A recent article in MHI Solutions magazine explained the role of the Crane, Hoist and Monorail Alliance. This organization serves as a liaison for overhead lifting companies to OSHA. By teaming with the federal agency, it promotes a wide range of safety initiatives in the field. The alliance represents three overhead lifting groups—Crane, Hoist and Monorail, respectively—within MHI. The CHM Alliance’s collaborative efforts with OSHA are proving invaluable to the industry and its safety priorities.
OSHA recently renewed the CHM Alliance for the second time. The reason? Because of the alliance’s efforts to promote safety priorities in a variety of ways. Based on the extent of those efforts, OSHA granted the alliance Ambassador status. This is a sign of the strength of its relationship with OSHA.
“We took it as a badge of honor,” said Rose Haire, the industry groups manager at MHI who works with the alliance.
CHM Alliance Connects Overhead Lifting Industry and OSHA
Haire said the alliance gives the overhead lifting industry a vital way to connect directly with OSHA and share with them the important trends that they are seeing and experiencing firsthand.
“If we see an uptick in a certain type of accident or want to call attention to a particular problem, we have contacts and liaisons with OSHA for that,” Haire said. “That’s really important to us.”
Among its collaborations with OSHA has been a series of promotions focused on the need for anyone working above six feet to have adequate fall protection.
“Our groups are heavily involved in that area because our service technicians must be aloft a great deal of time to inspect cranes and hoists,” Haire said.
For the past several years, the alliance also has teamed with OSHA in the summer months to focus on heat illness prevention because of rising temperatures and the increased risk for workers in the field, particularly those on cranes or managing other overhead-related tasks.
Safe + Sound Week Prioritized
Another focus for the CHM Alliance has been OSHA’s Safe + Sound Week. Alliance members treat the annual week as an opportunity to put a spotlight on key safety initiatives and to underline their broader safety culture in a way that can extend to throughout the year.
“A lot of our member companies take that time to conduct safety reviews and talks—what they call ‘toolbox talks’—and other activities of that nature,” Haire said.
Member organizations can coordinate their individual safety promotion efforts through the alliance. They can take advantage of OSHA’s myriad resources. These include websites, videos, reports, swag, banners and a range of promotional items. Some alliance members record their safety talks and share them via social media, using the hashtag #liftsafe.
“They use many different avenues to get the word out. Not only to their employees, but also to their clientele. This helps to further ripple out to the rest of the industry,” Haire said.
Haire said the ongoing coordinated efforts with OSHA demonstrate an enduring commitment to safety by the overhead lifting industry and the CHM Alliance’s members.
“It shows our deep investment in the idea that we want our equipment to be used safely, and that safety is always at the heart of any usage of it,” Haire said. “We have standards and specifications that we utilize for our equipment. We want to adhere to those, we want to adhere to OSHA standards and we want anyone using our equipment to be safe.”
CHM Alliance Brings OSHA to MODEX, ProMat
As part of MHI’s large MODEX and ProMat trade shows, OSHA is provided a booth to talk to industry members. At these expos, OSHA can further promote its safety efforts and interact with those in attendance. In addition, CHM created a series of safety talk webinars that included OSHA participation. OSHA sometimes asks alliance members to provide trainers for its inspection personnel to ensure they can do their job well.
Haire said OSHA values having “boots on the ground” in the form of the CHM Alliance. Such partnerships extend its reach into the industry to promote OSHA’s efforts. It also allows the agency to receive crucial feedback about what is happening in practice in overhead lifting. CHM provides documentation of best practices, checklists and other resources for use on the OSHA website to help spread those messages widely. Likewise, OSHA shares a variety of safety resources and promotional tools with the alliance.
Haire said the success of the CHM Alliance has led to discussions between MHI and OSHA about possibly creating additional liaisons with other areas of material handling.
“I think that really speaks to how effective our work with OSHA has been,” Haire said.
To learn more about the CHM Alliance, visit mhi.org/chm.
