Operating Engineers Local 3
Organized Labor
Feb 2009
George William Bond, III, Man and Material Hoist Operator I’ve been around cranes for a long time. When I first started, OSHA had just kicked in under Nixon. So we got to raise the bar real high as far as safety is concerned. My dad worked in Chicago on the Sears Tower, and he would take me up on the high rises to watch the progress. Back then, before OSHA, the iron workers didn't tie off that much. Now we put safety first. I prefer operating the crane to working that high up. When you operate a crane, you have to make sure you are within the safe range and the ground can be a little uneven. We have a safety review before we start the job, and then in the middle of the job we have another safety huddle.