Hey Safety Professional - Thank You for Your Labor and Protecting Your Workers

Hey Safety Professional - Thank You for Your Labor and Protecting Your Workers

I'm sitting in an airport lounge thinking about the Labor Day holiday. One of the joys of age is the ability to look back with more experience and, hopefully, more wisdom. I began my career as a safety and health professional over 30 years ago, starting in 1989. It does not escape me that things have changed a lot in our profession these past three decades and, without a doubt, will rapidly change going forward. Yet, our work is still the same. As Safety and Health Professionals, it’s our core duty to return people, the workers entrusted to our care, back to their families every day.  Of course, we do more than that, but if we aren't protecting people, I believe the rest pales in judging the success of the other things.

As we celebrate Labor Day and its last day of summer festivities, let's pause to recognize its real significance: the American Workers and their steadfast determination for better working conditions.  Labor Day symbolizes the workers' demand that began in earnest during the pinnacle of the Industrial Revolution. During this period, companies were increasing manufacturing and mining, experiencing rapid construction growth, and improving transportation - all with abundant available labor in a new country ripe with natural resources.  The Country was growing but used people working within a system that lacked government oversight or safety and health regulations to control such work.  Men and women worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, to support the most basic needs of their families—children as young as five were performing manual labor. For most, dismal and unsafe work environments were widespread, and the severity of injuries was rampant and, regrettably, along with a high death rate. History shows that during this period, accidents were so cheap that a fatality or severe injury had little relevance to getting the job done.

The Country was indeed in need of change. Two significant events ushered in the beginning of worker safety regulations and the Safety and Health Professional. The Monongah Mine explosion in West Virginia killed 362 miners in 1907, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Garment Factory fire killed 146 workers in New York City in 1911.  Investigations revealed negligent safety practices, inadequate leadership, and the absence of safety and health regulations.  In response to these events and the outcry of the workers, the U.S. Bureau of Mines created its first set of safety regulations aimed at protecting miners, and the government enacted a workers' compensation law that began to leverage safety protections in the workplace.  Two other organizations were created about this time that also impacted the early beginnings of workplace safety. In 1911, the United Association of Casualty Inspectors, later renamed the American Society of Safety Engineers and the National Safety of Industrial Safety, now known as the National Safety Council, was founded in 1913. Both groups had significant influence in bridging the needs for the protection of the worker and pursuing management teams to consult and provide accident prevention programs that bettered them to protect their workers.   

I began my career right out of high school in the construction industry as a union insulator, working mainly in power and chemical plants. The job was a short stint before starting college, but still, it served as an important lesson in understanding how people work and the things that challenged their success, and that helped me decide to go on to college and learn how to best protect them.  Celebrate the holiday but pause to remember the labors of the men and women you care for and the ones that came before all of us. It is the real significance of Labor Day.  I am a safety and health professional because men and women demanded better protections over one hundred years ago and created a path of new thinking and the need for dedicated safety professionals who often serve as the one critical link between management and the frontline. To all my safety and health colleagues, thank you for your labor in protecting others.

Silas Deane

Vice President, Tyler Technologies (NYSE: TYL)

1y

Great photo.

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