Who We Are

SESAC is a group of nearly 50 Colorado based steel erection firms that are both union and non-union. They employ an estimated 700 employees and together work about 1.4 million hours per year. All members share the goal of reducing or eliminating serious accidents in an industry that has historically been recognized as one of the most dangerous in the U.S.A.

The Concept of SESAC

The SESAC organization deals with safety issues only. Matters of legal, labor relations, marketing and competitiveness are not part of its charter and practice. This allows the group of otherwise competitive contractors to unify and work together to sort out the maze of safety regulations and share improved safety and health ideas among the group. An idea or training class that might otherwise give one contractor a competitive advantage is instead shared with all the group to help all employees work safe and injury free, as well as improve the industry as a whole. By agreeing to work together, they have pooled their funds to employ full time safety consultants that specialize in steel erection safety and each gets the benefits of these safety assistants to help with their company's safety program. Each contractor has a complete written safety program personalized for their company by the safety specialists as well as site inspections and training and assistance with OSHA compliance. This "level playing field" in safety has resulted in improved safety and health for most of the member companies. Although they did not set out to get noticed, they have also received positive recognition nationwide, including from Federal OSHA, and Regional officials of OSHA.

A Brief History

In about 1992 there was an acknowledgment by the erectors that the safety record, insurance costs, and reputation of their industry needed fixing. This coincided with Region VIII OSHA taking steps to enforce the current OSHA standards more aggressively. There were some that felt they should fight OSHA, as it was apparent to some that the Regional Administrator was applying a weak federal law to steel erectors inappropriately. But, other forward thinking contractors that sincerely wanted to make a difference, voluntarily banded together to form a non-profit safety association specifically created to address the industry-wide safety issues and to allow all members to learn from one another and move toward improving safety and health records. The loose agreement with the OSHA Regional Administrator was that they would work with him to improve safety if he worked with them to get OSHA enforcement branches to understand the industry, make the existing laws better and more fairly enforced, and to apply the law equally to this trade. The contractors felt that they could assist OSHA in identifying the most hazardous activities instead of trivial laws that were antiquated and many times less relevant to improving safety. This loose agreement opened the door to many opportunities for OSHA to learn from the contractors, as well as allowed the contractors to successfully convince the Regional Administrator that certain practices are safer than others and that certain old interpretations by OSHA were potentially wrong and might even be more harmful, given modern technology and needs of the industry. Some of these newer understandings by OSHA found their way into the new Subpart R, Steel Erection Safety Standard, through a relatively new rulemaking process known as negotiated rulemaking.  Several SESAC members as well as industry professionals and OSHA representatives from Colorado took part in this process known as SENRAC, the Steel Erection Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee.  In all, twenty representatives from across the Country served on this historic committee.  The result was an up to date, practical standard that was acceptable to the steel erection community and uniformly enforceable by compliance personnel.

Benefits of SESAC Membership

• SESAC occupational injury related losses have improved dramatically since the inception of the Safety Association. Members of the workers compensation insurance dividend group have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in discounts and dividends from improved safety and the insurance savings resulting from this.
• The members have built a training center at 72nd and Colorado Blvd for use in training ironworkers in safety and productive erection techniques.
• The members pioneered the 15' fall rule in 1994 that requires ironworkers to have protective safety systems at 15 feet off the ground (the old standard allowed a 25 foot exposure). This local practice became the basis for the new OSHA Steel Erection Standard.
• Over 65 lives have been saved or serious injury averted when ironworkers have fallen and been caught in their fall protection safety systems in Colorado since SESAC began.
• Several hundred thousand dollars have been spent in training and craft improvement since SESAC began in 1992.
• SESAC sites have been visited by many safety specialists and company representatives from across the country who come to see first hand that the ironworker's 100% fall protection systems actually work and that ironworkers can work productively and also follow these new practices and safety rules.
• Various companies in the region have developed and are now marketing nationwide, unique safety devices that allow all ironworkers to have the best safety systems.
• The members have monthly safety meetings involving company owners and managers where safety items of interest, past accidents and near accidents, and industry wide information is shared. In these meetings, these fierce competitors "take off the gloves" and work together for the good of their industry.
• Our safety standards are more stringent than the current OSHA laws. This makes SESAC members more appealing to General Contractors who are looking for better safety performance in the field.
• We were the first steel erection group in the country to form a formal partnership with OSHA.