Need a licensed electrical contractor?
Upcoming Events
9/11/10 - CE Continuing Ed
$70 for members/ $90 for non-members
10/9/10 - ME & EE Continuing Ed
$65 for members/ $80 for non-members
11/13/10 - ME & EE Continuing Ed
$65 for members/ $80 for non-members
|
Safety and Health Topics Electrical
Working with electricity can be dangerous. Engineers, electricians, and other professionals work with electricity directly, including working on overhead lines, cable harnesses, and circuit assemblies. Others, such as office workers and sales people, work with electricity indirectly and may also be exposed to electrical hazards. | |
 |
What standards apply? OSHA | National Consensus |
 |
What information is available for the construction industry? Alliances | eTools | Standards | Hazard Recognition | Possible Solutions | More |
 |
How can electrical hazards be recognized in the workplace? |
 |
What are some examples of possible solutions for electrical hazards? |
 |
What additional information is available? Related Safety and Health Topics Pages | Training | Other Resources |
Our Refund Policy: Full refund available. Contact the IEC office at 502-493-1590 for refund processing.
Power Line - February 2010
download .pdf version
Awards Night Celebration
On January 19th the IEC Chapter of Kentucky and Southern Indiana celebrated the opening of their new home and the work of IEC members from this past year.
The evening recognized four retired members as Life members: Tom Norris, Bob Reinmiller, George Clore and Joe Phillips. The 2009 Safety Award went to Excel Services Inc. The IEC Associates of the Year Award went to LHI Lighting Sales & Lithonia lighting and Eckart Supply Company, both recognized for their involvement in material for the new building. The Education & Training Award was presented to Arrow Electric Company for their dedication to the IEC apprenticeship program and on going education of their employees. The Chapter celebrated the spirit of the merit shop with the IEC Pride Award presented to Gene Ray & Gene Ray Electric for their ongoing support of the IEC and the Merit shop.
The Awards night included recognition of all those who gave so much to make the IEC’s new home a reality. Here is a list of building donators: Eaton, Pfieffer Sales, Levition, Nutone, Encore wire, LHI (Gary Jakoby), Lithonia, Caddy, LP Chick, Arlington, Ilsco, AFC, Rexel, Progress, Osram Sylvania, Summit Sales, RAB, Firex, A & L – Jake Yonkers, ECKART, George Clore, Arrow Electric, Bland Electric, Corrigan Electric & Home Systems, David Whelan Electric, Gene Ray Electric, Protech Electric, RKR, Stansbury Electric, Star Electric, Wagner Electric.
IEC General Membership Meeting
February 24th at the IEC Building
5:30 – 8:30 PM
Our next General Membership Meeting will be Wednesday February 24th, 2010.
The presenter will be Vince Norwillo attorney who will speak about EFCA, OHSA and employment practices.
Vince now is in private practice, concentrating in labor law.
Vince will speak to us on a topic involving current labor law and issues.
Please register by February 19th. The cost is $25, with dinner at 5:30 and the meeting beginning at 6:30.
From the President...
During the Awards night I mentioned that the IEC will embark on a strategic planning process in the next few months. I have been a part of several of these over the years and am looking forward to the process. But why would we be interested in planning? What would we hope to accomplish.
Arguably, the leading cause of business failure is not having a strategic plan in place that is being well implemented. If a business has little idea where it is headed, it will wander aimlessly with priorities changing constantly and its purpose lost.
Building a strategic plan is not difficult. It takes some thought and some feedback from members and others, we should be routinely garnering feedback from members on an ongoing basis. The process of developing a strategic plan helps develop stronger communications between members and the leadership team.
Once developed, the key to making the plan work is a commitment to seeing it through and sound implementation. Many have developed strategic plans only to put them on a shelf to gather dust. Leadership needs a well developed strategic plan in order to effectively establish expectations and common goals. A good strategic plan looks out 2 to 5 years and describes clearly how the business will grow and prosper over that planning period.
As we move forward in the process we will need your input, your feedback. We want to look at the impact of our safety, education and apprenticeship program and the future of those programs and offerings.
In the next few weeks we will be building the planning team and asking for your input, I hope you will help us plan for the next few years.
Mike Wagner
Apprenticeship News
Well we survived the Holidays and the Move into the new building. If you have not stopped in to see the IEC’s new home please come by anytime and we will give you the full tour.
The Apprenticeship committee is working hard to complete the labs in the classrooms. We have been planning for a while so hopefully soon parts will start going up and students will have more hands on in the classrooms.
The Apprentice of the Year Competition is scheduled for Wednesday, March 24th at the Park Inn (formally Marriott directly behind us). The IEC staff and the Apprenticeship Committee have been working hard to plan the competition and also have a great Expo. Please make sure you mark the date on your calendar so you can watch your apprentices in action and also check out all the new products that will be on exhibit. We are starting to look at the next school year which is not too far away. Look for your enrollment packets about the middle of April. We are looking forward to a new school year in our new building with all of the technology and labs that we have been working on.
Our 38th Graduating class of the IEC will be held on Friday, May 21st at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Information will be coming out soon about this so make sure if you have graduates to mark the calendar.
We still have tutors coming in every Wednesday so if you have a student struggling to understand the curriculum make sure they know that we always have someone here to help. Several students are taking advantage of this extra help and we can see it in their grades.
Thank you for your ongoing support of the IEC and the Apprenticeship program.
Susan Howell
OSHA Update
The Independent Electrical Contractors and its member companies share a devotion to promoting and providing a safe workplace for their valued employees. We know the success of merit shop contractors begins and ends with a safe, healthy, and happy workforce. IEC can proudly point to its safety programs (such as IEC’s S.P.A.R.K. recognition, the Jobsite Safety Handbook, and the OSHA/IEC Alliance) as a sign of the association’s dedication to safety.
One of the keys to IEC’s safety program is its Alliance program with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). As part of IEC’s agreement, IEC commits to educating its members about OSHA regulations as well as relaying the best industry practices that are being promoted by OSHA. IEC also works with OSHA officials to produce web-based “e-Tools” and the IEC Jobsite Safety Handbook.
IEC Greater Cincinnati member Mike Kallmeyer, Senior Vice President for Construction at Denier Electric, in Columbus, Ohio testified before Congress last year on the importance of jobsite safety and the role of OSHA in promoting safe jobsites.
During the first year of the Obama administration, there has been movement to reform OSHA and move away from their cooperative programs like the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) and other alliances despite the fact that these programs do not exempt employers from complying with OSHA in any way but rather encourage cooperation between OSHA and employers to pro-actively promote workplace safety.
The public perception of OSHA as the protector of the working man makes the challenge of convincing Congress of the negative impact this supposed “reform” will have will be very difficult to accomplish. Given the current situation, we will focus on promoting the positive things IEC and the construction industry do to protect their workers and working to slow the reform debate to hopefully achieve a compromise.
IEC is a member of several business coalitions and work groups that are focusing on OSHA and the movement to “reform” OSHA. IEC is a member of the Coalition for Workplace Safety (CWS), which is comprised of businesses and associations looking to protect their company and members from an increasingly aggressive OSHA. More confounding is the fact that this “reform” is taking place during a period in which workplace accidents and fatalities have been decreasing for years. IEC is also involved in an OSHA construction working group, which, while working towards the same goals as the CWS, is able to focus on the construction aspect of OSHA reform.
IEC is currently monitoring several developments concerning OSHA. First is the nomination of David Michaels to become the assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. Second is the antibusiness, pro-prosecution legislation, the Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 2067), which will have a drastic impact on all American businesses, and small businesses in particular. Finally, legislation has been introduced that will impose new regulations about construction worksite safety...for uninvited individuals who have illegally entered the site.
The nomination of David Michaels is troublesome for many reasons but most notably for his previous Congressional testimony in which he advocated a much more aggressive enforcement of OSHA regulations. Michaels would like to see OSHA go after employees who are in full compliance with existing regulations but failed to anticipate supposed workplace hazards. Michaels will clearly use his position to punish the business community, at least the nonunion business community. Michaels has also made a name for himself as an opponent of sound science, writing that any and all supposedly scientific evidence should be considered. This could have a big impact on expected future discussions about new ergonomics regulations. IEC and the business community will express their clear opposition to Michaels’ nomination based upon his previous comments on OSHA. The CWS will submit a letter to Congress opposing Michaels’ nomination.
The Protecting America’s Workers Act (PAWA) will direct OSHA funds towards drastically increasing enforcement rather than increased training for inspectors or hazard education and prevention. Officially the bill seeks “to amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to expand coverage under the Act, to increase protections for whistleblowers, to increase penalties for certain violators, and for other purposes.” Funding for OSHA enforcement, particularly inspectors, has been increased by $80 million.
Current Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab has publicly stated that they will go after small business with increased inspections, so the drastically increased fines contained in PAWA could be disastrous for small business. After years of increased cooperation and decreased workplace incidents, PAWA will set the safety movement back by focusing on punishment. Regardless of the legislative future of PAWA, which has a very good chance of passing the House but will face a battle in the Senate, IEC will continue to work on developing preventative and educational programs that encourage safe workplaces.
IEC is also monitoring the The Alexander L. Booker Child Protection Construction Site Safety Act (H.R. 3094). This legislation would require more, larger, well-lit, and even visually descriptive signs in, on and around construction sites and equipment warning children and adults, of the dangers of the site or equipment at all hours. The name of the bill stems from an incident where several teens illegally entered a large construction site at night and hotwired an ATV using a coin to turn the ignition. In an ensuing accident, one of the teens, Alexander Booker, was killed. The bill would also require tamper proof ignition on machinery, safety devices that will prevent machinery from moving when the machine isn’t turned on, and alarms to alert individuals that machinery might be functional. There are already extensive OSHA regulations about construction site signage, and requiring contractors to further label and identify potential danger spots to individuals who are illegally on a site not only increases costs for contractors but potentially exposes them to lawsuits for not properly alerting individuals that the crime they are committing is potentially dangerous.
Through its lobbying and grassroots efforts, and its work with coalitions like CWS, IEC will continue to work to educate Congress about the positive, proactive role IEC members and the construction industry play in protecting workers. In particular, IEC and other construction associations can point to the safety programs they already have in place to protect employees as a sign that business does take a major interest in providing a safe and healthy workplace.
Steve Hinton is the political affairs director at IEC’s National Office in Alexandria, Virginia. For more information, please visit wwwIECvotes.com.Their IEC offers you a chance to voice your opinion about political issues through its coalitions and political agenda.
From the Directors Desk
The last few months have been very busy around the IEC; New place, New Year, new board members and the 2009 Awards night.
I think we are all getting use to our new digs, the students are finding it not so hard to get to Plantside Drive (Hurstbourne Lane) at 5:30 for class, the new classrooms with the new lab spaces are coming together, we are finally done moving chairs and tables in and out of classrooms and the teachers have all there CPS systems, computers and projectors working for class nights. In the next few months we will continue to build the mounting systems for the second and first year classrooms and this summer begin the installation of new equipment for all three labs.
The board welcomes Mike Wagner as our new Board President, David Whelan, Vice-President and new to the board Stephanie Waltrip as Secretary. The Board’s work on the strategic plan will produce the results that will continue to move the chapter to the next level.
As we move towards May the IEC will gather in Washington D.C. for the Legislative Fly-in. The political climate is getting interesting with Kentucky and Indiana both with no incumbent’s running for the Senate. Not to mention important issues like EFCA, Health Care Reform and the Family Leave Act.
With health care, the passage of this issue will fundamentally alter America’s business landscape, putting untold companies at risk of failure by depriving them of the flexibility they need to survive. We all need everyone we know that is sensitive to this issue to write their congressman. We have made it easy visit www.iecvotes.com and you can send letters to your congressional delegates. Invite your friends, your business customers, this is a fight for freedom. As Benjamin Franklin said “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately”.
Dan Endris
Electricans in Top Careers
Ready for a career change but dread getting another desk job? Then how about trying your hand at, well, working with your hands?
“There is a blue collar renaissance going on right now,” says Joe Lamacchia, author of “Blue Collar and Proud of It: The All-in-One-Resource for Finding Freedom, Financial Success, and Security Outside of the Cubicle.”
“These are necessary jobs, and they’re not going to go anywhere. Our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling. We want to turn this country green, and we don’t have enough workers to do it. There’s a lot of opportunity here.”
Following is a list of blue collar jobs experts say are most in demand this year, and their median annual salary according to online salary database PayScale.com. Training for many of these positions includes a paid on-the-job apprenticeship, and the work can be physically rigorous. None of these jobs require education beyond a two-year associate’s degree.
1. Plumber, pipefitter, or steamfitter
2. Elevator installer/repairer
3. Carpenter
4. Electrician - According to the BLS, employment growth in the field will increase 12 percent this decade. Those with the widest range of skills — such as voice, data, and video wiring — will be the most marketable, the BLS reports. Factor in the nation’s move to green energy sources, says Shatkin, and you have a thriving occupation. As the BLS notes, electricians usually get their training during a four-year apprenticeship. Licensing is usually required. Median annual
salary: $45,218.
5. Automobile mechanic
6. Heating, air conditioning, or refrigeration mechanic/installer
7. Roofer
Still not sure you can leave the cubicle life behind? Then, Lamacchia says, consider this: “You’re home in the evening. You’re not at the airport or living out of a suitcase. You can go to your daughter’s play or your son’s little-league game. It’s a nice life.”
Source: Salary data from PayScale.com, a leading online provider of employee compensation data. The salaries listed are median annual salaries for full-time workers with 8 years of experience and include bonuses, commissions, and profit sharing.
Michelle Goodman is a freelance business journalist and author of “The Anti 9-to-5 Guide” and “My So-Called Freelance Life.”
