Safety, safety and more safety!

I remember when I was in grad school studying organization that they talked about the difference between how things are officially done and how they are actually done. The official way is usually found in a policy and procedure manual and if followed would add so much time to each task that the business would close due to inefficiency. Then there is the actual way things happen which involves more shortcuts. So in the big blame game of life we all balance on top of a fence getting accolades for our efficiency until there is a problem at which point the employee gets blamed for the problems due to the shortcuts. This is the result of lawyers influencing policy so that companies can avoid responsibility and hence lawsuits.

So here I sit at Kearl amazed by all the lawyer driven crap and PR that goes on. While taking the bus to the site we are flooded with this propaganda on permanent sing and temporary ones alike. The first is really humorous and is on the main sign into the site. It say: "Welcome to Kearl. No one gets hurt." I wonder if it is worth pointing out what a statistical impossibility this is? Or how about the stupid signs like the one that said:"your most important tool is your hands so take care of them!" My hands??? What about my brain? Isn't it sort of important too? How about the cute little ones thought up by some safety jerk with too much time on their hands that read: "All those in favour of safety goggle say 'eye'." Dumb and dumber!

I know the official reason for all this nonsence is that they are trying to create a culture of safety. I know when they get us to fill out FLRAs (field level hazard analysis cards) that officially it is to help us foresee and so avoid potential problems. But the reality is that it is how the company shifts the blame squarely onto the shoulders of Joe Workman. Afterall, if you wrote it down and signed the card then it is your fault for doing it incorrectly. If you didn't fill it out properly it is your fault for not following procedure and filling it out. And if none of that is clear enough then they pull their ace in the hole:"complacency". The worker must have been complacent and so it's their fault!

The official goal of all this safety procedure is to keep us safe. But that isn't the real reason. Really it's to keep employees from reporting injuries so they can claim some kind of perfect safety record. Let me give you an actual example. A welder on our crew was changing his machine over from wire to stick. There are supposed to be 3 connectors on the machine so that you can twist and pull the connector from one and then push and twist it into the next one. Of course one was missing so the welder pulled out his crescent wrench to remove one and to move it over. He had done this lots of times as has every welder on site. In order to adjust the wrench the welder took off his glove as dexterity is impossible through cowhide. But when he started turning the wrench the wet conditions caused an arc and so a small electrical burn resulted on his one hand. His mistake was going to the office for a bandaid!

He never expected the shit-storm that followed his visit to first aid. Rather than a bandaid he was shipped off to the medical facility where he was inspected, pee tested and assessed by numerous first aid personnel. The welding machine was red-taped and frozen out so that 30 safety stiffs could come and photograph the site from all angles. Electricians were brought in to inspect the machines, a geologist was called in to do core samples of the area and 30 psychologists were immediately shipped up to deal with the emotional trauma of his coworkers! In fact he was put through the safety interview process not less than six times in 3 days and the whole thing was 'investigated' by a team of management tools who had never actually been on a construction site before. Finally they determined that it was his fault for not wearing his glove and after a half-day safety stand-down to the entire site they finally wrote him up for negligence after several consultations with the corporate lawyers! Talk about overkill!!!

So when they say they want to know about any 'incidents' (apparently accidents don't happen onconstruction sites) they are clearly full of crap. In reality the overkill proves beyond a doubt that they do NOT want to know anything about any problems that you may have. The entire process isn't one of safety. It Is really a big damage control project so that they can keep spewing nonsence about how zero incidents is possible and how at Kearl 'no one get hurt'. Bullshit!

And I got to weld too!

Today was pretty exciting. I mean we were doing work that the boys on my crew probably found pretty humdrum but as pretty much everything is new to me I am really enjoying it. For the past two days we have been doing a shake-out of the steel wear plates that will eventually find their way into our surge bins.

A shake out is when you take the steel pieces from their bundles and get it ready to be rigged-in and installed. In our case it involves fitting a lifting lug onto each piece, welding it into place and then marking and stacking the pieces in an organized way.

Looking downstream in my iron working career I can see myself as a welder/fitter. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when the lead hand said from the word go that I was going to get training as a fitter! I thought he would get me to do one or two and then hand it over to someone with more experience (like anyone on the crew for instance as they are all welders. But instead he has had me doing ALL of the fitting so far. I know that this fitting is pretty rudimentary and has miles of room for error but it is fitting just the same!

Nearing the end of the day my senior Foreman came over to watch. After a while he called me over and asked if I had welded anything yet. 'No' I answered. So he said 'go get a welding helmet and get one of the guys to show you how.'. Of course I almost fell over and died! So off to the tool crib I went and when I returned I had a welding helmet in tow.

Now I would love to tell you that I took to it like a duck to water but that wasn't the case. Instead I was given a piece of angle iron and shown how to make a pass along the seam. When it was my turn I made a ton of mistakes including sticking my welding rod to the metal and being unable to retrieve it! Still, it was a start! All the carrying and fetching and shovelling that I have just done without question has proven to be a worthwhile investment. All the crew were there putting in their two cents worth and encouraging me along. God it was great!!!

As it was the end of the day we didn't have much time. But I was promised that tomorrow I would not only get to try again but would also get to weld lugs that I had fit onto the wear plate! The good news gets even better when you consider that we will be on this duty until our turn around so I should be able to practise for the next 4 days!!! I am not getting ahead of myself and assuming that my role will now change. I am a pre-apprentice still so carrying things and lifting stuff and climbing stairs and shovelling will still be my daily lot in life. But I have tasted the action and I am excited to do it again!