Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the Elevator Constructor journal.

For over 10 years, the International Union of Elevator Constructors has been a proud member of the Global Power Trade Unions (GPTU), an international organization of power trade workers which includes those working in the electrical trade and the conveyance industry. (In many countries outside of the U.S. and Canada, electrical workers perform conveyance work.) The GPTU includes more than a dozen labor unions hailing from all around the globe—Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, the U.S., and Canada—to name just of few of the participating countries.

The IUEC’s participation came about in 2011 and has grown and evolved ever since. The GPTU holds meetings annually to collaborate as a global union brotherhood/sisterhood to combat the challenges organized labor faces—challenges that know no borders.

This year the IUEC served as the host union for the GPTU’s annual conference, which was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from June 26-28. The IUEC also hosted the conference in 2016 in Chicago. The conference has also been held in previous years in previous years in Australia, Ireland, Denmark, and Iceland. With the beautiful city of Vancouver as a backdrop, and the hospitality of Local 82, led by Business Manager Mike Funk, the event was set for success from the start, and a success it was.

The conference, with about 40 international delegates in attendance, was organized by the four board members of the GPTU—our own IUEC General President Frank Christensen, Danish Union of Electricians General Secretary Jørgen Juul Rasmussen, Electrical Trades Union (ETU) of Australia National Secretary Allen Hicks, and Connect Trade Union (Ireland) General Secretary Paddy Kavanagh.

The meeting began with a warm welcome from President Christensen, who thanked Brother Funk and Local 82 for their support. He noted that he hoped the meeting would give everyone an understanding of what each trade does and the importance of working together. “You think you are doing things so well and then you go to another country and realize they are doing some things better,” he said. “We can all learn from each other.”

Chairperson Rassmussen also greeted the attendees, noting many things the unions all have in common – and pointing out that it’s the elevator industry that is the truly global industry because most construction companies are domestic, but elevator companies are international. The commonalities among the trades and the international unions that Brother Rasmussen highlighted were safety and health concerns, organizing, inequality and inclusion, and the climate crisis.

A major highlight of the conference was the remarks of special guest Carla Qualtrough, Canada’s Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Disability Inclusion. Minister Qualtrough spoke at length about the need to get more people interested in a career in the skilled trades. “Economic growth and near record-low unemployment in Canada have created a worker shortage,” she said. “Demographic shifts and high retirement rates fueling the demand and an ever-growing need to recruit and retrain hundreds of thousands more Canadians into the skilled trades is probably our biggest threat to economic success in Canada.”

Minister Qualtrough added that BuildForce Canada, a national, industry-led organization that provides information and resources to the construction industry, estimates that Canada needs to recruit about 300,000 new workers into the construction industry. She noted that the average age for entrance into the skilled trades in Canada is 26 years old, and only 1 in 15 high school students plan to pursue a career in the skilled trades – which isn’t enough to fill the worker shortage. In response to this, the Canadian government has been aggressive in its investment—nearly $1 billion—in apprenticeship support through grants, loans, and tax credits; helping communities explore and prepare for careers in the skilled trades; and creating awareness of skilled trades jobs. One creative initiative of note is a labor mobility deduction whereby Canadians can claim up to $4,000 per year in work-related travel and relocation expenses.

Minister Qualtrough’s office also oversees inclusivity and diversity initiatives, so she spoke in detail about the importance of ensuring that all who want to work are represented in the labor market. She said that only about 59% of people with disabilities are employed, as compared to 80% of those without a disability, and that tapping into this market could be an opportunity to address the labor shortage. Other groups who are underrepresented in the labor market include women, indigenous people, the LGBTQIA+ community, and BIPOC. “Our role as a government is to create an environment so that everyone who wants to work has a chance to work,” she said. “We need all hands on deck to have economic prosperity.”

Minister Qualtrough closed her remarks by noting the importance of training and the Canadian government’s efforts to provide holistic training opportunities that, in addition to trade training, include human skills training such as writing, reading, communications, problem solving, and adaptability. These are the skills that help people show up to work with confidence. “The government of Canada recognizes and respects the role unions play in addressing labor shortages and the need to establish a trained highly-skilled workforce,” she stated. “We need you!”

ETU National Secretary Allen Hicks spoke to the attendees about licensing, specifically as it relates to Australia’s expected labor shortage. “It’s incredibly important for us to make sure that if we are going to have people come from overseas to work in Australia, they need to be able to demonstrate that they can comply and meet the standards that we’ve established,” he said.

This issue facing Australia is not unlike labor shortage issues in other countries, but Brother Hicks was able to provide a glimpse into Australia’s licensing procedure. In Australia, there is a governing body called Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) that reviews foreign workers’ credentials, training, and work experience. Brother Hicks impressed upon the conference the importance of workers gaining their licensing through TRA before arriving to Australia to work.

Connect Trade Union (Ireland) General Secretary Paddy Kavanagh spoke about the power of joining forces and collaborating on things like licensing, marketing strategies, and codes. He used the example of Connect working with the ETU of Australia and the Australian embassy to offer Australian license training in Dublin, so that Irish electrical workers could arrive in Australia ready for work. Brother Kavanagh believes that the labor force is going to become much more international, so it will be important for qualifications to be standardized. However, he did say that it is important that the standardization of qualifications means that those with lower qualification standards must raise their standards to meet a higher level, rather than standards being lowered to meet others. He added that having a sort of International license would be helpful for unions and contractors to ensure foreign workers are indeed qualified for the job. “The safety issue alone is massive,” he said.

As it relates to codes, Brother Kavanagh stated that in Ireland, labor is outnumbered on code boards by about 12-1 – so they are often outvoted. He suggested that it would be helpful if the GPTU worked to share code ideas.

Many IUEC officers also addressed the conference providing information on the IUEC’s initiatives and programs—Elevator Industry Work Preservation Fund Director Allen Spears, National Elevator Industry Educational Program (NEIEP) Director Dave Morgan, Canadian Elevator Industry Educational Program (CEIEP) Director Dan Vinette, Director of Organizing Pat McGarvey, Assistant Director of Safety Jim Chapman, Regional Director Rusty Gilbert, and Regional Director Kevin McGettigan. The attendees were also inspired by motivating remarks by friend of the IUEC, Retired Navy Seal J.J. Parma.

The conference closed with the attendees eager to reconvene next year. Together the attendees addressed many pressing world issues, such as climate change, the labor shortage, and even the war in Ukraine, and the impact these global concerns will have on the power trades. The solid partnership forged by the participating unions of the GPTU will prepare organized labor for the future, and empower working men and women through strength in numbers. There is much to be done, and these labor leaders are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work for the benefit of all.

Several times a year, engineers, writers, and other Development staff along with Area Coordinators from the National Elevator Industry Educational Program (NEIEP) travel from the NEIEP Instructor Training Center in Warwick, Rhode Island to locations throughout the country to showcase the elevator industry’s most comprehensive education and training program.

This year, the state of Texas featured prominently on the list of places where NEIEP fairs were held. International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Local 133 members Pat Coker, Jarred Baker, and Bobby Harper stopped by a NEIEP fair in Austin. Pat, Jarred, and Bobby all work as elevator constructors in the field for TK Elevator. While they were checking out demonstrations of the hands-on lab materials at the NEIEP fair, they also had the chance to spend time talking with Development Department head Lester White and some of the other experienced staff and subject matter experts who write the textbooks and lab manuals and design the hands-on labs NEIEP uses in its IUEC elevator constructor apprentice and mechanic training in classrooms across the United States.

Pat told us that years ago when he became an elevator constructor, he didn’t have access to the type of intensive, hands-on training that IUEC apprentices participate in through NEIEP today. “It’s a lot different,” he said. “They are required to be there four hours a night – it’s more hands-on with the labs.” He continued, “all the lab work that you see in here today – we didn’t have that when I went through (the education program), so seeing the technology and the growth – it helps them out in the field so they can apply what they do in the field in the classroom, and vice-versa.”

Through on-site classes held weekly at IUEC Locals across the US, as well as online classrooms that the students can access using their home computers, NEIEP courses teach IUEC elevator constructors the foundational and specialized skills they’ll need to build, modernize, maintain, troubleshoot, and repair complex pieces of conveyance machinery including elevators, escalators, moving walks, Automated People Movers, wind turbine conveyance systems, and more – all safely and efficiently. A USDOL-registered apprenticeship program held to the highest standards, NEIEP’s is the most respected education program in the trade. In fact, a number of colleges and universities recognize NEIEP courses as equivalent to college-level learning.

The NEIEP apprenticeship program for elevator constructors doesn’t stop at classroom learning; incoming apprentices also log 8,000 hours of field work under the supervision of an experienced mechanic. After that, they must pass a capstone Mechanic Exam to advance to mechanic status. This combination of classroom courses and field work is why incoming IUEC elevator constructors quickly become the best-trained, most well-rounded workers in the conveyance industry.

Bobby, an IUEC elevator constructor apprentice who works under Pat’s direction, spoke about how important the apprentice – mechanic partnership is, and how being able to apply the skills he learns in the classroom to his work in the field has enhanced his learning all around. “Whenever you mention following in his lead, that’s step-by-step,” he said. “When it comes to safety or troubleshooting, we’re starting our process off in the truck in the morning – what are we doing today? What are we getting into? From the start – even before work starts – we’re brainstorming how we’re going to tackle this task efficiently, and most importantly, safely.”

“He and I have a routine,” Pat continued. “It’s always, ‘let’s go look at it’ first. ‘Let’s go get a visual game plan of what we want to do, how we’re going to accomplish it’ – then we’ll tool-up and we’ll discuss it all the way back and forth to the jobsite. So the stuff that they’re learning in class, that goes along with it. I think it’s a great benefit to have.”

“Coming up as an Apprentice, your Mechanic is a person to lean on every single day,” said Bobby. “Pat has been around the nation working on elevators from two-stops all the way up… I’ve devoted the past five years of my life to an education program to get to where I am now – to hopefully fill (his) shoes.”

For more information about the most comprehensive education program in the elevator industry, check out https://www.neiep.org/.

ElevatorInfo visited the Memorial Garden at International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) headquarters in Columbia, Maryland, to speak with Mike Langer, IUEC Safety Director, and Eric McClaskey, IUEC Assistant Safety Director about the work the IUEC is doing to reduce injuries and fatalities in the conveyance industry. They told us about BE SAFE, a targeted strategy developed to address the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA)’s Construction Focus Four hazards.

According to OSHA, construction is one of the most dangerous industries in the country. Construction inspections make up a staggering 60% of all of the inspections OSHA performs each year. OSHA found that United States Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in the year 2009, there were 816 fatal on-the-job injuries to construction workers – comprising nearly one out of every five work-related deaths in the country. They also reported that the fatal occupational injury rate for private industry construction workers was close to triple that of all other US workers¹. When OSHA dug deeper to identify the most common accidents in the construction industry, they discovered that injuries and fatalities resulting from four categories were at the top of the list: falls, caught-in-or-between, struck-by, and electrocution.

The IUEC Safety Director and Assistant Safety Director wanted to build on OSHA’s work by developing a safety-focused program tailored specifically to the needs of people who install, service, maintain, troubleshoot, repair, and inspect elevators, escalators, and other conveyance equipment. That’s why they launched the BE SAFE awareness campaign.

“BE SAFE is a phrase that we use when we’re saying goodbye to one another – hey brother, hey sister, be safe,” said Eric. “We took those words and we wanted to associate hazards within the industry as a reminder for mechanics and apprentices out in the field.”

The major hazards they identified for elevator constructors included the following:

• Barricades – Are proper barricades in place?
• Elevator location – Have you identified/verified the elevator’s location prior to entering the hoistway?
• Struck by – Is overhead protection in place?
• Adjacent car – Is adjacent car protection in place?
• Fall protection – Are you using a Personal Fall Arrest System (PFAS) where fall hazards exist?
• Electrical protection – Are you using electrical safe work practices?

“BE SAFE really brings everything together for our safety culture, because within BE SAFE we have the OSHA Focus Four hazards where we see most of the injuries and fatalities in the industry – so we’re really trying to build upon that within (the IUEC) safety committee, local safety committees, and even within our alliance with OSHA,” continued Eric.

“If we keep talking about it, drilling it home every time we have an opportunity, creating the stickers that you can put on a wall, or a hard hat, or a door – it’s bringing home the awareness of safety,” said Mike.

When ElevatorInfo interviewed IUEC President Frank Christensen a while back, he emphasized how developing a culture of safety that allows all elevator constructor apprentices and mechanics to get home safe to their families at the end of the workday has been a major priority since the beginning of his time as president. “It never is going to be enough for me until we don’t have any fatalities. Never. No injuries is probably a dream or fantasy. But that’s my goal as long as I’m going to be the General President,” he said.

The best way for someone coming into the elevator trade to establish a solid foundation of safe work practices begins with the hands-on safety training students receive in the National Elevator Industry Educational Program (NEIEP) classrooms during their elevator constructor apprenticeship (and the continuing education courses that are offered to mechanics who have completed their apprenticeship). This is an important distinction that sets a NEIEP education apart from some of the other training programs in the conveyance industry, which are limited in scope and offered via correspondence course with no opportunity for hands-on learning.

Through NEIEP and the IUEC, elevator constructor apprentices and mechanics receive basic elevator constructor safety training including OSHA certification courses covering equipment, processes, and procedures they need to know to work safe (employers are required to provide more comprehensive safety training.). This safety training is one of the most important benefits members get from the IUEC and its union-affiliated employers.

For more information about the BE SAFE campaign and other ways the IUEC is working to improve safety for people who work in the elevator industry, check out the March 2023 issue of the Elevator Constructor magazine (a monthly industry publication sent to all active and retired members of the IUEC) for an in-depth article on the topic. Also, browse our article on the fundamentals of safety for elevator technicians and constructors.

¹Source: OSHA Construction Focus Four: Outreach Training Packet Module Training Materials 

“There’s a couple of things about safety I brought to Neil Hussey, Chairman of the Elevator Contractors of America, when I became the General President– we need to get more involved with safety, we need to get the companies more involved with safety and we need to go at it with a different approach because whatever we were doing before that wasn’t working. So we did this together,” said Frank Christensen, General President of the International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC).

ElevatorInfo had the opportunity to sit down with Frank and Neil to talk about how the IUEC has been working collaboratively with the ECA to improve safety for all workers in the conveyance industry. Creating a culture of safety that allows all elevator constructors to get home safe to their families at the end of the day has been a top priority for President Christensen since the start of his tenure. “It never is going to be enough for me until we don’t have any fatalities. Never. No injuries is probably a dream or fantasy. But that’s my goal as long as I’m going to be the general president.”

While the bulk of the work in the North American conveyance industry is done by a handful of major corporations such as Otis, Kone, Schindler, TK Elevator, Fujitech, and Mitsubishi Elevator, there are hundreds of smaller independent elevator companies across the country that are also involved in this work. The Elevator Contractors of America organization was created to provide a network of support for these independent elevator companies. Lately, one of the top priorities for the ECA has been to develop a standard safety policy that ECA member companies can adopt as part of their own corporate safety policies for workers.

“We know that the majors are getting their hard hats, are getting their safety glasses, they’re getting their harnesses,” said Frank. This is largely because the major IUEC-affiliated companies have access to teams of safety experts around the globe, and have had comprehensive safety strategies in place for some time. Unfortunately, it’s been more of a challenge for some of the smaller companies who don’t have access to the resources the larger ones do to develop and implement comprehensive safety programs as quickly.

In recent years, it became apparent that this was an area where the ECA could be a great help to its member companies and to the industry as a whole. “Originally we had a lot of small companies that really didn’t have much of a safety program,” said Neil. “The mindset back in our day was if you spend a lot of time on safety, it was going to slow things down – but we found that quite to the contrary.” He continued, “Once we saw that, not only could you create a very safe work environment, some of the safety procedures and protocols actually ended up being very efficient.”

Maintaining strong communication and a positive working relationship with the IUEC has helped ensure that the ECA’s standard safety policy meets the needs of the industry. “I like to think that we’re partners with the IUEC in the promotion of safety,” said Neil. “The IUEC is our main supplier of labor and what we found very early on is that by including them in our general meetings, by spending time developing relationships, it all makes it easier,” said Neil.

Frank agreed. “When I became the General President, we got to know each other. We talked and he invited me to ECA meetings and after that, we built a friendship and an understanding of what each one does. I know that I can pick up the phone and call Neil anytime and he’s going to respond to me immediately, and he knows he could do the same for me.”

“We’re elevator people. We have a long history in the elevator business – although I might have started a little bit earlier than Frank, we started in the same place, as helpers in the trade,” Neil said. “We have a lot of things in common and we’ve been able to use that to our benefit, to further our goals – safety being one of the major goals.”

Making safety a top priority is more than just a goal for Neil – as Vice President of an independent elevator company himself (New England-based Stanley Elevator), it’s personal. Frank was quick to recognize this. “Some of his employees are like his family members – these are his friends. These are more than just employees. If something were to happen to them, the effect of that on their family and everyone that they know, well, it’s a hard thing to live with. I know because it’s a hard thing for me to live with when I lose a member.”

Frank continued, “When I see an elevator constructor on the street or I see them working on their equipment, I always ask ‘Are you working safe?’ For me, that’s one of the most important things I could say to somebody.”

Safety training is one of the best benefits all elevator constructor mechanics and apprentices get from the IUEC, its collaborators and union-affiliated employers, and NEIEP. To learn more, head over to our article on the fundamentals of safety for elevator technicians/constructors.