SAFETY CHAMPIONS UNITE SMOHIT Safety Champions Conference brings SMACNA and SMART together for safety.
By / Jessica Kirby
This year’s jointly funded SMOHIT Safety Champions Conference brought contractors and union representatives together online for a topic everyone can agree on—safety in the workplace. SMART General President Joe Sellers, SMACNA President Angie Simon, and SMOHIT Administrator Randall Krocka gave opening remarks. “In today’s marketplace, it is more important than ever for labor and management to work together identifying and solving safety issues on the jobsite,” Krocka says. “The SMOHIT Safety Champions Conference is the venue that has allowed those conversations to take place, initiating meaningful interaction as partners in construction. We are in this together with the goal of zero injuries and providing a productive workforce.” Krocka also introduced the SMOHIT board of trustees, comprised of business managers and contractors with a shared interest and passion for safety and joint efforts toward ensuring everyone goes home safely at the end of the day. SMOHIT trustee and Local 23 Business Manager Daniel Villarruel says he takes great pleasure furthering the safety culture within the sheet metal industry through SMOHIT. “One of the biggest reasons the Safety Champions Conference is so important is that it showcases the safety culture of our members and contractors collectively by the way they communicate with one another, share ideas, and put safety programs into place,” Villarruel says. Kevin Jones, Richards Sheet Metal Works Inc. and SMOHIT trustee, says the safety conference is the perfect venue for 8 » Partners in Progress » www.pinp.org
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learning best practices between organizations and for bringing leaders together to collaborate on creating safer workplaces. “I feel that most of us think we have an awesome safety program, and in many cases we do, but there might be one or two elements that we haven’t thought of that would make a huge difference for all that are working,” he says. At the 2021 conference, guest speakers covered a gamut of safety topics, demonstrating just how broad the realm of workplace safety is. Mike Allen and Phillip Ragain presented on “Your Safety Legacy,” which asked leaders to consider what kind of safety legacy they want to leave behind, whether they are willing to accept “good enough,” and whether they are willing to accept life-changing injuries and fatalities.
DID YOU KNOW? Of nearly 43 million adult binge drinkers, 81% are employed full or part time. 16.5% of construction workers reported heavy alcohol consumption in the past month, more than twice the average of a full-time worker. 76% of illicit drug users are employed full or part time. Of all professions, construction workers are most likely to use opioids or cocaine.
