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I talk about how the unions are relevant and so many people tell me that they are not, and yet, so many people, especially workers, are talking about it. Well, here is someone who is going the extra mile to make sure that something is done. Bryce Mallory is one of several people who are taking the union to the next level. There is so much more in the podcast, but he is starting a fund-raiser to get the money to start the union. He is creating a YouTube video so he can get the word out and we talked for over an hour about the process and the many issues in the field today. Remember that Bryce is a tower climber and is vocal about what is wrong in the industry. You may not agree with everything that he says, but he says what a lot of people have been thinking about for the last year or so. Just keep an open mind when you listen! Go to the bottom of the blog for videos!
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Bryce is trying to start a union for the tower climbers. He has reached out to the Ironworkers Union and now he is trying to organize a group on his own. He felt the Ironworkers union did not represent the tower climber’s needs and that they had little interest in helping the tower climbers on a national level.
Unionization of the industry is something that climbers talk about. Many are in a union, although not the same union and there is no tower workers union, yet. To unionize this industry would be a daunting task, one that would take an organized and consistent effort. Not to mention money to support it. It would take a group that is patient but willing to push when they had to. It would also take a large group of workers to enroll.
One of the problems with unionization of the industry is that there is not a large number of employees working at one company. In other word a union can’t go in a bargain with one large company to gain a contract. This industry is made up of smaller companies with maybe 2 or 3 crews of tower workers. Each crew may consist of 2 to 5 members depending upon their skill set. That is why unions have been efficient in the past because they were able to bargain with large companies and then work their way down to the smaller companies. The tower worker industry is not like that, it is generally smaller companies.
Why is the industry made up of smaller industries? Well, here is the way I see it. The work is feast or famine, so a larger company would have to ramp up, say hire many employees to build, lay them off when the work stops or a large customer, like AT&T, decides to change it’s outlook for the year. In today’s world it is hard to stay laid off for a year until the next build happens. The other reason is training, insurance, the cost of safety is a lot of money. Insurance will eat you alive. Finally, another reason is how the tower worker is treated by contractors or turf vendors. They treat them like a tool, only using it when the work is hot only to shelf it when the work stops. Since many tower workers work for small companies, the less reputable contractors don’t always pay their tower crews. I knew people that thought this was a viable business plan to work the small company and not pay them, then to tell them if they do the next job they would pay them, but they never paid them all the money just some of it until the smaller company was out of business. Then they move onto the next company. Sad, but true. This is one of the reasons that the industry needs help, money is put before the people and the people need money to not only live, but to pay for all the safety training and equipment needed to do the job. I remember hen the carriers used to work with the climbers, they would ask for payment terms of net 120, 4 months to get paid. It is better now, but if you wait 4 months for a paycheck then you may starve to death.
Another problem they face is that tower climbers are so spread out, all over the US, many travel, and there may be about 20,000 that would actually enroll. It would be a daunting task to sign them up. To get them to have the time to organize may seem crazy.
Yet, I hear rumblings of forming a tower union from many of these people, you know why? I think it’s because throughout the past several years with all the advances in safety, we still lose many a year. This year, 2015, we lost a young woman in March, the first of the year. So one this year is much less than last year, but is that because workers are practicing 100% tie off or is it because this has been a slow growth year? Don’t think OSHA doesn’t know how many we lose, it’s more than they show on their site because we lost some to auto accidents and other accidents.
Now, there are many climbers who are in unions. Some are still in the Ironworkers union because the local chapter supports them. Others are in the IBEW because their local chapter supports them. These organizations both seem to have an organized training programs, they support their people, offer to keep their members training records available and ready. If a union company needs a climber they can go to the hall and request one. If one is available then they go there to work.
Bryce is one man who took it upon himself to work to see that dream come true. He would like to offer the workers a choice. He is willing to go toe to toe with the companies that hire the climbers and make sure that tower workers get a fair deal.
In this interview he talks about how he plans to start the union and get it going. He brings up man issues in the industry that made him want to start this challenging endeavor. While many of you have your opinions about unions in general, he brings up the critical issues as he sees them in the tower industry.
In this talk we go over the current issues that OSHA faces and how they could do more for the tower industry. We understand that they have budgetary issues but that is hard to explain to someone who gets hurt.
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From what Wireless Estimator says it must be SBA tower TX13430-A, the Carter Ranch site.This must have been a horrible thing and from what I can tell no one seems to really know what happened except the people that were on site.
UPDATED: ok, I am in contact with someone who claims this was her first climb, she may have been a new climber for an unnamed company! Still awaiting confirmation.
UPDATE: Word on Facebook is that this woman was not a climber, but I still a rumor! I need confirmation!
A woman fell off a tower 10 miles west of Eden on Saturday morning, according to a news report, click here.
Eden EMS reported to the scene and took here to Concho County Hospital where she died soon after.
Local Sheriff said her name was Stephanie Gurney of San Angelo. May she rest in peace.
I don’t have any details on why she was in the air, if you do please let me know.
Sadly, this looks like the first tower fatality of 2015.
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Hi, I wanted to share the presentation I gave at IWCE so that you could have an idea of what we talked about out there. The panel we were on was the Tower Safety and Compliance panel. My talk was about the tower climber’s job and safety. The audience was a group of people who would hire or train tower climbers. The take away is to understand what the tower climber does day-to-day, the tools, the training, and that the customer plays a role in safety by vetting the climber, requiring the safety certifications, and by setting budget money aside for safety inspections. I believe that there should be someone to check up on the tower climbers to make sure they are following all the safety procedures. This keeps us all honest.
Enjoy!
Wade from www.wade4wireless.com
As you know, I just got home from the IWCE show in Las Vegas. I wanted to go over some of the FirstNet information I found out there. I am following FirstNet because I think it will be a big boom for the industry when it takes off.
Oh, if you scroll down to the bottom you can see the proper way to inspect your harness from our sponsorwww.towersafety.com.
There are so many moving parts to FirstNet. I mean it is not just building out the network but it is also about how to sustain a public safety network for the long haul. It is about the politics of getting the federal and state governments to work together to create a national public network that is nationwide and 4G and ready to be used in any emergency. Something where all governments and utilities will have access to this network daily and especially during a crisis. All this and politics too. Remember that in government they don’t work together for profit, they work together for the greater good. Now, let’s define the greater good! The states and federal governments probably won’t agree on what the greater good is because it is open to interpretation. I don’t’ want to get into that I just want to give you some feedback from IWCE on FirstNet.
Let’s talk FirstNet. FirstNet is taking a long time but the system is huge and very political. The one thing I got from the sessions I sat in is that communication still seems to be an issue between FirstNet and the states. There was a session that had the state’s point of view and it was very interesting. I sat in on the session called “The State of the States: FirstNet and Public Safety Broadband” and it was people representing the states. There was someone from Texas, Todd Early the TxDPS Deputy Assistant Director, Ohio had Darryl Anderson Major the Ohio MARCS/OHIOSWIC/SIEC Administrator. From New Mexico Jacqueline Miller the Deputy State CIO was supposed to be there but I walked in late and may have missed her. They were all discussing the view from the states. Also there was Richard Reed the FirstNet State Plans Director and Robert LeGrand the founder and CEO of The Digital Decision.
Here is what I got from that session, they plan are still trying to understand how the states will work with FirstNet to deploy and how the system usage will be handled. There are still many questions about opting in and opting out. They are still wondering how the public private partnerships will work. Who will have access to the system and how will they be billed. In other words it seems there are many questions. I am not sure if the states feel well-informed. They have had meetings with FirstNet but they are still working through the high level information.
So what I saw was Ohio FirstNet. Mr. Anderson laid out the plan for Ohio where they will reach out to the counties to talk to each of them. The meeting with FirstNet is scheduled for June 11, 2015, and they hope to get more answers. The thing that he showed us is that each state has a daunting task of working within the state to get the counties and cities to work together to share resources and make this all come together.
Everyone there was looking forward to moving ahead, but with that said they would also like a timeline of when things will happen. They also asked that maybe a weekly update from FirstNet would really help them stay informed. I know that there were technical questions on the system but mostly I got the message that communication between FirstNet and the states still need work. There are technical issues that need to be resolved, but that will be worked out moving forward. Right now they need to start to work on simple things like weekly updates.
What updates? Well, I think they want to know the status of what’s going on. I believe the timeline needs to be laid out. We all hear that they can make the date, but in what order, when will they start the core? When will the RAN be rolled out? What year? Is the funding plan laid out?
Texas has a website where they have some information laid out, http://txlte.com/if you are interested.
There were several FirstNet sessions and they were all pretty full. FirstNet is obviously on everyone’s mind. We have been hearing about it for 3 years and we really look forward to the actual construction of something. For something like this it may take up to 5 years to build once they get going. So let’s think about this, will they start next year? So we may have a system built, if we start in 2016, and then you should have a system built by 2021, in time for the 5G upgrades.
I guess I’m just impatient. All I want to do is deploy, deploy, and deploy!
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Tower Safety! Offering OSHA 10, OSHA 30, Authorized Climber, Competent Climber, Train the Trainer, RF Awareness, and CPR/First Aid.
I just got home from the IWCE show in Las Vegas. I had a good time catching up with many people. The exhibit floor was full of vendors for public safety and utility communications systems. I also saw tower companies and training companies. It was a good show for deployment. There were distributors and tower companies and training companies. There were also manufacturers of equipment for anything to do with backhaul, public safety, and utilities. If you would like to see a list of vendors,click here.
Oh, if you scroll down to the bottom you can see the proper way to inspect your harness fromwww.towersafety.com.
I spent most of my time in the sessions trying to understand more about deployments and FirstNet. There were many tracks and they also had certification classes for anyone who wanted to take them. It was a well-rounded show.
First, let’s talk about me and my session. I was in the Tower Safety and Regulatory compliance session. I talked about what the tower climber does and the safety aspects of it. My key point was to get the customers to realize that they too play a part in safety by putting in the requirements for certification. What I mean, specifically, that in the RFP that they write that they should make sure that they ask for the certifications of all the people on the job. All the tower climbers need to be certified. The customer does play a part in all of this. They should also ask to be shown the safety plan of the tower crew. Everyone should have a written safety plan.
The session I was in was moderated by Sharp Smith of AGL magazine. He did a great job leading the session. Cory Crenshaw talked about “Constructing and Operating in Compliance” where she reviewed the timelines for compliance, planning, and execution of tower construction. Anyone who has done this realizes you don’t just pop it up overnight. If you/re interested go toCrenshaw Communications Consulting website by clicking here.
Then we had a talk from Charles Ryan of Concepts to Operations about T-Mobile versus Roswell, Georgia. It was really about how the FCC has changed the zoning compliance issue in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Local zoning boards need a solid reason to turn you down for building a tower, and when you add to an existing structure you still have to follow the local zoning process but they can’t turn you down if you are on an existing tower and within the compound. There may be more to it than that but you get the idea. It was interesting to hear how much things have changed in favor of the communications companies. For more information on Concepts to Operations click here.
Then Dr Denis Boulais spoke about RF hazards and compliance. Mostly the real problems they have in Australia and the compliance differences between the US and Australia. It seems that they have done extensive study into the effects of RF on the human body and what we should look out for. If you are interested reach out to Denis here,denispatrickboulais@gmail.com to get more information.
Finally there was a presentation from Robert Johnson who spoke about the hazards of RF and what to look for at the tower site and rooftop. He mentioned that experienced tower climbers probably have the Narda monitor and know what to look for. Unfortunately on rooftops the other workers are not prepared, like the Air Conditioner repairman and the window washers, they are not as experienced as anyone working tower sites, so they are at the most risk. Roofers also need to be alert. For more information look for Narda Safety Test solutions. He gave out a FCC website that was also interesting,the FCC Frequency Safety site, click here to see it.
Thank you Tower Safety for being a sponsor! Where the best get better!
Tower Safety! Offering OSHA 10, OSHA 30, Authorized Climber, Competent Climber, Train the Trainer, RF Awareness, and CPR/First Aid.
Before I get into all of this don’t forget to go to the bottom of the post and see the new Hubble Foundation logo, pretty cool! Also, I see workman’s comp is becoming an issue in DC because the DOL put this out, Adding Inequality to Injury, a PDF explaining how injury leads to a serious loss of income and a change in lifestyle. I thought you would like to see it.
Comment: It appears that this is becoming a frequent occurrence–and thank God he was rescued without injury. But Wade, we shouldn’t have to be in the rescue business. If there is a platform on the tower, the workers should be able to work on it,,,not have to hang under it with a 40 pound safety harness restricting your ability to climb back up. Why not lower the platform three feet and mount the antennas on the handrail. This improvement would not only eliminate the need for rescue missions, but it would also place the owner in compliance with the “Provide a Safe Workplace” regulation as required by OSHA. I lost a friend last year in a hunting accident caused by wearing his safety harness. Evidently he fell out of his tree and was unable to climb back up to get loose,,,and he was a very physical guy. He unbuckled his leg straps hoping to slip out the bottom of the belt but never made it. When they found him, the belt was up around his chest cavity and he probably suffocated. Richard Bell
Response: One thing that we need to know is not only how to use the gear we have, but to make sure that we have the proper gear. What I am saying is make sure your harness fits you properly. Make sure that you are prepared for not only your job, but the rescue if needed. Make sure you know the plan to rescue someone if needed. I know this is easy to do, but as you can see it is very easy not to do. Many crews simply think it won’t happen to them, and many times it doesn’t. But what if it does?
As for mounting the equipment in a way that the climber can access it, I am not sure. There is a preliminary design done and many times the arrays are built on the ground without the forethought of what may happen in the air. So what I would say to the crews is think about the maintenance, think about repair, and think if you had to do it, what would you do. Maybe the installation crew would have prepared to descend and then have someone else remove the gear but the maintenance crew did not think it through, at least not like that. The guy probably thought he could pull himself back up and that just didn’t work out.
I will be speaking at theIWCE conferenceon March 17th, 2015!
Comment: I am well aware of situations like this. The company I worked for last winter took in a new ‘class’ (21 started, 12 finished) of men with no previous experience and after 1 week of training and approximately 3 weeks of mentor-ship under guys with somewhere between 3 months and 2 years experience they began dividing us off into crews of two. Which the supposed construction manager asked me to help him with because I was ‘the smart one’
The rest of the guys got to stick with another experienced climber, but I was writing reports by my second week, and pressured into taking over my own truck and crew by week five (no previous experience mind you)!
Anyway, in just a few months I witnessed my partner be blown off the tower (he’s ok–his cable grab worked) because we were told to climb in 25 mph winds with 40mph gusts and — minus 10 air temps. I kept him on the ground for over a week after that–it shook him up. On that same day my other guy had the tip of his index finger ripped off raising a new radio because he couldn’t even feel it (he’s ok now too), but no worker’s comp or paid medical attention. I patched him up myself. And last Christmas Eve we were out in an ice storm at 10 pm in an ice storm trying to complete our fourth site of the day under orders. No code for that gate so we were told to climb the fence! Nobody else was willing so I gave it a try, but by about 80′ the ice was an inch thick and it was getting ridiculous so I came down and we got home for early Christmas morning. A couple of months later my partner ended up with a staph infection in his arm and was too sick to do anything let alone be available for a rescue if I got in trouble yet we were kept in the field and ordered to go out anyway. He laid in the front seat of the truck and tried to keep an occasional eye with the binoculars.
I could go on but you get the point. I never saw a man fall, but we were constantly put in the position to make an already dangerous occupation simply ludicrous–all for $12/hr!
I love climbing and problem solving up there, and as noted above was forced to learn fast, but I am seeking a reputable company that offers a good training program, a little respect for its employees, their families, quality of work, and OSHA/safety standards. If interested I can be reached at 989-449-2413 and/or heathjabs@gmail.com. Thank you.
Heath Jabs MS, PT
Response: Thank you Heath for letting us know what is going on out there. I wish you the best of luck!
Have a good week! Remember to be smart, be safe, and pay attention! Follow the plan but don’t be afraid to adapt, improvise, and overcome!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqivkZ1uF58
How to use Fisk / Control Descent / Light load
So remember to be smart, be safe, and pay attention to what you’re doing! Make a plan, follow the plan but don’t be afraid to adapt, improvise, and overcome your obstacles!
This is from my post“PCIA Setting the Wireless Training Standards”. Now when you read these, they are two opposite views, whereas one is pro PCIA and the other is trying to detect whether the climber’s best intentions are really the reason for this. Remember that PCIA is funded by large companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. They have lobbyists that represent the carriers in government. This isn’t necessarily a bad ting because wireless builds come to a crawl when government regulation steps in so they work hard to make sure that deployment can happen in a timely manner. PCIA has done a lot of good for the industry. They were at TIRAP showing support, like AT&T was represented there. So read both responses then make up your own mind.
Comment: As the Director of Education and Training for PCIA and a climber, I very pleased to be leading the effort to bring a standardized industry training program to our industry. Today we are forming the National Credentials Committee (NCC), a committee, although lead by PCIA is an industry committee. The NCC will be charged with the how to portion of training with the creation of textbooks, study manuals and industry competency testing, all of which ties back to the larger program. NCC will also provide guidance on continued education modules and next steps of curriculum / outline development. Also, in creation and expected to be operational within the 6 months is the industry National Database. The database is a registry and centralized location that tower climbers, DAS / Small Cell, etc., employers and other can utilize to develop safety practices and create career pathways. The database will also be the location for the industry testing module that will provide proficiency and understanding of knowledge based retention in all facets of our industry. Testing created and approved by industry is a keystone to ensuring our workforce is competent and safe and meets industry standards. PCIA is starting with Tower Climbers, but the program is for every discipline of our industry. This is an industry program, “by the industry and for the industry”. I welcome anyone who would like to know more about this program or who want to serve on the NCC, to contact me directly. (Phil Larsen)
Response: This is great that PCIA is stepping up to tracking all credentials in the industry, wow, what an undertaking. To be fair though, it may be hard to get to many field people to participate because many of them travel extensively for work, as you probably know. They often spend more time on the road than home. However, I am curious, why start with the climbers? Is this where the grant money is going? Who is funding the database support down the road? Will this system stay in place for the next 10 years? What are your plans to capture the existing climbers training data? What about companies that do more than carrier work, is this a standard for them as well? So many questions. I originally tried to talk to Phil who did reach out to me, but then we got busy so I just sent an email to him about this so when I hear back I will update all of you! I sent the questions to him at the same time I worked on this post, so to be fair, we should have answers soon. FYI – PCIA does support TIRAP!
And now, from someone who has been in the industry for over 30 years!
Comment: Wade, pardon me if my BS detector goes off here! It’s political overload mode is on.
Doesn’t it look really good for the big guys if they are really doing something? And the government (not them) ponies up a few million for a few favorite institutions (including PCIA). And politico Adelstein is in charge of the show. But, note that there is no mention in any of this of the small businesses that really make the system run. And no comments ever about keeping that base financially safe so that it can actually pay for training (your comments noted).
I have walked in barnyards before. The odor is curiously similar…
Response: WOW!, Tell me how you really feel! OK, I know that this may not be the way the climbers want to see standards set, but we have to start somewhere and we all have to align. Right now we see to have several different standards out there but nothing official. If something can get set and we have an industry standard I think it will be a good thing, especially if they are documented in a database somewhere we can all access them. I believe we need to progress, the result will be a better system, someday.
Comment: Unfortunately, I agree. I think your more likely to see an improvement in Safety & Quality if U just took that money and distributed it to the last 2 contractors/sub-contractors in the food chain. Not the end workers (sorry to say but…) but their employers and their employers’ clients.
Get some profits to the people who are actually adding value to the projects not to mention taking significant financial risks. I hate saying it’s all about money and I hate picking on the Fat Cats (when they’re looking), because it’s not ALL about money and the Fat Cats played their role (most of them) in making the industry what it is too.
But we all know that many of the bigger Turf Vendors absorb sometimes the majority of the profits while adding debatable amounts of value to the product. I’m sorry but it’s true. And U want to at least give them credit for improved logistics or organization or something, but that’s not always true either.
Us “bottom of the chain” people, Our employers (mostly) all want us to be safe. We want to be safe. But just as humans didn’t learn to read and otherwise become civilized until we weren’t worrying about what we were going to eat or what we would be eaten by – 24hrs/day.
Which is exactly (the slightly exaggerated) position most of our employers are in…..Eat or get eaten. You’ll never change the safety culture when the end businesses are in survival mode. They can’t help their employees if they don’t have any. Survive first, learn to read 2nd. Johnny wants to learn how to read.
Response: You make a great points, (I hope I summarize this properly) nobody wants to see someone get hurt and businesses in survival mode are more worried about surviving. As long as the businesses are trying to make a profit they can’t be overly concerned with training standards but they really don’t want to see someone hurt because that’s bad for business in all aspects. Unfortunately there are so many people in the industry trying to make a name by pushing workers that they don’t think through the liability issues, if something happens they just move on to the next company and start pushing. If companies don’t survive, the thought is the workers will work somewhere else until that company sinks. I can tell you now, this will drive people out of the industry, at least those of us who aren’t building a career. It is hard for those of us who have been in this industry for 20+ years to throw it all away you become a greeter at Wal-Mart or Target. We really want to move ahead and grow in this exciting industry, but it’s all of the companies that put schedules ahead of human decency that make the entire industry look really bad, so remember to set realistic expectations.
So remember to be smart, be safe, and pay attention to what you’re doing! Make a plan, follow the plan but don’t be afraid to adapt, improvise, and overcome your obstacles!
Comment: TIRAP is yet another Top/Down approach to find safety solutions. Fundamentally, few details from TIRAP have been revealed. So far, the end game for the program is to immerse students into the industry. To send graduates into the workforce as “top hands”, “PM’s”, and “CM’s”. So, graduates are intended to become leaders for workers already in the field. Many with many years under their belts. Do you see the friction? As you mentioned about the deadlines, contracts, screw-ups, and the usual push to get the work done. With or without proper gear to complete tasks. What are these graduates going to do, to improve safety? They will cave in to the usual push. Just like we do already. Meaning, they will roll the dice and hope they cash in.
To their credit, if they follow through with their trainings, TIRAP this is quite thorough. at least for a short-term training solution. Sadly, long-term, careful, mentored exposure to ALL. rank and file workers is what’s missing. Every worker climbing towers needs to be properly experienced, not just “trained” or “certified” Union apprenticeships have been a traditionally proven leader in worker experience and worker safety. This approach is a bottom/up approach that IS successful at saving lives. Maybe this industry is not ready for this discussion now. Creating more BOSSES, by virtue of TIRAP, is just another industry band-aid to try to stick to a severed limb. So the madness continues. Families will get more shocking calls. Kids will grow up without their parent. Widows and widowers will try to carry on, with the help of the tax payers an all the stigma that endures. Because OSHA fines (a slap on the wrist or not) go to the US Dept. Of Treasury. Who really pays the price? I’ll end with a quote by Kurt Vonnegut, “And so it goes”.
Response: I believe that if TIRAP can be a model for the apprenticeship program it may really help. I don’t think that they will bypass the experienced workers because as you mention there is no replacement for experience. Experience is the key to leading in this industry. however, it is not the only qualification, common sense and brains help along with integrity. If you have a good person teaching these people the right way to do things, then it will go a long way. We all need mentors to help the process along and I think that is the one thing that has been missing in so many of these companies. Leadership helps and remember that you do not need to be the boss to be a good leader!
Remember to be smart, be safe, and pay attention to what you are doing. Follow the plan but don’t be afraid to adapt, improvise so you can overcome any obstacle!
