by Emily Bardach, Director of Meetings & Membership
Interwire 2001 - Stop by Booth 645 to visit AWPA and have
Breakfast with Colleagues & Friends!
May 14-17, 2001
Georgia World Congress Center
Atlanta, GA
Once again, AWPA will be cosponsoring the Wire Industry's premier trade
show held bi-annually in Atlanta. This exhibition provides an ongoing opportunity
for AWPA to present the goals and objectives of its member companies to
wire companies throughout the US and the world.
As it has been traditionally done, the AWPA booth will provide association
membership information, as well as standards manuals available for purchase.
As always, we look to the AWPA members to assist in staffing the AWPA booth
(#645) in the exhibit hall. If you are willing to work for a couple of
hours, please contact Emily Bardach at ebardach@awpa.org or phone or fax the AWPA office.
On the morning of Tuesday, May 15th from 7:30 am until 9:00 am the AWPA
will host our traditional membership breakfast at the Atlanta Marriott
Marquis - the headquarters hotel of Interwire 2001. The schedule is as
follows:
Registration w/coffee 7:00 am
(pick-up your breakfast ticket)
Breakfast 7:30 am
Speakers 8:15 am
Conclude 9:00 am
Members are encouraged to invite colleagues in the industry to join
you and see what AWPA is all about. These guests, from companies that are
not AWPA members but are eligible for membership, are invited at no charge.
There is a lot of publicity about the trade activities taking place
in Washington, DC regarding international steel trade. The breakfast presentation
will be a picture of current trade issues in the forefront of Steel Trade
Policy making, including trade laws that have been introduced and administration
initiatives that are being discussed. This breakfast meeting will be your
opportunity to ask questions about the processes and the positions taken
by the AWPA.
Registration materials will be available on the web in the next few
weeks.
The AWPA congratulates Kurt Orban of Kurt Orban Partners, LLC on his
Certificate of National Ranking 16th at the Men's 80 Singles Division sponsored
by the United States Tennis Association.
Go get 'um Kurt!.
OSHA Issues New Reporting/Recording Requirements
OSHA has issued a revised rule on how employers must record and report
workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities. It becomes effective on January
1, 2002. Employers with 10 or fewer employees are exempt from most of the
recording requirements; although they still must report fatalities. The
National Association of Manufacturers has already filed suit in a federal
district court against this rule because it would vastly and inappropriately
expand the number of injuries and illnesses considered recordable.
The following is a brief summary of some of the key provisions of this
new rule. For more detailed information about this rule, go to the AWPA
members site at http://www.awpa.org.
Recording Requirements:
· Employers must keep records of the occupational injuries and
illnesses that occur among their employees. To do so, employers must complete
certain forms that need to be saved for five years:
1. The OSHA 300 - Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses: (Replaces
OSHA Form 200) This form lists each injury and illness that occurred during
the year. These logs have separate columns for types of injuries. For each
injury or illness on the log, the employer must also prepare a supplementary
record or incident report (see below).
2. The OSHA Form 301 - Injury and Illness Incident Report: (Replaces
OSHA Form 101) This form must be completed within 7 calendar days of receiving
information that a recordable injury or illness has occurred. The form
contains space for more detailed information about the injured or ill employee;
the treatment of the employee; what the employee was doing when injured
or ill; specific details of the injury or illness; and the object or substance
that harmed the employee.
3. OSHA Form 300A - Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses:
This is used to summarize the entries from Form 300 at the end of the year.
This summary must be posted from February 1 through April 30 of the following
year in a conspicuous place.
Employers must, at the end of each calendar year, review the OSHA log
to verify that the entries are complete and accurate, and create an annual
summary of injuries recorded on the log. Then a company executive must
certify that he/she has examined the log and that it is correct.
All of these forms have been incorporated into an information package
that provides individual employers with: several copies of the OSHA 300,
300A and 301 forms; general instructions for completing the forms; an example
of the 300 log; a worksheet to assist employers in computing the average
number of employees and total number of hours worked; a worksheet to help
the employer compute an occupational injury and illness rate; and information
on how to get additional help.
To obtain this package, contact OSHA's Publications Office at 202-693-1888,
or download the forms from the OSHA home page at http://www.osha.gov.
· The new rule requires the recording of any work-related injury
or illness resulting in one of the following: 1) death; 2) days away from
work (counting from the day following the injury or onset of illness, and
having a cap of 180 days); 3) restricted work from their "normal duties"
or transfer to another job; 4) medical treatment beyond first aid; 5) loss
of consciousness; or 6) diagnosis of a significant injury/illness by a
physician or other licensed health care professional.
Work-related has been clarified to mean "if an event or exposure in
the work environment either caused or contributed to, or significantly
aggravated, a pre-existing injury or illness."
Reporting Requirements:
All companies must report to OSHA, within 8 hours, any fatalities or
in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees resulting from a
work-related incident. Phone calls can be made either to the OSHA Area
Office or through the OSHA toll-free number (1-800-321-6742).
As part of its outreach and training program accompanying this rule,
OSHA will be organizing seminars for employers to help them train their
record keeping staff, and developing free software employers can use to
keep records, training programs, presentations, and a training video. All
of these materials will be available through OSHA's home page at www.osha.gov.
Merger of European Steel Companies
Three European steelmakers - France's Usinor SA, Luxembourg's SA, and
Spain's Aceralia Corporacion Siderurgica SA - announced they are planning
to merge in an all-stock deal valued at $3.1 billion, creating the world's
biggest steel producer. The combined company would have an annual output
of 45 million metric tons, easily eclipsing the current largest steelmaker,
Japan's Nippon Steel Corporation, with 28 million metric tons.
Rockefeller - Trade Adviser
The Senate Finance Committee has named Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) an
official US trade adviser. The statutory position, created by the Trade
Act of 1974, makes Rockefeller one of 10 Members of Congress who must be
briefed by the USTR on proposed changes in US trade policy. "I fully intend
to use this appointment as another way of maintaining constant pressure
on the administration to take action against illegal steel imports," Rockefeller
said.
Customs Lists Anti-Dumping Complaints
The US Customs Service, for the first time, has published a list of
US companies that have filed anti-dumping complaints with the ITC. This
list can be found at www.customs.ustreas.gov. The list comprises more than
360 anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases, and most are complaints
about various kinds of imported steel. The list is being publicized as
one of the requirements of the Byrd Amendment.
New White House Nominations
President Bush has made more nominations in the area of international
trade. Grant Aldonas, formerly at the Senate Finance Committee and a friend
of AWPA, has been nominated as Undersecretary of Commerce for International
Trade. He is currently serving as an advisor to Commerce Secretary Don
Evans.
The President has also nominated Peter Allgeier, Jon Huntsman, and Linnet
Deily to serve as his three Deputy USTRs.
Finally, retreating from his intention to renominate Thelma Askey to
the International Trade Commission (ITC) due to congressional pressure,
Bush has announced his intention to nominate her to be the Director of
the Trade and Development Agency. Her ITC term expired in December of 2000,
and she was replaced by Dennis Devaney.
2001
May 14-17
Interwire 2001
Georgia World Congress Center
Atlanta, GA
September 12-14
AWPA Fall Government Relations Conference
Hilton Alexandria
Alexandria, VA
October/November (TBD)
Operations Managers Meeting
Host Tours ? Titan Steel & Wire and TI Industries
Vancouver, British Columbia
2002
April 8-12
Wire 2002
Dusseldorf, Germany
Back to Wireline Contents
American Wire Producers Association
801 North Fairfax Street, Suite 211
Alexandria, VA 22314-1757
Tel (703) 299-4434 | Fax (703) 299-9233 | E-mail info@awpa.org | Web: www.awpa.org
