Hiring millwrights who prioritize safety benefits bottom line

Evidence shows effective safety training not only reduces injuries, illnesses and fatalities, but also lowers employers' costs and improves production and work quality.

What if you could employ a labor force trained to the industry's highest standards and not have to provide or pay for the training? That's what you get when you hire millwrights from the Southern States Millwright Regional Council (SSMRC).

In addition to taking safety-specific courses, including OSHA 10, OSHA 30 and the Millwright 16-hour safety class, SSMRC millwrights complete a curriculum that incorporates safety into every class and hands-on activity. They are taught to prioritize safety from the moment they step onto every jobsite.

"If you want to have a productive, efficient workforce, safety is monumental," said Scott Jackson, millwright training coordinator for the Gulf Coast Carpenters and Millwrights Training Trust Fund. "You don't want to see anyone get hurt, and you do not want your production to stop. Having a safe workforce is also how you get your cheaper insurance rates. At some facilities, if a contractor has more than a certain number of accidents, they can't even bid on a job."

Here are some highlights from the SSMRC's training program:

• General safety. In addition to standard safety courses, SSMRC millwrights take a rigging course that emphasizes safety, as well as classes in fall protection, PPE and confined- space safety.
• Job safety analysis (JSA). During a human-performance class, instructors teach SSMRC millwrights to conduct rigorous JSAs every workday. The JSA involves monitoring the work area for a variety of hazards. Each millwright fills out a JSA card daily and gives it to the foreman.
• Lockout-tagout. Because every piece of equipment has a different lockout-tagout process, instructors teach these procedures during classes that center on particular machinery types. The procedure is taught as a three-lock process because in addition to the person who placed the initial lock, the foreman and an employee of the facility owner are supposed to also place locks.
• Training on specific equipment and tools. Equipment training includes, but is not limited to, classes that are specific to mobile elevated work platforms, standard and rough-terrain forklifts, telehandlers and overhead cranes. Safety - both for operators and those working in the vicinity of the equipment - is the focus of this training. Millwrights also attend a signaling class where they learn to effectively communicate on jobsites as equipment operators or directors.
• Tool training includes a class on safely using high-torque hydraulic wrenches. While these tools are extremely effective necessities on many jobsites, they pose multiple safety hazards if they aren't used properly, Jackson said.

Instructors also teach tool-safety basics, such as using the right tool for the task, employing the right part of the tool, and pulling on tools rather than pushing on them. When using cutting torches, millwrights learn to ensure melting metal does not fall on people or any surface where it could start a fire.

• Access to innovations that improve safety. Because the training centers and instructors stay up to date on the latest technology, SSMRC millwrights arrive on jobsites equipped with innovative tools and approaches that improve safety. For example, millwrights are currently using a new electric torque wrench that is lighter, safer and gets work done faster than hightorque hydraulic wrenches, Jackson explained.

"New innovations come out all the time, and they're helping us and our partnering contractors," Jackson said.

For more information, visit www.southernstatesmillwrights.org or call (855) 577-7672.