Lessons Learned From Building Collapse

BY RYAN N. BOYER, Business Mgr., Laborers’ District Council of Metropolitan ​​​​​​Area of Philadelphia & Vicinity/ Here we go again: another non-union contractor with unskilled labor causing carnage, death and mayhem in our city. It goes without saying that our prayers are with the families of the deceased and the injured.

Demolition is a skilled trade requiring training and supervision. Union labor requires apprenticeships, thousands of hours of instruction and on-the-job training to insure competence and safety. These fly-by-night contractors are only interested in enhancing their own pecuniary returns and are not at all interested in protecting anyone but themselves. They just don’t care.

Workers at 22nd & Market weren’t wearing hard hats.  They were working in the dark with inadequate lighting. They failed to properly brace the party wall. Improper equipment was used. The resulting consequences were deadly and unacceptable.

A union contractor with skilled labor wears protective gear, uses proper equipment, and makes a site safe for everyone. We implore our City representatives to mandate responsible contractor ordinances for the protection of our residents.

Nobody is protected by a $300 demolition permit unless the contractor acquiring the permit has skilled labor and supervision. Investigations after-the-fact do little to ease the pain of those who lost loved ones. If we spend a little more time on the front-end, maybe the work will be done on-time, on-budget and without injury.

   Send article as PDF