Ep. 90 - Bilingual Safety First: Stopping Construction Line Strikes

Downtime is a profit leak, but a line strike due to a language barrier is an outright tragedy. Right now, infrastructure projects are booming all across the country, yet a massive portion of the boots on the ground doing the actual digging are left completely in the dark regarding critical regulations. We sit down with Rosemary Langowski, a bilingual damage prevention specialist at Washington Gas, to discuss the critical disconnect between management safety mandates and what Spanish speaking crews actually understand.

We get into the hard data showing why safe digging practices cannot afford to be lost in translation. Rosemary breaks down the updated Common Ground Alliance Best Practices, highlighting the bilingual task team efforts that urge nationwide operations to provide material in a worker’s native language. We explore the implementation of free, micro sized learning modules designed specifically for rapid excavator training, and we tackle the absolute necessity of giving every single laborer on site stop work authority regardless of their position.

The unglamorous truth is that many contractors claim they do not have near misses or line strikes simply because they fail to document them or talk to their labor force. Investing just forty five minutes of your morning to feed your crew donuts and walk through a toolbox talk in their primary language is significantly cheaper than a devastating utility repair bill or an injury report. You will walk away from this conversation with immediate, zero cost training solutions that bridge the communication gap on site.

If you care about protecting your workforce, avoiding catastrophic utility damage, and building an ironclad company culture based on mutual trust, you will get a lot from this episode. Be sure to subscribe to the Blue Collar Business Podcast and share this with a fellow contractor who needs to hear it. What is the biggest step you are taking this month to ensure your Spanish speaking crews actually comprehend your safety protocols? Let us know in the comments below.

Transcript

Welcome And Sponsor Message

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast where we discuss the realest, rawest, most relevant stories and strategies behind building every corner of a blue-collar business. I'm your host, Cy Kirby, and I want to help you what it took me, trial and error, and a whole lot of money to learn. The information that no one in this industry is willing to share. Whether you're under that shade tree or have your hard hat on, let's expand your toolbox.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Guys, welcome back to another episode of the Blue Collar Business Podcast brought to you and sponsored by Pater Support. Those guys over there, if you're looking for a quality takeoff in the estimation realm, whether you don't have your estimation process set up or you have three estimators and they need a little bit of extra help, it can go totally opposite ends of the spectrum. But if you want a full comprehensive takeoff quantification and then go one step further and make a model of it, pay dirt's your place to be. Reach out to them, let them know that you came from the blue collar business podcast. Guys, I'm I'm gonna preface this. Uh, this is a little different episode, it's gonna be a little shorter episode too, but we are going to go bilingual today. And uh a lot of you guys didn't know this Pele Rojo could actually say, Habla has been, you know. And so um, you guys have heard me from the YouTube side. I'm gonna absolutely butcher a Chat GPT uh intro, but at the same time, we have a wonderful guest here, Miss Rosemary, who was um, if you guys have been listening through uh Mr. Scott, Washington Gas, correct? Same office? Correct. Okay, correct. Scott, super passionate guy. Oh my lord. Great boss. Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

That's I could say my best boss ever, Scott. Are you hearing that?

Why Bilingual Safety Training Matters

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, well played, well played. But this came up yesterday uh about best digging practices. If you would just show the Bible real quick. She called it the best practices 22.0. So that means they're always working on it. It's a living document and it's always going. So uh, guys, we're gonna be talking about that, but not just redundancy on the English side. I'm hoping that you guys can grab this episode, say, you know, 30%. I I believe Scott said 30% off of some napkin study is Spanish speaking. What we do is dangerous, and so we have got to give them the best chance. Number one, to be successful, number two, to stay happy, stay safe, and get home to their family. So, guys, bear with me as I butcher this. But Miss Rosemary, thank you for joining us. Number one, and uh, I'm gonna kind of let her go after this, but here we go. Presentado I can't read that word, uh, pay-dered support. Hoy tenemos el paser de canter conestro, incredible, and yeah, I'm invitado.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Hey!

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Um, you guys get the point. Gracias por acompañarnos. Uh, okay, we need uh Espanol Escuela is what uh is what this guy needs. But guys, welcome. Miss Rosemary, thank you. Um, she's gonna go back and forth, talk to you guys, talk to me, obviously, about the best digging safe practices, Scott. Every single podcast we've had. You guys have got to know this is out there. Have got to know. And it's not just in English. I believe Scott said five years ago you transferred it over into Spanish, which is still some time ago, but we have got to get this out to these guys, and this will be a perfect episode to send over to your Spanish speakers and get them brought up to the same speed as your English speakers. So thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Take off wherever you'd like to start. First of all, thank you so much for having me on your podcast and for this opportunity to spread a message that I'm incredibly passionate about and eager to share with your listeners. Um, like he said, I'm Rosemary Langowski. I work in Washington Gas, that's in the DC metro area, um, where we service the DC, Maryland, and Virginia with natural gas services. My main role there is to provide bilingual damage prevention training to anyone that's willing to listen to me talk. Whether you're an excavator, a contractor, a landscaper, a homeowner in charge of an HOWA. You want to invite me? I'll bring donuts and coffee, get in front of your guys and girls, your crews, and I will train you in both English and language about safe digging.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Number one, because it's so important. 30%. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Right. And there was actually an incredible statistic yesterday in one of the, I'm here at the CGA conference, Common Ground Alliance Conference and Expo. And in the education committee, which I chair, we had someone share a stat that really stuck with me saying that from 2011, within the Latino community, deaths of Latinos working in construction has increased to 107%. Oh my lord. And I think it's safe to say that a lot of our Spanish-speaking community, our Latinos in construction, really are part of the backbone of building the infrastructure in the United States. And that statistic that keeps growing terrified me. So I think this message is incredibly important to share and to try to bring that stat down. So yeah, that is the main message I like to share today on the podcast is how we can really help that community, those crews dig safely. Because with all the infrastructure money from the previous administration, our current administration, and our bead money coming in for fiber, there is an we're inundated with construction and job opportunities, which is wonderful all over the US. But who's going to ultimately really help do that work? Who are the laborers running those backhoes, the operating equipment, digging with a shovel? We need to help them understand that they have stop work authority, they know what the law is, how to dig safely, because every utility carries its danger or cost of repair. And my main goal is to have every man and woman come home with all 10 toes and all 10 fingers safely.

Stop Work Authority For Everyone

SPEAKER_01 6:19

That's my number one goal. Yep. Absolute. Our number one core value is safety. It drives expense. Correct. Everybody, I don't care if it's your, you know, Eric made a great point on the stop work order authority, and we need to hit that home, guys, because I know a lot of you guys out there don't even understand what we're saying. Anybody on your job site should have authority to stop the work on site, no matter what's going on, whether they don't understand what they're trying to do with the install or they see something unsafe. It doesn't matter the reason. Everybody on that crew should have stop work authority.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Exactly. And it's amazing that some of our folks out there don't even know that that's a concept. They're told to work to meet those production quotas, keep installing, installing, installing, being paid by the foot that they're installing. And they have no idea that they can even speak up or feel empowered to speak up if something looks a little dicey.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

That's so good. Could you preface that in Spanish right there over again?

SPEAKER_02 7:25

I sure can. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Just angelic in my ears. I'm telling you. I wish my husband said that. Did you hear like what I was doing a moment ago?

SPEAKER_02 8:06

What's the effort that counts, really?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

It truly is. And we have such a Spanish-speaking community, and their lives matter just as much as anybody else's. And uh truly, I've got two different Hispanic uh crews. I try to get on their level and try and make sure. And we, for a fact, language barrier or not, I am going to do everything I can as El Jefe Patron to ensure that they comprende what I am talking about from here to here. You know, whether it's installing a piece of pipe or it's, hey, there's a crack in that wall. We need we need to extract that area. Right.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

And when you even make the attempt as a supervisor at HIF it to understand their native language and talk to them, that's a connection you're building and trust you're building. You're breaking down that barrier, like, wow, he actually cares. He, my boss is trying to connect with me and explain things to me. And that's just a better performer.

Inside The CGA Best Practices Book

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Yeah. No one, no one hundred percent. They always do, and they react to it, the smiles. Yeah, I just they're so wonderful to be around. Um, don't get me wrong, I've I've had some crews go the other way, even with me doing that method, and that's going to happen. People are people. So um, but at the same time, they deserve to know exactly what these free, right, free, totally free resources. I believe the hard copy actually carries a little cost or something, but but totally free online, correct? Correct.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

And that's that downloadable PDF. If you go to the Common Ground Alliance website, they have all their links, resources, toolkits that you can download the PDF version of this best practicing Bible.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

And guys, I'm going to be throwing that out on our social medias, my LinkedIn, a couple of different places to really be putting this out there for you guys. Um, in the Underground Network, it'll be a resource tab, but not to go too far off there. When did this start? Do you know? This started over a decade ago.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Um, and it this is version 22. So this is a working document that's updated every time the CJA meets, whether it's a committee meeting or a huge conference, the best practices committee, we meet to discuss what needs to be updated. I mainly work on chapter eight, marketing and outreach, and you it seems like it was dated. Like, are we going to fax people information? Now we're in the time of social media. So we're trying to update the language, how to use social media to get the 811 message out there. Um, what the bilingual task team at CGA accomplished two or three years ago was changing a practice statement that says nationwide, an effective damage prevention education program identifies and implements a plan that addresses individual needs, including languages other than English where appropriate. So that is the best practice that's been in place in various states like Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland, um, where this essentially means if your guy or girl, your crews do not really, their English isn't their first language, you need to provide them some sort of training, a one-pager, a PowerPoint, anything to help them understand what they're getting into. I always compare it to someone, you wouldn't give your son or daughter keys to a car without them understanding the law or having a permit or license. So, how are we giving keys to very dangerous mechanized equipment and they don't understand the signage, how to operate it, what they could damage in route. So they have to understand any instruction in if they don't know English, provide some sort of information in the language that is appropriate to them.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

I love that. And I'm gonna ask you to preface especially that paragraph again, but just brief there in Spanish, sir. Love that. Love that, and I truly hope that we're gonna be able to reach a few folks with this because you know, me being in the industry, I said earlier, uh, I think before we got on the show, 15 years in this industry, and I didn't know this was out there. Right. And that's that's blasphemy. You know, I have I'm on social media. I, you know, I'm all out there putting myself out there, but until I got into the CGA web, right, I really didn't know of this. And this needs to be plastered everywhere. Right. We need to get this to everyone.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

And this whole best practices book is composed and written by the excavating community, contractors, the locate community, um, utility operators. So it's all stakeholder representation. So it's a collaborative effort. Without us agreeing and coming to a consensus, we can't move things forward. It's an open dialogue.

Free Spanish Training Modules You Can Assign

SPEAKER_01 14:04

We talked about that this morning how utility locators, contractors, owners of projects, and entities, municipalities, et cetera, you know, the big public entities, we've got to somehow come together, but we all have different interests. Right. We have the same common goal, right? But we all have common interests, or I'm sorry, different interests and different liabilities. That's where it gets, we've got to somehow find a way to navigate. Yes, we all need to um do our proper jobs, but could you imagine? You know, I've said this probably on every episode, they get to go out there, and you know, you were just mentioning providing your crew with a one-sheet, or uh, hey, this is what's going on. Could you imagine sending them out there? They've got their plans, got everything ready to go. We've prepped them from the company side, but then the utility locator provides a map. I can't even read a map. I never could. And I grew up with map quests. Like, could literally provide a map for these guys to have a guideline. We don't want to hit your stuff. No contractor wants to hit something. Exactly. And that's what I don't think a lot of these municipalities like they're like, oh, that dang old contractor, he just did I did that on purpose in Friday, three o'clock. You know, no, we didn't. We're just trying to make a living. Right now, there's a lot of excavators out there that shouldn't be doing what they're doing and they don't care. And they and they, oh, it's in my way, one mark I'm out. You know, let's get through it and hit that production goal. But at the same time, we have got to do a better job speaking from the excavator community, ensuring that these resources get into the hands of the guys out there. We have to, and I'm very excited to be sharing this with my team, et cetera. But also, too, I'm gonna have to be able to take a moment and walk through, you know, this in a in a Spanish-speaking version as well, where they could read through it.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

And what's awesome that the CGA Common Ground Alliance has done is they have partnered with DaVinci to create a free excavator curriculum for anyone. You don't have to be CGA member. You can just go onto the CGA site and there's about 41 modules, somewhere like 24 available right now, and half of those are already in Spanish. So you could make this part of your LMS system at work or just assign it. They're broken down modules where if your guy maybe didn't hand dig and you kind of need to refresh him on proper hand digging and tolerant zone laws, assign him that four-minute module. And it's fun and interactive. He doesn't have to, he or she wants to throw an hour-long, you know, mandatory company training that you want to sleep at. You can, these are micro-sized learning that we've created in Spanish. The um education committee and the bilingual task team assisted CGA in creating that Spanish version. So a lot of people like, oh, I don't have the money to hire a bilingual trainer, or I don't have time to go on Google Chat GPT. We that's okay. We have the solution for you. The Common Ground Alliance has that curriculum, it's available in Spanish for free. You can bring your guy or girl into the office, send it to their email, click on the link, and then they will get a certificate of completion. It's very high level to what's 811 calling in a ticket, to why do I need a to pothole and test but very detailed in English and in Spanish, a free resource, so no excuse to not provide that training for your employees. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Wow, that's amazing. Um train of thought here. Scott was talking about literally 20 different new, maybe not do, maybe restructured safe digging practices because this was a hot topic, obviously. And so it's 22 versions of this book to get where we're at. And then guess what? There's gonna be a 22 and a half or probably a 23, and we're gonna keep moving. It's a living document. Yep. And as it should be, because there's new situations every day. But you know, this is great material for toolbox stocks. This is great material for your Spanish guys to be out there. Hey, no, you guys have, I understand you can't comprehend the hour-long training session with the gentleman we brought in here, but at the same time, at a micro level, we're gonna have 15 minutes of conversation to make sure we hammer home these points in a Spanish version and give him the best chance of success of being with unified with his team as he's out there trying to complete the project, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:27

And I'm so passionate about this. Before I leave, I'll give you my card and you can share my email with your listeners. If they need a quick interpreter or help, they can reach out to me and I can guide them in the right direction to help those men and women that need help or some training. I'm more than happy to because my main goal is safety.

The 45 Minute Investment Argument

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Please share, share your email, LinkedIn if you're anywhere. Uh, would love that because you'll be surprised you may have one or two people reach out to you. That'd be great. But honestly, you're exactly right. You're in an awareness job. You have got to literally anybody that has two ears that will sit there and escort you, like we have got to get this in their hands. And especially contractors, new age contractors that should be able to go find these resources. Yeah, why are we not? That's the next question from the excavator community. Guys that have been around for a lot longer than say 10 years, why are they not implementing this? Right. Why are they not pushing? Oh, well, we don't have that many strikes, or we don't have any, we don't have any near misses. No, you don't have any documented near misses. Right. You don't have any documented line strikes. Right. That's your problem. They're happening, they're happening in your cruise. If you're, I promise you, it's happening. You're just not being notified about it. And so make sure you take the time. Um, I will absolutely provide your email if you wouldn't mind providing your email here and anywhere else we can reach out. Absolutely.

Contact Info And Practical Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 19:50

And the last thing I'll say, maybe your members and community can help me out. One of the biggest issues I face is, you know, I try to get, I'll talk to the supervisor and Hiss and I say, can I come talk to your laborers or crews? I'll get there at 5 a.m., 10 p.m. I know you're you need production and that quota, but let me just do 45 minutes. I'll bring coffee and donuts and lunch. That small investment of time, maybe you lose production time for 45 minutes. But me putting in front of your people or them taking that module, it's such a small investment that will pay off in the long run because you don't want to get that damage repair bill or someone get hurt. So if you just invest 45 minutes of a trainer's time to show your guys and girls what to do, that'll pay off in the long run. It's cheaper to allow us that want to help you to maintain safety, come in for a week for one morning or evening, whenever we want. And then, you know, you can avoid things down the line. Um, so please, I ask that you're flexible with your crews that you can give them like a working lunch, um, maybe like a happy hour with a train, or like a breakfast, lunch, anything. Um I'm trying to come to anyone's office whenever's convenient for them. I'm always available around the clock to push this message. Um, my email is r langowski at washgas.com. So that's r-l-a-n-g-o-w s-k-i at w a-s-h gas.com. That out this altitude in Colorado has me forgetting how to spell.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Me and you both.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Um, and if you just Google Rosemary Langowski on LinkedIn, you'll see my page. I I'm following uh blue collar business podcast on social media on LinkedIn, so you can kind of do some sleuthing through there and find my accounts as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Well, what a resource, honestly. Uh Scott mentioned yesterday on the podcast, he's like, we have got to get Rosemary over here and talk about the Spanish speaking community. And he's exactly right. And number one, thank you for your passion.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

Um I have to be, I'm half Guatemalan. Have the rep.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah, I love the passion. I love the passion for the message, uh, just in general. Um, if you would sum this up just a little bit in espanhol, and we'll kind of let you go on about your day.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Of course. Aqui estoy para servirlos in qualker capacitation, if you can entrenamiento or cómo obtener esa capacitación gratis in CJ. My email is R L A N O G O W S K I arroba washgas.com. We wouldn't Rosemary Langowski in Qualcare social and social media. Muchísimas gracias por su tempo hoy.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Absolutely wonderful. Miss Rosemary just opened it up to all you guys. If you have Spanish speakers and Spanish-speaking crews, the 45-minute, 30-minute investment. If you're not already doing that once a month, there's you need you need to look at yourself just a little bit. Challenge you because you have to. Um, what we do, Miss Rosemary, is we actually had A11 in February in our office. Uh, first, we work all over the place, right? You know, the shop maybe two hours, hour, whatever in each direction. So on the first Monday of every month, we get together at the shop, we cook boys' breakfast and we talk, do a little bit of training, but we'll also talk about housekeeping issues, maybe the things that we that dealt with over the month that we necessarily shouldn't have dealt with. Bring it up, air it out. Hey, where are we going for this next month? And so I encourage you guys, if you if you haven't, you gotta have an hour, 45 minutes. I agree with you. The micro learning, that that 30, 45-minute window, you've got to find a time within the month, or having talked, Miss Rosemary talk with individual crews and finding a great time as well. Yes, absolutely. So, guys, CJA conference. If you've never been here, this is my first time, been invited as a guest. Uh, we have a few more podcasts to get through, but this is the main point and meat of today is we have got to get these resources that you guys hear redundantly in your hands.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Free resources.

Wrap Up And Listener Callouts

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Free resources. Uh yeah, we've got to, and that's exactly why I'm sitting here in the beautiful Braidmoor. Colorado Springs, Colorado. So excited to be here. We've got the rest of the day and tomorrow. Miss Rosemary, thank you so much for your dedication and your passion to the message and to the contractors of the United States of America, but at the same time, um, to Washington Gas and everything you do.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun. I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

We're gonna have to get you. We're we're gonna have to get you on a different episode with another Spanish speaker, and I'll just be there and I'll host tomorrow and show that we've got to show on the Camera Lands what it does for these.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Maybe Hispanic Heritage Month in September.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Okay, well, maybe we'll we'll maybe I can sharpen up a little bit on my S Paniola. Okay, okay, guys, till next time, thank you so much, and we'll catch you next time. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like, share it with the fellas, check out our website to send us any questions and comments about your experience in the blue collar business. Who do you want to hear from? Send them our way, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have. Till next time, guys.