From Compliance to Care
Signatory contractor ACCO Engineering Systems and Local 105 commit to an ongoing safety revolution By / Robin Brunet
Even for a company of ACCO Engineered Systems’ capabilities, the new Inglewood Stadium (aka the SoFi Stadium), three miles from Los Angles International Airport, was a construction project with huge logistics that required an unwavering commitment to onsite safety. Clearly, it needed more than the usual checklists and procedures.It was not a problem because the company’s safety culture has evolved from compliance to care thanks to its ongoing partnership with Local 105. Altogether, the $5-billion facility for 70,240 spectators required 2.1 million pounds of ductwork, and at peak, 120 signatory sheet metal workers were on site. Because SoFi is under LAX’s flight path, two-thirds of the facility was constructed below grade, requiring crews to install 46 different air handlers and numerous split systems in a moat-like perimeter. Donovan Seeber, ACCO’s vice president of corporate safety, recalls, “SoFi, which commenced construction in 2016, was huge and challenging, and we were still actively working on site when COVID hit. This obliged us to quickly add another layer of safety to protect our crews and allow work to continue with minimal disruption.” Ultimately, two full-time onsite safety experts and 22 full-time safety professionals available by phone helped ensure that virus protocols were strictly followed, and that the 250,000 personhours spent on the project overall were without incident. 4 » Partners in Progress » www.pinp.org
With over 4,300 employees in 30 offices and four fabrication plants, Pasadena-based ACCO is the largest mechanical contractor in the western United States and the biggest employer of sheet metal workers on the United States west coast. It could be argued that everything ACCO does is big, including its approach to safety. But it hardly operates in a vacuum: Seeber credits Local 105 for an on-going collaboration that has helped evolve ACCO’s safety culture in a fundamental way. “We’ve gone from being a company with a solid culture of compliance to a culture of care, which makes us far more capable of sending our work crews safely home to their families at the end of every day,” he says. “That’s because instead of just following regulations, every one of our staff is a self-motivated safety champion.” As for ACCO’s relationship with Local 105, Seeber says, “We regularly discuss training issues, how to better prep people, consult with them before making corporate changes, and work together on projects like SoFi Stadium. It’s a great partnership.” It’s also one with a long history. “ACCO, our Local, and Local 104 go back 80-plus years, and today it represents a large portion of our 6,800-strong membership, so we share their concerns and goals,” says Local 105 President Luther Medina. “Considering ACCO has such a large workforce, it has always been ahead of the curve in safety, and the SoFi project is a good example.
