safety is so much better now than 10 years ago,” he said.

In effect, Canada already has the national legislation being debated in the U.S. in the form of the Canada Labour Act.

While it essentially delegates the details to the provinces, it sets minimum standards, Low said. And at the Ontario level, a unique management-labour committee — officially known as the Construction Legislation Review Committee — regularly meets to discuss issues affecting all construction trades.

The result, is that an issue can be driven quickly to the minister’s office and if quick changes are required, regulations can be amended by order rather than the cumbersome process of tabling and passing a bill.

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