“I’d like to see your
Hazard Communication pack,” the man
asked the project foreman. Many, if not
most foremen would have stammered, fumbled
around and immediately started thinking
about how to explain this to his boss. Or
he might have said, “My what?”
But Jorge Villela,
foreman for Machado Environmental for nearly
ten years, calmly reached over to the edge
of the table, picked up the pack which had
been holding open a set of blueprints, and
handed it to the man. The man turned out to
be a safety and hazard inspector for the
City of Los Angeles. He looked it over
carefully, flipping through every page of
the MSDS pack, nodded, and handed it back to
Jorge who was managing a very large HVAC
cleaning project at a prominent city
building. The inspector went on to explain
that he had received a call complaining of
an “odor” and the caller had been sure the
“duct cleaners” caused it. He opened each
jug and pail of the various cleaning
solutions, coatings and glues ensuring the
proper MSDS for each was in the pack.
Jorge then showed the
inspector the personal safety kits belonging
to each of his crew members. They were
neatly lined up next to the tools and
equipment. The inspector found inside the
kits: gloves, respirators, safety goggles
and various other items and again he
nodded. He saw the fire extinguisher, lock
out kit, the equipment and tools in good
order and repair. He saw the uniformed crew
members just coming back from a break and
watched them don their respirators and
safety gear. He checked the repair of the
ladders, power tools and drop cords. He
looked into some of the ductwork being
cleaned.
He had seen enough.
He then told Jorge that
he found absolutely nothing to find fault
with and went on to say that this is the
first time he wasn’t met with a snarl and a
host of violations.
Don’t worry, I’ll handle the complainer he
assured Jorge.
Sound like a fairy
tale? Not when you consider that the
inspector then made a full report to the
prime contractor of the project – the
company who hired Machado Environmental to
do the HVAC cleaning project. A prime
contractor’s worst nightmare turned into a
dream come true. Once again, Machado made
the prime look like a genius.
It often happens. At a
college in Long Beach, the inspector showed
up, took one look and said, “Oh! It’s Leo
(another foreman for Machado)! I’ll look,
but I know I don’t need to – I know he did
it right.” And again, the prime contractor
ended up looking better for having hired
Machado.
With us, it isn’t enough
to simply “do the job right”. It’s our aim
to make the prime look good and give that
“extra” that lets the customer know he has
gotten more than he paid for.
