Union Offers Demolition-Related Training

The Construction Craft Laborers chapter in Kingston, Wash., says it has designed the Northwest Laborers-Employers Training Trust (NWLETT) in response to a demand for attention to demolition and recycling practices.

The training program has been designed to address “LEED-inspired demolition practices [and] how to make demolition laborers more safe, efficient, recycling/green conscious and ready for the future” says the group in a news release.

“With an emphasis on new techniques and safety to both the workers and the public, NWLETT, an affiliate of the LIUNA (Laborers International Union of North America) Education and Training Fund, has been including material identification skill training along with the mathematics that make the proper sorting and recycling of such beneficial to the contractor,” says the group.

“The safety aspects of demolition training are of the utmost importance,” remarks NWLETT Director Mike Warren. “Not only do our contractors demand it, our trainees have to be thinking about it every minute of their work day. We don’t skip a beat. We include the obvious electrical, ladder, scaffold, fall, hoisting and rigging, and toxic material training with a healthy dose on tools and equipment – including equipment that is now showing a growing entry into the field that is making contractors more efficient and profitable.”

Part of the classroom and hands-on training includes training on forklift usage and safety as well as training with pneumatic equipment such as breakers, chippers, drills and jackhammers.
The 10-day training class also includes the handling of torches and the different gases used.

Small power hand tool training is offered as well, including back and muscle Injury prevention. “Nobody is made of steel, and muscle, tendon and bones can be injured by something as simple as not using the right tool,” says Warren. “Time-loss injuries, especially those that can be avoided by taking our training, cost both the contractor and the worker and we want those costs to be zero.”

The union group says its goal is to help contractors realize that the bonus of having a worker’s heightened safety consciousness be a consistent process on any job situation or task increases their value to the contractor.

Those seeking more information on the program can visit the NWLETT Web site at www.nwlett.org.