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!
I have been getting so much feedback on both sides on how tower climbers can be represented. Some think union, some thing private group, some say it’s fine the way it is. So here is a poll so you can tell me what you think. Then if that is not enough, you can offer feedback below. So quit your whining and take action, fill out the poll and give me some feedback!
Have more to say? Here is your chance to tell me what you really think!
Also, I will add you to my newsletter.
Do you understand the SOW! Maybe some training would help.
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!
OK, so I have been looking around and found a few articles that may interest you.
First off, there was a safety climb system failure that resulted in injury. It happened to a Kentucky tower climber that was working in Ohio on a Crown Castle tower. Allstate tower employee Taylor McDonald, 32, was climbing down the tower when he slipped on a step bolt around the 50 foot level and his safety climb did not properly slow him down. People on the scene said the cable grab appeared to be attached properly. OSHA did investigate the site and removed 50’ of the cable grab cable. He is currently in a coma according to Wireless Estimator. Just as a note, I reached out to Crown Castle to see what their safety policies were and I didn’t hear back. I have interviewed people in the industry before this happened and the common response was that Crown Castle doesn’t feel they play a role in climber safety. If you know more than let me know. I was told that they feel it’s not their problem. Can anyone corroborate that statement? Read about the accident here. There will be a law suit and I get the feeling that fingers will point blame both ways.
Did you hear? Wireless Estimator did a report stating that the tower climbing industry is 29,000 strong! Read about it here. If there are 29,000 climbers, it’s a huge industry and should grown even more next year, for those that can handle the work. Do you think seeing these numbers may make a union interested in recruiting these workers and helping train them? I wonder. Could 29,000 climbers agree to unite? Probably not. This is amazing since on that same day I read that tower climbing is one of the worst jobs, link here. There is also an interview about how one guy fell into the job, link here.
OSHA is busy, they handed out a $114,000 fine to Sherwood Tower Service. That is who Thomas Lucas, of Toledo, worked for when he fell from the tower in Stockton, Ca while paining. He had three children. OSHA handed out the hefty fine because companies that have workers at heights are required to provide adequate fall protection. Also, the harness should have been replaced due to visible signs of wear. These are called willful violations because it could have been avoided. Read about it here and here and here and here. To view current OSHA citation go to https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/SherwoodTowerServices_989451_0206_15.pdf and you can check it out for yourself. Listen, I know most of you don’t appreciate OSHA, but they are trying to make a difference, so support them!
OSHA stand down week is coming up! May 4th to May 15th and the information is on OSHA’s website! They show the tower workers representing the worker’s at height. Inside Towers wrote about it here. What can you do? You can maybe take a day that week and practice rescue, maybe inspect all of your gear and tools and rope. Maybe spend the time working on your CPR and First Aid training. Review your OSHA 10 handbook. Take the time to make progress! Refresh your skills, inspect your gear, show that you care about yourself, your workmates, and your company! If you need more ideas here is the link to the FAQ on what to do! OSHA is trying to help, so accept what they offer and work with it. If it’s not good enough for you, then by all means, make improvements, that’s what you do in the field, right? Adapt, improvise, and overcome, where here is your chance to step up. If you take the 5 minutes it takes to read this, you will learn that it’s not about standing down for a week, it’s about educating yourselves. For some reason last year many of you said that you could not quit work for a week. Education takes time and you need to learn to read and listen. Nuff said!
Anyone going to NATE United? I wish I were but I just could not make it. If you are LBA is giving a RF Safety Awareness class, read about it here. It’s a great reason to go to Lake Buena Vista, Fl, this time of year.
I wanted to get this out because this guy thought I deleted his feedback!
Comment: WHY DID YOU REMOVE MY POST……..
Response: I didn’t, here it is! I put his name in here because I think it’s funny, and I am pretty sure it’s not his real name!
Name: One of the few Intelligent ones Comment: I will say this. YOU WILL NEVER POLICE THIS INDUSTRY. WHY……In most other industries you must have degrees, training, certs, etc. For example to be an engineer you need degree, certs, etc. To be a manager you need all plus more. See this is the only Industry I know where a person can have dropped out of High School, be working at a 7-eleven on Friday night and that following Monday be a tower climber installing high dollar equipment for major carriers. It is unbelievable.
What I mean is be careful what you ask for. This industry does not have professionals. There are some, but most rant and rave about being underpaid, so dangerous, etc but yet the industry is filled with drinking, pot smoking, not show up for work on time, rough necks who do not know a thing about being a professional. If they were to make qualification a determination for employment most would not make the cut. Urinalysis on a regular basis would weed out another chunk. Punctuality would probably get the rest. The professional powers to be known this and therefore it will never happen because 95% of the work force will not make the cut. You better not police the industry I should say.
Why is this industry so dangerous, I have climbed for over 20 years, had over 300 climbers under my supervision and no accidents or deaths. It is really quite simple. If your Physically tied to an object that is anchored in the ground, it’s physically impossible to fall. Pretty simple I think.
When climbers fall 100% of the time it is climber error. You never hear of equipment failing.
Response: Tell me how you really feel! First off, congratulations on training so many climbers, working with so many, and never losing any, thank you for that! I really mean it, great job! You are correct about most of this, you have those people but you also have some great people that think of this a profession, not a job. I often think of it as very skilled labor. However, I have also met many that fit the description you put in. You also make a great point about tie off, while not all the deaths last year were from tie off problems, there was also rigging failures, heart attacks, and tower collapsing. However, you are correct, there were many that obviously didn’t tie off. We need to drill into everyone’s head that if they don’t tie off they could die.
As for safety gear failures, there have been some this year but I don’t know if anyone’s safety lanyard failed, so you make a great point if you are referring to the safety lanyards!
Go to the IWCE conference and see me! For a discount enter code SPK! Remember that the communications people for public safety and fire departments will be there. Fire departments rescue climbers!
Comment: After 25 years in the business, I still find that one of the biggest problems is drugs on and off the job sit. Another thing that causes us problems is NATE. NATE is like a lot of females. They love to keep something going all the time and I’m a firm believer if something isn’t broke, don’t fix it. My grandfather use to tell me, don’t stir in shit,, it will stink. If NATE would butt out and, leave OSHA alone, we would be better off. All of these company owner’s that claim they are a member of NATE and it is not nothing to be proud of. We have a safety guy in our company that is always talking about safety, safety, safety but, out of the other side of his mouth, he condones smoking pot in the company, on and off the job. It’s BS.
Response: OK, I take it you are not happy with NATE. I do know that NATE is working towards setting realistic safety training requirements in this industry. While they do serve the company owners, they are working to make the industry safer because this is the only way we will grow. Remember that no one wants a climber to get hurt. However, we have different views on how to prevent accidents.Prevention sounds easy, but it takes industry buy in and there are still so many climbers that do not tie off 100%!
OK everyone, this is a long comment, so be patient!
Comment: There are some interesting issues addressed in this forum that I agree with. There are no schools that can duplicate the effectiveness of OJT, however, schools can teach a lot of important points to a green hand. For example, I don’t think schools should teach that workers become totally reliant upon their PPG. I believe they should be taught to be as secure as possible on the tower, without any PPG at all, and the PPG should be considered secondary. Learning where to position yourself to avoid danger has proven to be as much of a deterrent as the PPG. I think a false sense of security is experienced when a worker wraps their lanyard or hooks their hook over a member. This is not a new argument. Years ago after an ironworker fell off the Verrazano Narrows bridge, American Bridge went on strike while pressing the general contractor to put nets under the areas they were working. Management claimed that a net would cause the men to feel a false sense of security and would result in more injuries because of carelessness. Eventually, after a short strike, the contractors capitulated and provided netting under the areas where bridge spans were being installed. What puzzles me about all this schooling and training is, what are the credentials of the people doing the schooling and training. Who is teaching the teachers? How many years of experience do they have actually climbing, setting iron, jumping poles, flagging cranes, using the basic tools or even tying knots. How many times have you teachers set up on top of a tower and actually endured the pain from harsh weather so you could finish a job and be home for Christmas? Few of you have ever experienced these circumstances. The brains of the industry forget that this is a job. A job is where workers are given a task to perform and are paid to get it done in a safe and timely manner. If the works not done, nobody makes a dime. The workers that have the unique ability to get the work done safely need to be adequately compensated for what they contribute, and the “wanna-be’s”, the “professional resume writers and per-diem collectors” and the “PM brother-in-law contractors” need to be eliminated, and this is the job of the project managers and staffing people. A crew will police itself only after they have worked together for some period of time, but it takes time. Moving boomers in from out-of-state on an “as needed” basis doesn’t give regular workers the time to learn what the boomers know or the tasks where they excel.
Response: Thank you sir, for the honest feedback. People often forget that if they don’t finish, they don’t get paid. If someone gets hurt or dies on a job, the company won’t get paid unless they finish. Most PMs and GCs won’t wait, they will bring another crew in to finish and not pay the first crew a dime. That doesn’t seem fair but that’ how it is. Ask anyone out there, this is the way the wireless business works. The GC can barely wait for OSHA to finish before they have a new crew on site to finish.
Training – I think the trainers play a key role in the process, but the experienced guys probably make more money working than training, just my opinion, unless they like going home every night, which is a huge factor after traveling for years. Most trainers are there to train the climber for a specific task, we rely on OJT training to teach them the job. That’s how invaluable getting trained on the job is, it is invaluable. When you are work with an experience crew you learn so much more than working with all people that never climbed before. However, those crews get pretty creative, but it leave so much to chance. Work experience becomes invaluable, if you are trained properly and know your job! It pays to learn what you can while you can. Learn as much as you can!
Be smart, be safe, pay attention to your task, following your plan but be ready to adapt, improvise, and overcome the obstacles in your way!
Comment: Thanks Wade, good commentary. You ask some very deep questions that never seem to be honestly answered. This industry has been “self-policing” for decades. All in all, the fatality rates have been dismal. I have been hearing for decades, “We will take care of ourselves, we are professionals, who would be better than us can make this industry safer?” Things have not changed at all! Furthermore, look at some of the tower rescues done by emergency services. While many nitwits want to talk about how they would have rescued and fired the poor guys. You overlook the reason why those men got where they were in the first place. Because they were hired to climb and they know nothing about it. It’s not a joke! We buried a number of fathers and husbands last year, because they were put in situations they had NO EXPERIENCE IN! Anyone you speak to in this industry will tell you how safe they are and how they stay tied off 100% of the time. If this were the case, we wouldn’t have buried 14 of our own this year. You laid out some of the ugly truths of this industry Wade. Self-policing is code for, “You don’t need to check us out, you should check out the other fools”. Free-climbing is rampant. Nobody dares to admit it. As long as the speed of the work is the #1 goal, safety and workers rights will always fall to the back. Carriers escape any culpability through turfers and subcontractors. It’s all big business and big money. Little of which actually gets to the ones being pressured, to do the tasks safely. The policing has to come from the climbers. They must be allowed and encouraged to say “no” to unsafe situations. Any company owner will say, “We always have our men’s backs.” That is until the PM tells you the site you are on needs to be completed today and on the air tomorrow. There is no other answer he will accept, other than “Yes sir!” Safety is not honored or rewarded. How can we possibly train every worker in the field with real-time OJT, supervised over a period of years by climbers with proper experience and safety records? Unions already do that, and have been doing this with excellent results. While we have companies, who throw men off the street to job sites without any leadership. This is why climbers die. Sadly, climbers don’t seem to have the stomach to change this either. Sad times indeed.
Response: Thanks! That is why I asked about a union for climbers. I haven’t had time to really follow through with that. I heard so many vast opinions about unions, it’s hard to determine which is from experience and which is perception. I just want to find a way to make the industry safer, efficient, and profitable. They all go together to be successful. No deaths and minimal injuries.
Comment: Industry driven by carrier deadline. Stressful environment on tower owner side to meet customer demand. Push, deployment, change in equipment, push, re prioritization, conference call, chastisement, lost in the drudgery to get it done. Then an accident happens. The carrier, GC, and tower owner say. We do not know how this could have happened, but we need to change. Cooperation and standardized SOP is the change. Tower owners and carriers need to cooperate on a standard of keeping the backbone of the industry safe. For without the backbone the body has no posture and is weak.
Response:This is great feedback, these are all good points and if we could have cooperation and standard operating procedure (SOP) across the industry then we could really move ahead. We really need the climbers to work together and communicate. Comment: I am in the industry 16+ years as a climber and foreman. Recently moved into PM position and in-house instructor. I have always felt that climbers should be a union. Mainly for the purpose of people being properly trained. It is something the industry always needed and still does. I feel a lot of the deaths and injuries over the years have stemmed from no or improper training. Having a unionized training could only benefit this industry. The days of handing a harness and gear to a guy who was telemarketing last week, showing how to put a harness on and climbing up 150′ to swap 12 antennas in one day with him, while showing him how to choose a proper anchor point for his fall arrest lanyard would be gone. That telemarketer could have received good training for a few weeks and been sent out ready and knowing what he signed up for and knowledgeable enough to be more of a help than a worry whether this guy should even be up there right now. At the least, he would have been weeded out before he had the chance to get hurt or hurt someone else. The training we receive through Comtrain, Gravitec, etc. is good training except for the fact that it is, as everything in the industry, rushed. Originally a 2 week class cut down to 2 days, rushed. The training is good for someone who has some type of experience already, has picked up on some of the vocabulary and who has put a harness on already. It is a great refresher course. Climbers need a little more than that to get a good start and not try to learn under the extreme pressures of the field until. Sign me up. I would love to continue working in this industry for years more seeing this type of change and giving future climbers a little more security in their chosen field.
Response: Great points! I think that training had to be made more efficient because so many climbers come and go quickly. One thing that doesn’t help is the fact that you don’t know how the person is going to react to the job. Will they be there for 3 months or 5 years? That is the owners conundrum. They are trying to hire and ramp up for jobs but then they lose people for whatever reason and then need to start the expensive process over again. I believe that is why so many businesses are family owned. That also is why so many owners stop caring because they tend to get screwed over and they have a hard time really caring. It becomes all business. What we need to do is find balance. We need owners that put safety first, but they still need to make a profit. Remember that safety still costs money. Training is very important.
Comment: Wow I AGREE so much of what you say is truth (I am a 11 yr veteran of the industry) and it is passion that has kept me in. I believe if the big 3, at&t etc, would see that you can not replace an injured worker with anyone just to get system on-line so it will get punched. Please I have trained my share, how many still, in few but some and they are DAMN GOOD HANDS, but the pay doesn’t match. Keep up the good work here.
Response: Thanks, I often hear how many customers are more concerned about 2 things during an injury and that is schedules and reputation. You know what they rarely worry about? Lawsuits, even though they do lawyer up most people working there do want the injured to get better, most managers know that the courts set a precedent when AT&T was sued and the judge determined that because AT&T put that layer of turf vendors in between them and the climber, they could not be held liable. However, now OSHA would like to see the contracts so they can investigate farther. For all of you that think I am making it up, go HERE and HERE and HERE. Listen, when there is an accident and you see a friend get hurt, or a family member, it suddenly changes your perspective. No one wants anyone to get hurt. Look at TIRAP setting a model to follow and NATE working on training standards. All tower crews have to do is follow their instruction. Most do, most companies have a great culture stressing safety along with quality work. Like is said, safety is not cheap, so when the customer demands low prices but continue the demand for unrealistic schedules, the problem continues. The way I see it, safety is in the hands of the of the crew owners and customer, they will set the standards for their contractors but continually asking for the certifications for everyone on their jobs as well as doing safety audits randomly. No tower crew really likes the customer checking up on them but that is the only way I see things changing.
Comment:Points I’d like to make: 1- Get the charlatans out of the industry. The last few years have seen a huge growth and everyone wants a piece of the pie. This includes TURFERS that have no frigging clue as what they signed on for and/or give $#@% about the GCs actually hanging their ass out in the wind dealing with these idiots. 2- Company owners, foreman, leads right down to the FNG need to make safety the daily priority. 3- There is no substitute for OJT. Just like there is no substitute for climber/rescue training and practice. Safety isn’t just a classroom study. There is class/instruction work and hands on. Every day there is something different. Training people to pay attention and identify issues is a daily thing (it never stops). 4- Aptitude is something you have or don’t have. It cannot be trained, instructed or expected of someone who does not possess it. Identifying this early is the only way to be proficient and safe in this industry. More points: TIRAP was good intentions but ran like just any other class, getting a D- is still passing. That goes back to aptitude, and attitude (many people want to be a medical doctors and in some countries can be, even though you wouldn’t want them working on you). People have to be built for this work mentally and physically. The Govt should set basic standards and then step off. Are we adults of babies? If you’re the latter this is the WRONG place for you. If you’re the former act like it. This is a business and hopefully your name. Treat it right, you can only sell your soul once. Unions, like communism, has worn out it’s usefulness and welcome. Now it’s just a tick sucking off the system and occasionally killing someone off. This is not business for whiners, con men or swindlers. This is a business for real men and women. Honesty and integrity are paramount. Really everything starts with those 2 things. Sadly those are the 2 things missing from the majority of society and in this business it’s the difference between life and death. Yes there are plenty of companies out there without those qualities but they will burn down or out in the short-term. And in the process make life more difficult for the rest. The large companies (MASTEC included) have NOT paid GCs on projects for the last 3 years pretty regularly so I have to disagree with you on that one. Thanks for reading and I hope I didn’t make anyone dizzy with the jumping around a bit. Some times my rants go that way. All I really want to say is that this industry is one of those that there isn’t room for rationalizing. It is do it or don’t do it. Half assed will get someone killed>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Response: You make several good points, this is a tough business. It is full of swindlers and con men, mostly because even though it’s a small business we don’t call out these people in a public forum because of lawsuits. So what do we do? Word of mouth within the industry. I follow a few deployment pages and postings only to see that there are climbers and businesses that just screw over others. Yes, it is something that happens to the companies. Some people work for a company and walk with all they can carry and then there are companies that hire crews and just don’t pay them. I have been on both sides and it really sucks when it happens. However, you push forward and do what you can do. You worry about taking care of business, your business the best you can. You build in any protection you can. You talk to your competition about safety, companies, and who pays and who won’t. We really need to communicate in this industry, after all, that’s what we do, we build communication systems, right?
You also brought up about big companies, it just seems that when companies get larger, their priorities change, I don’t know why but that is the perception. They need to realize that they will get a bad reputation in the industry, but most don’t care because there are so many crews looking for work. So many tower crews are out there looking for work, willing to take risks for the sake of getting paid by a customer.
As far as unions, I think that they offer a way to organize the climbers to be trained properly. Unions still are out there and still offer value. I feel differently about them because I know many tower climbers in the IBEW and they seem to be well-trained and do good work.
To respond to your original points:
You have clueless and uncaring people in any industry, However, look at all the good people in this industry, I really believe it balances out. I talk to people like Dr Bridgette Hester, Kathy Brand, Wally Reardon, and so many more that really make the industry look good.
There are outstanding company owners out there, watch the TIRAP Workshop and you will see Dave Anthony of Shenandoah Tower Service who runs his company with one of the best safety cultures in the business, building safety first attitude from the top down. Unfortunately there are probably 10 companies to every one like Dave’s that don’t stress anything but the schedule. Money first for some people. It reminds me of something someone told me, (sorry for getting sentimental) the greatest things in life are free, even though we chase money life was given to us and love is often found, not bought.
OJT is the most valuable training you can get, but it really helps to have experienced and upstanding people you work with. You may or may not like them but if they are really good at their job and safety, then you will learn good habits. Unfortunately many young men learn bad habits or need to rely on their intuition to figure out what to do with no experience, sometimes that can be good or bad.
I agree, aptitude is a gift that really helps in this business.
Comment from my blog I thought would be great to share:
Wade, I think that you have asked the single most important question in all of telecommunications, actually. I spent more than 15 years working aloft in every scenario imaginable from new builds and installations, to having to do a tower survey just to make sure the tower is safe for 2 men to climb – and some failed that and I refused to let my people work on them. In my career aloft, we did not even have a near miss. Riding the headache ball was not allowed! Hanging off an attachment was not allowed. Gin poles of all sizes were not used if they were in poor repair. Some of these practices were “very inconvenient” and probably cost my company money, but I never had to plan a hospital visit schedule, or worse, ever in my outdoor career. Telecom is not the only area this problem exists. In many areas, you just have to stand under a bridge for a short while before you decide that where you are standing is unsafe. I think that in the case of the bridge, a worker on the bridge cannot be responsible for the maintenance of the structure before performing work on some part of it. If that were the case, repairing the guard rail might be a multi-million dollar project. I heartily support the training efforts, and apprenticeship programs for all areas of telecommunications. When workers in our industry are well-trained, costs actually come down because the work is accomplished in less time, and the quality is always better, and for the owner of the infrastructure, maintenance costs are generally lower. When infrastructure is in poor shape, then risk is higher, and costs for maintenance and installation is higher. Just my two cents! Congratulations on your blog!
Response:Thank you! It’s funny you say that because I take so much heat for asking these questions. So many people don’t want to ask these questions, it is business as usual. Some people get defensive, like I am accusing them of something. I just want everyone out there to be smart, be safe, and pay attention to what they are doing. I want them all to come home alive. I really want the industry to thrive, with no deaths and minimal injuries. There is a ton of work coming up that will require creative solutions for deployment, we need to build up the industry and be prepared.
Be smart, be safe, and pay attention! Follow the plan but don’t be afraid to adapt, improvise, and overcome!
This year on Feb 1st North America will be enjoying the Super Bowl, the NFL’s and America’s biggest sporting event off the year! Last year, on Feb, 1, was the day that 3 people lost their lives. 2 Tower climbers were killed along with fire rescue and 2 more climbers were injured when the tower they were upgrading collapsed while all 4 men were on it. Then, rescue arrived to save them, and they did save the injured, but not until after another tower beside the first, damaged the second tower and caused it to collapse during the rescue, where another life was lost, one of the fire fighter who was attempting to rescue one of the injured climbers. This was a very sad day. Do you remember hearing that news? I do.
So I saw on Facebook where NIOSH put out their report about the tower climber, it is an excellent report if you have the time to read it, go tohttp://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/pdfs/face201403.pdf and download it. I pulled some good stuff out of it that the tower industry could learn from.
If you want to read more about the investigation from OSHA, go toOSHA NEWS RELEASEfor more information. To get OSHA updated information go toCOMMUNICATION TOWER. I see the number of fatalities is still 11, I guess they are not counting the fall in December, post here, as a Communication Tower Fatality. OSHA: No more falling workers.
What did you learn?
OK, back to the NIOSH PDF which you can go download. You can learn from this by looking at what the fire departments did not do properly. It is easy for us to look back and learn from this terrible accident. We reviewed what the tower crews did wrong, but the NIOSH Report # F2014-03 was very enlightening. For instance, do you have a copy of all of your training records on file where everyone can get to them in case something happens? Do you have your Standard operating procedures documented and available to show anyone who asks?
When I worked at a company where we built up the tower business with crews I learned quite a bit. For one, insurance is very expensive, that seemed to be my first lesson. Second, training takes time and costs money. Third was that safety gear and training costs money. Nothing is free and nothing is cheap!
However, we had a consultant come in and tell us to record our standard operating procedures (SOP). You see, we had the employee and safety handbooks, that is not what he was talking about. He wanted us to document our typical installation processes. This is something that we took for granted. Creating it was tedious but in the long run, it was helpful. We documented simple procedure, like how to put a non penetrating rooftop mount together, very simple yet it had to be documented. We also put together mounting a dish to a tower. We had to break it out to several size dishes. We documented safety procedures and more. This is something that tower climbers often say, “Well, no tower installation is the same!” I agree, but the basics are very similar, right? I mean to install a dish, you need to climb the tower, rig the tower, put the dish and mount together, usually on the ground, then hoist them up, attach them to the tower, the ground the dish, connect the ODU, connect the cables, and align the dish. Now, that wasn’t so hard was it? We also made drawings and sometimes added pictures. Many times the process of assembly was in the instructions so if we used a common part or dish or antenna, we used that for the SOP.
By doing this we learned the value of paperwork in wireless deployment and in protecting the company. It also allowed us to identify holes and procedures we were missing. From that we built a better way to build scopes of work (SOW) and continued to build a basis for documented hours for bids. When I bid jobs this really helped me identify the process of deployment.
Just a few notes, let’s learn from this incident as we should from all incidents, whether it was a horrible fatality like this was or whether it was a near miss. Ask yourself, what did you learn?
Be smart, be safe, and pay attention. Create your plan, follow your plan, but don’t be afraid to adapt, improvise, and overcome. That’s what you do in wireless deployments.
If someone can lend me a climbing harness and helmet at IWCE, I would appreciate it! I would like to show the crowd what the climber needs to wear everyday.
Special thanks to the hard-working investigators at NIOSH!
From the PDF. “This incident was investigated by Jay L. Tarley, Safety and Occupational Health Specialist, Matt Bowyer, General Engineer, and Tim Merinar, Safety Engineer and Project Officer with the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, Surveillance and Field Investigations Branch, Division of Safety Research, NIOSH located in Morgantown, WV. Expert technical reviews were provided by Chief Joseph V. Maruca, West Barnstable Massachusetts Fire Department and Chief Ulysses Seal, Bloomington Minnesota Fire Department. A technical review was also provided by the National Fire Protection Association, Public Fire Protection Division.”
Updated 2/2: According to Frank Dirico, President of Viaero Wireless, the tower did not have a section collapse, but rather the men were working on the cell array on the ground when it blew down on them, for more go to Inside Towers at http://insidetowers.com/nebraska-tower-didnt-actually-collapse/
Updated: OSHA will investigate the Viaero tower accident. They have been fined before, this is something that OSHA can not overlook. Viaero previously paid fines of $125,000 after losing an employee to a previous tower accident.
2 people were injured when a tower collapsed around noon local time today. The 2 man were trapped under a Viaero cell tower near Avenue R and Overland in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The tower was under construction when apparently the high winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 50mph caused it to topple. A spokesperson on site said that they men were making repairs on the ground when a piece from the tower came down due to high winds. Initially they said that they were 10 and 20 feet in the air when the section blew over but later it was reported they were working on an antenna array on the ground. Apparently the men were trapped under the section that blew over when emergency workers got there. Another report says the men were working on an antenna on the ground when the section blew over and hit them on the found. Either way they were trapped when the fire department got there.
I was corresponding with Gette Hester, she works with climbers through the Hubble Foundation, and she is looking for feedback from tower climbers. This is your chance to let her know if you have been affected by RF radiation.
Gette is doing research on how RF will affect climbers. This study will take time and the more feedback she gets the better the data and more accurate we can be. To quote what she is looking for, this is from her email to me.
“During this year, I am going to be devoting quite a bit of time the studying RF Radiation in telecom, hazards, mental, and physical health effects, etc…. I think this is a much more severe problem than most climbers realize. Sadly, I think it is probably a bigger issue than most employers care to admit to themselves or their workers. I was wondering if you could tell me a few things and then pass the email and my address on to some other climbers you think might have also had experience with RF. I am on a general finding mission as it were, and am trying to gauge the climbers in so far as the kinds of experience they have had with RF.
From my preliminary understanding of RF and the information I have been given as well as what I have researched on my own, it is entirely possible that climbers (as well as other at height workers) could be injured by radio frequency radiation and may not even know it. There seems to be research out there that indicates that some of the symptoms are both physical and mental. Excessive exposure to RF from transmitting antennas is dangerous to humans and could impact your tower climbing safety.
Have you ever worked around RF radio transmitters mounted on buildings, communication towers, light poles, water tanks, utility poles or otherwise?
Do you have any symptoms like depression, headaches, memory loss, mood disorders, sleep disorders or otherwise?
Are you familiar with or had any RF training?
How complete was that training?
Are you aware of the RF footprint surrounding antennas?
Have you worked near live antennas?
Do you think you may have been injured from RF radiation?
Your responses are important because it appears that there is a lack of RF exposure training and there very little knowledge by tower climbers of what exposure to RF radiation can do to humans.
If you think you could have been affected by RF, I would also like to talk to you briefly about your experience. In addition, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS REQUEST ALONG TO ANYONE YOU KNOW OF THAT WORKS AT HEIGHTS/ OR AROUND RFR!!! I greatly appreciate your assistance!!!!”
So there you go, she is looking for feedback and assistance. Does RF make you sick? Has it ever? Let her know! Reach out to her at bridgette@hubblefoundation.orgif you wish to participate and help the future of this industry.
This is probably a good time to talk about RF sensors. I was talking with someone from RSI corporation and they were telling me about the RF detection devices that they have. I know that this should be part of you standard safety gear, but is it? Do you really have something on you every time you go in the air? They are very expensive and I know that if you are doing LTE builds you may not see the need. Maybe this is another device that you should have on you at all times. Do you tie off 100% of the time like you are supposed too? Be honest! Do you? Why not protect yourself from RF as well.
If you are interested in RF detection devices, go toRSI’s websiteto learn more. I would like to do a comparison of these products, if anyone has more information, let me know. I know that the FCC has mandated RF awareness training, as stated inthis LBA blogso you really need to be trained on the hazard. If you don’t think it’s a big deal, remember when theFCC fined Verizon Wireless?For more information go to my post aboutRF Awarenessormy podcast.
So, if you have been affected by RF then it would be a good idea to reach out to Gette Hester of the Hubble Foundation.,bridgette@hubblefoundation.orgif you think you can help.
Be smart, be safe, pay attention! Follow the plan but be ready to improvise so you can adapt and overcome!
So what do you think doing the RF study? Let me know!
