New partnership to promote workplace safety made official

The Iron Workers, the Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT), and the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) have established a collaborative partnership to advance safety among those working in the trade in the U.S. and Canada. IMPACT Labor Co-chairman Walter W. Wise; IMPACT Management Co-chairman William W. Brown; and BCSP Board President Cece Weldon, CSP, CHST, STS signed the agreement at the opening of the general session of the Ironworkers/IMPACT Annual Meeting February 24, 2015.

While the partnership now is official, all organizations involved have made previous commitments to worker safety. As part of the partnership agreement, BCSP and IMPACT have committed to using their collaborative efforts, expertise, technologies, and resources to provide competency-based certification to advance the safety of members and signatory contractor personnel, providing career opportunities and safe working conditions for ironworkers.

Each organization will work cooperatively through communication, outreach, and occupational safety and health development opportunities in several areas, including sharing information on safety management systems, outlining the benefits of competency-based certifications, developing career opportunities, collaboration with project owners and regulatory agencies regarding the benefits of mandating certifications project safety requirements, and reaching out to service members and signatory contractors in remote areas of the U.S. and Canada.