The health and safety of our members on the job is of paramount importance to the leadership of the Indiana State Building and Construction Trades Council.  We work with our signatory contractors, union sponsored health & safety funds and initiatives and with state and federal agencies to exchange information and training procedures that help to mitigate accidents and injuries on the job. We also work with our national umbrella union, the North American Building Trades Union (NABTU), which covers the U.S. and Canada.

The North America’s Building Trades Unions is committed to the highest levels of safety in the construction industry, and through CPWR – the Center for Construction Research and Training, advances policies that reduce injuries, illnesses, and fatalities on the job site. From its inception, CPWR began a series of cooperative agreements with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the CDC. The agreements, based on a competitive application process, have focused on occupational safety and health in construction, with an eye to building a “safety culture” industry wide – safe and healthful working conditions along with lowered costs and improved industry productivity.

The effort is essential because of the excessive level of work-related injuries and deaths in construction, compared with other industries in the United States and with construction in some other industrial nations.

Again, we also lobby our state agencies and Congress when necessary to strengthen health and safety law as well. We also remain vigilant against those political forces which try to water down health and safety laws as being too expensive for employers. Research has found that keeping employees safe on the job reduces workplace accident and injury, leads to workers taking less time off and assists in reducing turnover. This costs the employer less in insurance premiums, time-out of work for employees, and lessens the cost of employee turnover, especially with regard to employee training and administrative costs.