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The COVID-19 Joint Construction Safety Task Force will continue to meet and arrange visits to job sites in its ongoing effort to help protect workers and increase job safety awareness on construction sites.
Since April 15, the task force has visited 20 job sites in the state to collect data, offer resources and provide education. Every job site visited had a written COVID-19 safety policy. Nineteen of the 20 had either provided COVID-19-specific safety training or followed an Oregon OSHA recommendation to appoint a safety officer to ensure social distancing on the job site.
“With cases of COVID-19 increasing, it is important for this task force to continue its work, and to reinforce the need for workers to wear face coverings when they are not able to stay at least six feet apart,” said Michael Wood, Oregon OSHA administrator.
Wood said the task force has accomplished important work, including developing free resources, best practices and innovations to help mitigate the risk of COVID-19 on construction sites.
“The COVID-19 Joint Construction Safety Taskforce has been instrumental in providing resources our organization has used to help protect the health and safety of all our members across four states — Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana,” said Matthew Eleazer, president of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local #1.
Free resources are available:
Oregon COVID-19 Construction Task Force
Task force members:
- Associated General Contractors — Oregon Columbia Chapter
- Central Oregon Building and Construction Trades Council
- Columbia-Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council
- Hoffman Construction Company
- Lane, Coos, Curry, Douglas Building Construction Trades Council
- NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center
- O’Neill Construction Group
- Oregon Home Builders Association
- Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences
- Oregon OSHA
- Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council
- Oregon Tradeswomen
- Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters
- Pendleton Building Trades Council
- Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors Association
- Salem Building and Construction Trades Council
- Southern Oregon Building and Construction Trades Council
- University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center, LERC
- Worksystems
The task force is a partnership of union and non-union industry professionals, with support from Oregon OSHA. The group meets regularly to monitor health information and government guidelines, and to collect data and information.
For general questions about the construction task force, contact Mary Ann Naylor at Oregon Tradeswomen, MaryAnn@tradeswomen.net.
Task force contacts:
Robert Camarillo, executive secretary, Oregon State Building Trades Council: Robert@oregonbuildingtrades.com
Mike Salsgiver, executive director, Associated General Contractors — Oregon Columbia Chapter: mikes@agc-oregon.org
Mark Long, chief executive officer, Oregon Home Builders Association: mark@oregonhba.com
Paul Philpott, political representative, Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters: pphilpott@nwcarpenters.org
Aaron Corvin, public information officer, Oregon OSHA: Aaron.corvin@oregon.gov
