Las Vegas NowBill increasing workplace safety training in Nevada gets broad support
Associated Press - March 6, 2009 10:05 PM ET
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A measure to improve safety training for construction site employees was endorsed Friday by workers and labor leaders, a key state lawmaker, a major contractor and the head of Nevada's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said AB148 has broad support from construction industry workers and employers. Scores of workers and union representatives crowded into hearing rooms in Carson City and Las Vegas to back the bill.
Danny Thompson, head of the state AFL-CIO, said the training imposed by AB148, written following the deaths of 12 workers at Las Vegas Strip construction sites over an 18-month period, "is the very least" the state should require.
Nevada OSHA chief Tom Czehowski (cheh-HOW'-ski) also spoke in favor of the bill, as did Lesley Pittman, representing Perini Building Co., the general contractor for the $9.2 billion CityCenter on the Strip.
Safety concerns came to a head last year after the death of a sixth worker at the CityCenter project. That led to a 1-day strike by workers to protest conditions.
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