Mr. James Sassaman, can you please proceed with your testimony.
Certainly. Thank you and good afternoon. My name is Jim Sassaman. I am the Director of Labor Relations for the General Building Contractors Association. I have been with them for the past years. GBCA 15 has been in this City since 1724. We are 16 the functional offshoot of the Carpenters 17 Company, 320 Chestnut Street. We are 18 also the Philadelphia Builders Chapter of 19 the AGC, the Associated General 20 Contractors of America. 21 Twenty-one years ago I was charged for taking responsibility on an industry-wide basis in safety, and our services are two-pronged. One, we litigate. I am a non-attorney employer 102 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 representative who constantly litigates against OSHA. You are no doubt familiar with two of my most famous cases, the 2000 Kimmel Center collapse and the 2003 Tropicana collapse. We are not reactive. From the inception, our approach has been proactive. To that extent, we established the longest running continuous 30-hour OSHA program in the City. It's been around since 1985. We offer it twice a year. I am also a professor at Drexel University, and among the courses I teach is their version of the 30-hour OSHA-approved program. Furthermore, we also take safety, and have done so for the past 20 years, right to the job site. In fact, I was at Symphony House training the employees in fall protection in January of this year. This is the AGC video and now DVD on fall protection. If you'd like to have it, my gift to you. 103 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 We also publish the OSHA standards. In here we'll find the heart of the matter, what we're talking about. This is Part 1926. We published it with our logo. I'm here speaking in an official capacity, not for any particular contractor but for the GBCA as a whole. Having just come from their Board retreat in Atlantic City last week, I am authorized to testify that the GBCA respectfully is opposed to this bill, and I'll tell you why.
For clarity, this is a resolution on public safety, public safety on job sites, worker safety. This is not a bill.
Well, let me clarify. If it's a resolution, then I stand corrected. Subpart M, which is what we call OSHA's fall protection standard --
So you're not opposing the resolution? Because 104 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 this resolution only calls for public hearings, so that's what I'm doing today, on worker safety in the Philadelphia area.
To the extent that this resolution talks about a guardrail at six feet high, I'm here to explain that the OSHA standard is 42 inches, give or take three.
You must have one thing mixed up with the other, because my resolution is a very straightforward resolution on worker safety on construction sites.
I think now I know where your concern is about. If it's about a part of the resolution that said "whereas" and it talked about 15 fatalities, at the beginning of this session, we corrected that, because OSHA got back to us and told us that there was an inaccuracy there, and when I started 105 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 this hearing, I made that correction. We had put that out there in the resolution 4 only because we got it from a statement related to the fatalities. So for the record, that has been corrected per the request of OSHA.
With all due respect, I came in about ten minutes late. I am glad that OSHA is here. And in conclusion, I can also recommend that you speak to their National Directorate of Construction Services. That's a group they have at the national office in Washington with people dedicated just to construction engineering.
Well, that's it. If we're not deviating from the fall 106 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 protection requirement, Subpart M, that concludes my testimony.
The way it works is that whoever is sitting here asks questions and we expect you to answer them.
So you represent all the builders -- the union builders only?
Union construction. There are about 450 member firms, perhaps another 450 who are not members but who nonetheless contribute to our industry advancement program. So, therefore, we service the entire industry and, yes, union. So, in other words, if 107 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 a general contractor or a subcontractor invites me to a job site to show some safety videos, if other trades or other employers want to join in, that's fine. That's great.
The GBCA presented a safety video to the employees at Symphony House?
This was done in January. All the employees had to be there, right?
I was requested by Fabi to show the video to the employees over one or two days in various sessions in the in-check job trailer.
I have at least one. There might have been another perhaps left there. I don't have it with me, but my office has it.
What do you think went wrong there? 108 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
I know nothing about the case. I couldn't tell you what went wrong. I know nothing about the case. I'm not involved.
When you went there, did the place look like a place that you would put on a hard hat and boots and go to work, as long as you were conscious of safety yourself, that this was a safe environment?
I didn't conduct a safety inspection. That is not part of what I do. What I did was simply walk into the job trailer, which was located right on the corner, showed the movie in various sessions and then left.
All right. Why don't you tell me again, what do you do?
What do I do? I teach and I educate. I teach classes at night and I take safety videos to the job sites to train the workers.
Okay. Have 109 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 you ever put on a hard hat and boots?
I own about ten different hard hats and I own steel-toed shoes.
The next panel will include Barbara Rahke. Please correct me if I'm pronouncing your name wrong. And Dona File from -- Barbara is from PhilaPOSH, it says here, and Dona File is from L.F. Driscoll. Please come forward.
Let me first correct. It's Barbara Rahke. Good name in Philadelphia, right? And I am indeed the Director of PhilaPOSH, which stands for the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health. So good morning and thank you very much for this invitation to speak today. PhilaPOSH is a non-profit 501(3)(c) organization whose sole purpose 110 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 is to fight to protect the health and safety rights of workers. We are supported by about 100 sponsoring local unions in the area and also receive funding from OSHA, from the State, from different organizations to conduct different training programs. Last year we celebrated our 30th anniversary, which is no small feat for a non-profit organization dedicated to safety and health. And although I have only been the Director of PhilaPOSH for a little over a year, PhilaPOSH representatives, my predecessor, have testified before City Council on numerous occasions, I think the first time being in 1970, in the '70s, when City Council was considering passage of the first "Right to Know" law in the country, a law that was passed and went on to become part of the haz communication standard for OSHA. So I am particularly happy that these hearings are being held today. In other words, the City Council is 111 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 continuing sort of its historic role in dealing with safety and health issues. Now I want to begin to talk a little bit about reality and begin with a personal story. Five years ago, I purchased a home in the Francisville section of North Philadelphia. About a year after I moved in -- and, in fact, am part of many of your friends and neighbors in the Spring Garden area. About year after I moved in, an abandoned house next door to me collapsed, pulling down with it another unoccupied house on the other side. The City hired a contractor, who had the lowest bid, to bring down the houses to a safe level so that I could reenter my home. I observed the entire process since I was on the street until it was completed. The contractor arrived with three workers. Their safety equipment consisted of knit hats and gloves. They used an extension ladder, which was 112 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 placed on the teetering front brick walls, which they climbed to just below the front windows on the third floor, straddled the wall and then began to bring it down brick by brick with an ax. For two days I watched in horror, imagining what was going to happen if one of them fell, and although there were several close calls, the job was completed without any tragedy. Almost as quickly as collapsed or collapsing houses are demolished, new single or multiple-unit houses are being built or houses are being gutted and renovated throughout the City and certainly very much in my neighborhood. In fact, there are five construction jobs going on right now on my very block. A survey of those construction sites will reveal just with the naked eye a total lack of safety protections, a total lack of protective equipment and other safe practices being used site by site. The enormity of the construction 113 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 that's going on I think makes it almost impossible to probably get a grip on, but that is in fact what's going on in the neighborhoods. Many of the workers at these sites are in fact day laborers who are paid in cash. On my block many of them are people from the neighborhood and from the block that are being hired to do these jobs. They certainly have no 12 safety training. They are getting injured. These injuries are not being reported. And if they get hurt, they simply don't get called back to the job the next day. That's what's happening. OSHA and the City I believe both have a responsibility to get control of and to remedy this situation as much as possible.
And the testimony I've heard already this morning has pleased me, because I was unaware of some of the initiatives that are happening as we speak in the neighborhood. But I believe that if OSHA could just start enforcing 114 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 randomly fall standards at some of these residential construction sites, it would not take long for the message to get out to other small developers and contractors. And I also believe the City must stop awarding contracts, including demolition contracts, to the lowest bidder, unless they can show that they will be in full compliance with OSHA standards, and that they should be inspected once the project has begun to ensure that they have followed through with their safety system. I had a similar story on the other side of my house. If I hadn't called L&I actually -- a house after the one house collapsed, the City sent a letter to the owner on the other side of me that they were going to demolish the house. A young developer bought it, was supposed to seal and clean it, didn't, proceeded construction on an expired permit, with a contractor who wasn't even registered with the City, and if I hadn't 115 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 been aware and called, nothing would have happened. We in the City of Philadelphia must face the consequences of an economic system that values short term gain for a company over the safety and health of its workers and face the reality that without mandatory safeguards and meaningful penalties, the behavior will not change and will continue to have tragic consequences. I am simply outraged by the example of a tragic consequence to this economic behavior that I recently was involved with. PhilaPOSH receives hundreds of calls each year from injured workers who are usually looking for information about workers' compensation and their rights. Many are union members who are referred by their locals. Some are not in unions but got referred by a friend or found our number through various search mechanisms. The call we received last April 116 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 was different. The person who called, named Calvin, was homeless and living in a City shelter. Before he fell on hard times, he had a good job and had received health and safety training. He had no 7 access to a phone at the shelter to call us, but his counselor next door at a City-funded human resource center let him use her phone. He told me that he and other men at the shelter were being paid to go to work in an old factory, probably textile, in North Philadelphia. They were being driven in a van to the site where their job was to clean it out. They were given hand tools and gloves and sometimes throw-away paper masks to cover their mouth and nose. The developer who had recently bought the factory was usually there. He was friends with one of the managers at the human resource center next to the shelter. Calvin immediately knew it was a bad and possibly dangerous situation. 117 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 He said there were all kinds of things they were picking up in the trash with their hands, like syringes, but what concerned him most was the white stuff hanging over them and laying on the ground that they were also having to remove by hand. He wasn't positive, but he thought he recognized it from his previous training. He thought it was asbestos. After his first day there, he knew he wasn't going to go back. He took his clothes off when he got back to the shelter and put them in a plastic bag just in case. No one else who was with him did the same. In fact, he told the others that he worked with from the shelter that he didn't think they should go back there, it could kill them. But they didn't either believe him or the small bit of money was more real in their lives than the risk of being exposed. He told me all of this and said he would help in any way he could, but 118 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES.
060738 that somebody had to do something to stop them from working there unprotected. I couldn't reach him back by phone, but was able to leave a message for him with his counselor. I got in touch with OSHA, relayed all the information I had, which included the location of the old factory and the only way I knew to reach Calvin. I have with me today the letter I received last week from OSHA with a description of their findings about this case, including one willful and one serious citation and proposed fines totalling $13,500. Calvin was correct. Samples collected from the floor contained 100 percent asbestos. We will probably never know how many people were actually exposed. After all, they were homeless, including others at the shelter from the clothing that the workers had on when they returned from work. I do know that even after OSHA was alerted to this situation, because of the 119 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 time gap in doing an investigation, the homeless workers, minus Calvin, were back in there still working. How many of these kinds of cases we will never know or hear about. In these less visible cases, the workers are seen as disposable, easily replaceable, often homeless, undocumented, non-English-speaking or young. No one will even notice what is going on. I think we would all assume that we do know what's going on with worker safety at major construction sites. For instance, we know that private sector employers are required to report to OSHA all injuries or illnesses that require medical attention or result in lost time, as well as fatalities. At PhilaPOSH, we see a growing trend among contractors at construction sites not to report injuries. Another recent call we took at PhilaPOSH came from an injured worker who 120 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 worked for a subcontractor on a construction job at the Sunoco Refinery. He said he was on workers' compensation and had some questions. He said his contractor was very uptight about any incidents that resulted in an injury, but not for the right reason. He told me that, quote, Everyone knows that if you are a subcontractor at Sunoco, you will lose your contract if you have reported injuries, so the contractors just don't report them. Other similar calls we have received have been from workers who were not on workers' compensation but were being paid directly by their contractor while recovering from an injury in order to avoid having to report the incident. When something as basic as mandatory reporting is so easily circumvented, why should we be surprised when other mandatory safety standards are also being ignored? Fatalities and large 121 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 catastrophes cannot be hidden. The facts surrounding the accident get fully revealed and almost always there is a question of whether human error was involved. On April 3, 2006, scaffolding at a Boston, Massachusetts construction site collapsed, killing two workers and one pedestrian, touching on your issue of what's happening in other big cities. A key issue was how a metal tie that had secured the platform to the building had been disconnected. A letter was published in the Boston Globe from Marcy Goldstein-Gelb and Ted Comick, the Director and Co-Chair of MassCOSH, our sister organization in Boston. Under the title "Asking wrong questions in probe of building accident," they wrote, "The science of worker health and safety and injury control anticipates error and builds in fail-safe mechanisms. Yes, equipment breaks and people make mistakes. This is predictable. 122 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 Construction safety requires redundant systems so that equipment failure or human error does not cause death and injury. " On September 29th, OSHA cited Bostonian Masonry, the company in Boston, for eight violations of safety standards and proposed fines totalling $119,000.
We all know these fines are usually reduced, greatly reduced during conference. In September, Philadelphia woke up after a fatality at a construction site on North Broad Street. Jeffrey Martin, who worked for Fabi Construction, fell to his death after the perimeter safety protections had been compromised. Fabi has a long history of safety violations, which others have already attested to, so I will not repeat it. Even though Fabi was cited in 2003 for willful safety violations, 123 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 meaning ones committed with an intentional disregard or plain indifference to the requirements of the OSHA Act, and fined $119,000, OSHA and the Justice Department did not pursue criminal prosecution. The maximum penalty under criminal prosecution would be a fine of $250,000 and a six-month jail term. But we know criminal prosecution is rarely pursued. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is aggressively responding to the incident with the tragic scaffolding accident. A legislative panel began reviewing work safety issues immediately following that accident. Then after OSHA announced its multiple citations and proposed fines against Bostonian Masonry, the Massachusetts legislature's joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security released a report just this month, in fact just two weeks ago, recommending that construction company owners and officials should face 124 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 criminal charges if they recklessly fail to protect workers killed on construction sites. Quote, The prospect of criminal convictions and jail time send a powerful and necessary message to companies that might not be deterred by a fine and who obviously do not participate in voluntary programs. " The report says the State's law enforcement officials should be given a stronger hand to go after negligent contractors. Quote, Criminal prosecutions may be one of the only solutions that the Commonwealth's Attorney General and District Attorneys have available to them to permit action against willful violations, close quotes. In closing, I want to say that just as the City Council of Philadelphia stepped up and passed the first "Right to Know" law in the United States in the '70s, strong action is once again needed 125 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 to stop contractors and business owners whose willful violations of health and safety standards result in preventable deaths. Fines are not enough. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has got it right by calling for criminal convictions with jail time. We must stop the abuse of vulnerable and disposable workers who are intentionally and unknowingly exposed to asbestos just to keep costs down. We must stop the repeated offenders like Fabi from killing one more worker. We must step up. Workers' lives are counting on it. Thank you. )
Dona File, will you please proceed with your testimony.
I'd like to thank 126 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 you for inviting me to appear today, especially as a life-long resident and taxpayer of Philadelphia. F. Driscoll Company, and though my employers permitted me to participate in these hearings, I prefer that my comments be noted as one from a resident and taxpayer who is a safety professional. In a book written by Charles Perrow in 1999 called "Normal Accidents," he goes on to report, generally speaking, that accidents are often caused by many seemingly unrelated circumstances that occur in a sequential order to result in an accident of a specific magnitude. I'd like to refer to it as the Swiss cheese theory of accidents. All the holes in the Swiss cheese have to line up and they have to line up in a certain order for an accident of a certain magnitude to occur. As a safety professional in Philadelphia, I believe that it's my duty 127 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 to try and narrow that eye of the needle, the opportunity for those circumstances to occur and minimize the outcome. As we know, recently in Philadelphia that occasion has not presented itself to us generously. Because both worker safety and public safety are very connected while constructing high-rise buildings that are coming to characterize the new nature of Philadelphia as a world-class city, I believe that as a resident and a taxpayer to this City, it's incumbent upon me as a safety professional to propose certain elements that are likely to reduce the opportunity for severe accidents and death that at this time do not seem to be referenced either by OSHA or other regulatory commissions. I have not studied the Philadelphia L&I codes, though I know some of my co-workers have actually trained L&I. However, I believe that a building construction code of a similar 128 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 nature as found in New York City would be beneficial. I propose this Committee or some other committee be appointed with proper representation to develop those regulations for major buildings, and those are identified in the New York City Construction Building Code as any building greater than stories in 10 height or more than 200 feet in height or 11 more than 10,000 square feet. And I have 12 some very specific recommendations. 13 One would be to enhance fall 14 protection systems which exceed the OSHA 15 standards, which, for instance, would include a three-rail system. Some of the systems that are currently approved or -- and I apologize to OSHA. I know you don't approve anything -- that are OSHA-compliant systems such as a brand name PearlWeave has one cable at the top and it's an orange netting system that's often found on buildings. The system itself is patented without a midrail in place, so that once the top rail is 129 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 compromised and the netting is compromised, there is no safety whatsoever in place. To have a mandatory midrail required as part of the City code or City building code would be very beneficial, in my mind. Horizontal safety netting on the side of a structure more than six stories or 75 feet in height to be moved in accordance under the working or stripping decks, depending if it's a concrete poured-in-place or a steel structure. That's very similar to the New York Building Construction Code. The requirement for writing a detailed written fall protection plan by each contractor on site who will not be using the convention guardrail system. One problem with the -- and I use the PearlWeave in the same context that we refer to a Frigidaire as a refrigerator, in the fridge. So the PearlWeave type system is that it's easily compromised, and I know that workers on break, for 130 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES.
060738 instance, sitting on top of drywall buckets, as I'm sure both you and I have done many times as union brothers and sisters in the trades here in Philadelphia, I've seen holes poked with cigarettes and knife slashings so workers can sit at break time or lunchtime and peer outside of this netting system. Once the netting is compromised, the fall system is virtually not intact. And along these lines, to have a type of netting system that becomes -- the fall protection system can be easily breached with a utility knife, and once a contractor has to go outside of that area, for instance, to do some layout, very easy to slice this netting, go outside unprotected and do their layout and then the floor becomes exposed, because we know in the preamble to the fall protection standard by OSHA is that there's no safe distance from an edge. So without a midrail in place either by a cable or a wooden guardrail system, there 131 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 is really no protection on that floor at that level. A mandatory written engineered plan developed by a professional engineer and stamped for inspection and repair of a system to be used for tie-off. And I think I haven't clarified that in No. 4 here. So that any worker who is going to use a wire rope cable system for fall protection needs to be engineered with a professional engineer and there needs to be a detailed report about how that guardrail or that top rail would be maintained, how it would be breached and how it would be repaired. Engineered drawings for any ramps, runways or platforms intended for the use of power buggies or equipment. The standards, in my mind, don't adequately address that issue. They say that it needs to be built for two times the intended load, especially for hole covers, and sometimes the intended load might be foot traffic, but the actual 132 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 load is a power buggy that might be filled with concrete. Another issue that has come to me in some of the high-rise buildings that we've built in the City or as we are building them are sidewalk sheds and pedestrian protection. And I know that Built-Rite, Fran Petriccione, who is not here today, when we walked the Comcast site a few weeks ago, we looked very intently at pedestrian protection. We've had this problem on other job sites, trying to protect people from themselves. As they cross a street, instead of crossing the corner away from the construction site, they cross directly into the area, the corner, where there might be an open gate or traffic coming into that site, which is closer to the building. F. Driscoll job site at 8th and Walnut Street, we actually built pedestrian barricades on the opposing corners to shuttle people away 133 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 from crossing caddy corner onto the corner of the construction site. And New York City has a similar proposed or a similar standard or code for any building that's over 100 feet in height. No. 7 actually addresses that issue, the erection of sidewalk barricade on the opposite side of the street. Right across City Hall here, many, I'm sure, employees of City Hall have walked on the wrong side of the street in traffic trying to get to 15th Street or to Chestnut Street from this side of City Hall Plaza, and a hard barricade would prevent that opportunity to occur. In creating buildings of enormous height, especially for renovation job sites -- and one I believe that you worked on yourself, Councilman Ramos, at the PSFS building where we met -- that you know one problem in a building of that nature is --
A long time 134 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 ago.
A long time ago, yes, sir. One problem in a building of that nature is that often all of the systems, the alarm systems, are ripped out in the demolition process. The alarm systems need to be kept intact so that there's a way of uniformly informing the workers on those floors that there is a need to leave the building. If there had been a fire or some other safety hazard that became evident on that job site, for instance, to notify all the workers, it would have been extremely difficult. Workers running from floor to floor down the building to notify everyone to leave the building as opposed to leaving the existing alarm system in place. I would propose that as part of the hopefully newly formed City building construction code. And another part that is sort of tangentially attached to the electrical standard by OSHA is the NFPA 135 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 70E, which is a -- and I wish my good friend Jim Dollard had been here today to speak to this. It is a standard written pertaining to the use of energized work or the working on energized systems so that there are -- if it's not possible, for instance, in some facilities to use a lock-out, tag-out program, some systems from time to time have to be left energized. Some testing procedures of electrical panels and equipment require the panel to be energized while the testing occurs. The NFPA 70E allows for a written electrical safe work practices plan that would include the matrix, a personal protective equipment matrix, in the NFPA 70E standard so that the contractor and the workers involved in working on hot work would be required to use the level of protection that's identified in the NFPA 70E standard. And though I think OSHA is trying to enforce this, it doesn't because the OSHA standards are not necessarily concurrent 136 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 with industry standards. This would be really a lifesaver. There have been some very severe accidents in Philadelphia such as the one at the Phillies ballpark a few years ago while that was under construction. Two construction workers were severely injured while working on live energized parts, and having this standard in place would have most likely prevented severe injury to those two individuals. So I'd like to thank you for these considerations. I remain a life-long resident of Philadelphia and taxpayer, and I hope that some of these issues are addressed.
I may be the only Philadelphia resident here today, sir. I'm sorry. You, too. There's three of us. Thank you. 137 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
Thank you so much for your testimony. I want to say to both of you, thank you for bringing to this Committee hearing on worker safety specific recommendations, that I'm going to read and study and see what we can do with these recommendations through the City Council, and we'll be in touch with you. Ms. File, you're also the Safety Director for L.F. Driscoll, and L.F. Driscoll is the general contractor, I believe, or the overseer of the Symphony House project. Is there anything that could have been prevented there from Mr. Martin falling to his death on that job site? 138 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
Well, the incident, of course, is still under investigation, and there are platoons, as you can imagine, of lawyers involved. I think one thing that would have definitely helped the situation was to have a mandatory midrail with this PearlWeave type system used so that there would be a less likely breach of the entire guardrail system. And also, sir, I'd like to state that for the record, that job site at the Symphony House is a joint venture partner with Intech-Driscoll. It's not solely a Driscoll project.
Is it the responsibility of the joint partners to hire the subcontractor or is it the responsibility of the owner to hire the contractor?
It varies from site to site. There's some sites that have a list of approved and preferred contractors and others that do not. So I 139 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 can't speak clearly to that.
In the Symphony House project, did L.F. Driscoll hire Fabi as a subcontractor?
To the best of my knowledge, Fabi was hired by the joint venture.
It was in testimony here, someone mentioned that Fabi had -- and this is not the Councilman or Chairman of this Committee saying this, but someone that testified made a comment that this contractor had had other problems of falls and tragedies with falls in other jurisdictions. Maybe you're not the person to ask this question of. Was the joint partners, in hiring or awarding this contract to the subcontractor, aware that this contractor had had a significant incident that led to death of a construction worker in 140 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 other jurisdictions? I mean, if there's a contractor out there that got notoriety because of a death at another job that this contractor was involved in, why would you hire this contractor to work on your project?
Okay. All right. Thank you so much for your testimony, especially both of you for your recommendations. This incident of Calvin, Barbara, was something done about this? You mentioned that there was a fine.
I can give you the document. OSHA actually pursued and investigated the case and has cited and proposed fines to the owner of the factory. Calvin has been moved to another shelter.
Yes, the job is -- 141 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 well, the homeless people are not still at the site.
They're no 5 longer at the site, but the job is still going on?
Because you do know that, particularly in the area of asbestos, that you can file charges. You can go to the District Attorney's office and file a charge if you have been in fact exposed to asbestos, because it is part of the 1971 -- correct me if I'm wrong -- 1971 toxic waste -- no; '74. Mid '70s. I don't have my exact date, but it's an early to mid '70s law that you can be charged. You can bring up violators. Anyone that has been purposely exposed to the exposure of asbestos particles can be charged. Did Air Management -- are you familiar with Air Management? Air Management is the unit within the Philadelphia Health Department that 142 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 monitors jobs, asbestos jobs and other type of work, but definitely asbestos comes under their jurisdiction.
I think part of the tragedy of this is that the people who were exposed were all living in a homeless shelter. That's part of what's so tragic. I was really hoping I could get Calvin here today. I'm trying to find him. He's not at that shelter anymore, and he was really the stand-up hero in this situation.
If you can get any of this information, if you grab a hold of it, please make it available to me.
Thank you so much for your testimony, both of you. On my list I have Jimmy Bickel of Adams Bickel Associates and Mr. Geoff Zeh from ABC Contractors. Please come forward. Is Jimmy Bickel here? 143 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
Councilman, I'm John Judge. I'm the Education Director with Associated Builders and Contractors.
What we'll do is, we'll get Jimmy to go first. Then please identify yourself with your name and your association. Please proceed, Jimmy.
Yes. My name is Jimmy Bickel. I serve as Chairman of the Safety Committee of the Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors. 144 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 ABC is a national association representing more than 23,000 merit contractors and construction-related firms in 79 chapters across the United States. The Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter represents merit contractors in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties. ABC is pleased for the opportunity to address the City of Philadelphia Committee on Labor and Civil Service on the issue of job site safety. We share the premise that job site safety should be paramount in the construction industry. Safety is certainly one of the most important goals at ABC. Our Chapter's Safety Committee is responsible for providing safety training and support services to our members. For example, in 2006, the Chapter conducted twelve 10-hour OSHA and three 30-hour OSHA courses attended by more than 200 construction employees. This is in addition to the many ABC 145 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 members who conduct OSHA training programs on their own. ABC conducts safety-related education programs with the assistance of local OSHA officials. Along with traditional safety programs, ABC offers online safety training and certification. In addition, we maintain a free video lending library with a wide range of safety videos for our members without charge. Finally, ABC offers free consultations to members in the development of company safety committees and programs. ABC encourages members to develop and maintain rigorous and proactive safety programs to increase employee awareness of job site safety and minimize accidents. The success of our members' safety record is attributable to the high level of safety training provided to its employees. ABC offers job-specific safety courses through structured seminars dealing with topics such as fall protection, forklift 146 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 certification, first aid and CPR training to supplement our and 30-hour OSHA 4 programs. Finally, ABC offers 5 management-level programs to certify 6 individuals as construction health and 7 safety technologists, while promoting a 8 regional program to certify high school 9 instructors as OSHA trainers, so that 10 they can offer safety training and certifications to secondary school students. Additionally, the Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter of ABC has maintained a partnership agreement with both the Philadelphia and Allentown offices of OSHA since 2001. In this agreement, ABC and OSHA recognize the importance of providing a safe and healthy work environment for construction employees throughout Southeast Pennsylvania. The partnership has helped to foster mutual trust and respect for the roles each organization plays in ensuring a safe construction job site 147 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 environment. The partnership agreement provides incentives to contractors that participate in ABC's safety training and evaluation process program, also known as STEP, and demonstrate superior levels of performance in safety. The STEP program is a tool that contractors use to evaluate and strengthen their safety programs, policies and procedures. ABC recognizes participants based on their level of achievement with their management of safety programs, policies and procedures. The recognition levels are bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Participants enjoy the added benefit of reduced worker compensation costs and the knowledge that their employees are working in a safe job site environment. ABC has instituted a mentoring program with OSHA as part of our partnership agreement. The mentoring program is jointly administered by ABC and OSHA and assists contractors in the 148 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 development of procedures needed to establish and operate effective safety programs.
ABC has produced Construction Safety Management, a 118-page safety handbook that provides methods, policies and procedures for operating a safe construction company. It offers detailed information on each of the components necessary for an effective safety and health program. Construction Safety Management also provides tips on safety and health program essentials as management support, pre-task planning, substance abuse testing, return to work plans and finding experienced, safe employees. Finally, ABC produces a number of other safety publications for use by its members. A listing of these publications is attached to this statement. As you can readily see, ABC concurs with the intent of the City of Philadelphia's effort to ensure that 149 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 safety is a paramount consideration at construction job sites. ABC is committed to that premise and commits that it is prepared to work with both OSHA and the City of Philadelphia to promote job site safety on its construction projects. Since ABC has an ongoing safety partnership with OSHA that is designed to accomplish the objectives sought by the City of Philadelphia, ABC urges that we work together to share ideas and continue efforts to maintain a safe working environment at construction job sites. Thank you for the opportunity to present this statement.
Thank you so much, Mr. Bickel, for your presentation. If Mr. Zeh can proceed with his testimony, please.
I don't have anything 150 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 further, except to thank you for the opportunity to let us appear before you on this important issue this morning -- or this afternoon.
Thank you for coming forward and giving us testimony. How many of your affiliates have ongoing projects in the City of Philadelphia? Not the counties but in the City of Philadelphia proper. How many contractors do you have?
We can't tell you precisely how many. They don't give us detailed information. I know of at least three members that are currently working on fairly major projects in the City.
What percentage of the market does ABC represent in the Philadelphia area that are affiliates of your organization? 151 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
We don't keep information. We do have information from a study done by the Building Trades quite a number of years ago where open-shop contractors did slightly over half of the construction work in the five-county area and the Building Trades did something just under 50 percent of the work. That's the only information we have.
How many of your affiliate members are doing residential building in Philadelphia proper?
Our members do very little residential work. We're predominantly a commercial construction trade association.
And you only represent non-union or do you represent union contractors as well?
We're open to everyone. We do have some members that are signatory, but the vast majority of our members are open shop. 152 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
Philadelphia is known as a union town. I can attest to that, and I keep membership in the Laborers Union. I got a little pension that awaits me. If I don't get a pension here, I'll have a pension because I worked as a construction worker for so many years, and I'm proud of that fact. The only world that I can talk to you about when it comes to construction work is a union world, because it was part of my livelihood for so many years. Do you provide the type of benefits, pension, health and welfare plans, salaries, that are comparable to union construction jobs?
Most of our members provide a wide array of benefits, including pension, 401(k), health insurance, life insurance, education, training.
Are they comparable? 153 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
Yes. In many instances, they exceed Building Trades rates. A lot of our members do what's called public construction on prevailing wage or Davis-Bacon jobs. On those jobs everybody is required to be paid the same amount of money.
Are you doing any work in Philadelphia that are under Davis-Bacon prevailing wage jobs? Do you know if any of your affiliates are doing work here in Philly?
I know that if I was to ask -- well, we have testimony here of a guy named Calvin, a homeless person and obviously a person down in his luck, was concerned about safety also. So I would assume everybody is concerned about safety. How do you assure that your affiliates make sure that the workers 154 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 that your affiliates represent, that they pay for, that they hire, are working in a very safe environment? How do you go about that? I know you mentioned OSHA. Maybe I want to give you the opportunity to elaborate on -- because one thing that we do know in the City of Philadelphia is that our union contractors have made this a very big priority, safety, and whether you're union or non-union, safety is a human factor issue more so than anything else. How do you go about making sure that these major job sites or smaller job sites have safety first and foremost in your daily work?
As OSHA states, it's the employer's obligation to provide a safe work environment for its employees. 155 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
Well, I'll be speaking from an employer's standpoint on this. And so from the employer's standpoint, it's our responsibility to ensure that safe work site, and we do that through OSHA 10-hour, 30-hour training. All of our employees have a minimum of 10-hour training. Many, probably more than half, have the OSHA 30-hour training. Through the OSHA partnership, we work with mentoring to enhance our current safety programs that we have, and through our entire safety program through the incentives and the disciplinary actions that are included in our safety and health program, safety inspections, things like that, we continue to ensure a safe work environment on a construction site.
Thank you so 156 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 much for your testimony. In today's hearing, first and foremost is the safety of workers, and today different organizations from government to labor organizations, associations like yours -- is GBCA -- what is your relationship, if any, or -- the person that testified seems to have been just a tad bit nervous his first time here. Are you the same type of association or --
I think we're -- well, I'm not that familiar with GBCA. We do work with them occasionally on legislative issues, but by and large, we do not partner with them on safety matters. We operate our safety programs independently.
Do you have any specific recommendations? If you 157 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 don't, I sure welcome any specific recommendations that you think that you can present that you would like to present to us when it comes to legislation that would improve upon worker safety.
I don't know that we have specific recommendations today with us, but we would like to continue to work with the City of Philadelphia and OSHA as you go through that process.
Okay. Well, thank you so much for your testimony today. Thank you.
Mr. Consenza, can you hold on, please. Unless you have anything else to add, I am done with the questioning.
Thank you so much for your testimony. Is there anyone else here that would like to testify? Yes, ma'am. You're from OSHA, right?
Yes, sir, and I would just like to add something for the record.
Okay. OSHA is coming back. Mr. Consenza, you would like to add something else to the resolution?
Mr. Consenza, hold on. Let me let her go first and then you can come back and if you want to add a brief emphasis, a very brief statement, too, that's fine. Ma'am, please state your name again for the record.
Kate Dugan. I'm the Regional Director for Public Affairs 159 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 for the U.S. Department of Labor, of which OSHA is part of, and we'd just like to get into the record today, Councilman, concerning the testimony of Mr. Haigler from the Department of Licenses and Inspections. It seems as if in conferring with the OSHA enforcement people we have given extensive training to the Department of Licensing and Inspection construction people on trenches, and the referrals that they make to us almost are solely on trenches. What we'd like to do today is formally offer Michael Maenner, the Manager of L&I's Construction Inspection Division, an opportunity for OSHA to in fact train their inspectors in other areas, specifically fall hazards. It just seems that we've trained them in the trenching and we get a lot of referrals on trenching. We're hoping that if we offer to train on fall hazards, that we will get more referrals from them on fall hazards. 160 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 So I just wanted to make the offer part of the record and extend that to the Department of Licensing and Inspection Construction Inspection Division, and we will be happy to do that. Thank you.
Your statements have been added to the record. I believe that everyone that came here today came here because they're concerned about worker safety. So we're taking everything that you presented to this Committee and has been recorded as your real sincere concern for worker safety on construction sites. Okay? Mr. Consenza, come forward. Please state your name again and who you represent.
Fred Consenza, the Philadelphia Building Trades. I'm sorry. I didn't hear the ABC. I think there was a phone ringing and I couldn't hear. Do they represent men or contractors? I wasn't sure what 161 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 they were saying. Not men. Do they represent workers or just contractor groups?
No; contractors. It says here that they're the Associated Builders and Contractors of the Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter.
See, I'm not used to this type of stuff. They said something about they do the drug testing. Do they drug test their contractors, if they don't have members? Like what type of drug testing is done? Because maybe I can learn from some things, and if there is drug testing done, what type of rehabilitation do they offer? 162 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738
What I would do, Mr. Consenza, is that I will forward that question to them because of the testimony that you're giving at this time. I'll be glad to, or if you have any other questions that you want me to forward to them or to OSHA or to anyone else, I'll be glad to forward it to them.
Okay. Thank you. Because we do drug testing and we fix anybody in-house. That was one thing I didn't bring up, that if someone does have a problem -- and there is people that have problems -- where we use our own dime to fix them and we don't want to send them from one site to a different site. We want to bring them in and get them the help they need and then put them back out there. Because if there's a specific site that does drug testing and that site might be a drug-free site and you want to make sure that people that do do drugs aren't all on one site, God forbid. So we bring anybody that has a 163 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 problem in our organization in and fix them. And maybe if they do something different, I would like to know.
I will send that question to them and I can forward that to you, if you don't mind.
And I must admit that in -- and this is my knowledge because this is the world that I live in in Philadelphia, that the Building Trades Council or not just in the Building Trades Council, I see the painters -- I believe that gentleman back there is for the Painters Unions. Just about all of our unions in Philadelphia have in their contracts or have in their health and welfare programs assistance, assistance programs for people that have gone in the wrong direction when it comes to drug use and substance abuse generally, and there are programs to get that construction worker back into being a productive 164 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 person or responsible person with family and so forth. So I give credit where credit is due. I commend the Building Trades and their unions and those outside the unions. I know the Teamsters and the painters and allied trades have those types of programs. Our City municipal unions have the programs, as well as the police, the FOP. So I think that's a very valid, important point. Thank you.
Because any information I could gather. I'm the type of person that likes asking a lot of questions because that's how I get my knowledge, by asking questions. But if they have something, I would appreciate it if you could get it for me. I'd love to see it. Thank you.
And there are testimonies on the table there. I believe ABC and others, OSHA, have testimonies. You can help yourself to the testimonies that have been given here 165 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 today.
Councilman Ramos, my name is Dona File. I previously gave testimony, and I'd like to add that in my written statement, though I didn't say verbally, I am a 26-year member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and still hold my union card as well, and I'm also the Founder and President of the Midatlantic Construction Safety Council. So that can be popped back up into my other testimony in case my written statements, which I embellished, didn't artfully enclose. So thank you.
I was told that you have some very impressive credentials. Thank you. Do you want to testify, sir? Please come forward. Please state your name for the record.
Toby Rich, Scoop USA 166 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 Newspaper, and I'm called the Mayor of Girard Avenue.
Thank you, Mr. Councilman, my friend. I was very impressed with the gentleman speaking about the drug help and things. As you know, I've had problems, and you all have been very helpful to me. What I would like to say, though, when you talk about addiction and stuff like that, if you notice, there was a certain amount of people that got up and left, and that's what it brings, that stigma that it brings. Everybody has a problem in their closet, but they don't necessarily want to talk about it or deal with it, and I feel that when you take a 167 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 certain thing and classify everybody as being addicted and put them in a certain area or a certain site and they look at this site or group of people as the guys that work in the union, but they're the guys that are the ex-dope fiends, you kind of put them in a name-calling situation. I would hope that they would be able to filter amongst everybody else. Because everybody has a problem at one time in his or her life, and you can learn from anybody. I'm also an honorary member of Local 332, the Laborers Union, and they've always helped me. And you know that as well, sir. So I would hate to see the people with problems with addiction, be it gambling or sexual addiction or drug addiction or alcohol addiction, all grouped up in a bunch and looked at as the people of addiction working on a certain site. I would hope that they would be able to work amongst all of the 168 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 other people, sir.
Toby, thank you so much for your testimony and for your concern about this very important matter. Without a doubt, if we don't give our people a second chance, particularly construction workers a second chance to make a living, I think that then we're not being totally responsible. The responsibility comes from the individual, but nevertheless, it is good to belong to associations that will give you the opportunity to provide you with a program with some health benefits to get your health back in order. So I appreciate your testimony this afternoon. Thank you so much.
Is there anyone else that cares to testify? (No response.)
Seeing none, I am going to recess this hearing to the call of the Chair. That means that I can 169 10/23/06 - LABOR - BILL 060695 - RES. 060738 call for a continuation of this hearing. Thank you all, every single one of you, for coming out today and testifying on this most important issue. Thank you. (Committee on Labor and Civil Service adjourned at 1:15 p.m.) - - - 170 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 23, 2006, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)