Great Lakes Area Local 374, based in Hobart, Indiana, has been awarded the John F. Erickson NACBE Safety Award. The announcement was made on March 31 during the 2025 Construction Sector Operations Conference held in Miami, Florida.
The National Association of Construction Boilermaker Employers (NACBE) annually honors local lodges for their commitment to workplace safety. One nationwide winner is selected along with winners from each U.S. section. The selection criteria include the lowest injury rates and the highest percentage of Boilermaker man-hours worked by NACBE contractors participating in the NACBE safety index.
The top sectional winners this year included Western States’ L-549 in Pittsburg, California; Northeast’s L-154 in Pittsburgh; and Southeast’s L-433 in Tampa, Florida.
Brad Sievers, Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer of L-374, expressed gratitude for the recognition: “It is a testament to our members and contractors who worked the hours and made safety a priority,” he said. “We are thankful and proud of our Local 374 brothers and sisters, as well as all the brothers and sisters who traveled to help man our work.”
Ron Traxler, Executive Director of NACBE, discussed the evolution of their safety program: “We learned we couldn’t just talk about safety without our partners. The Boilermakers recognized it takes everyone to make a safe worksite,” he stated. He noted that since 1992 regional safety awards have promoted a culture of safety through healthy competition among locals.
Traxler also presented data from the 2024 safety index which included reports from 27 contractors covering 37.63% of all Boilermaker work from NACBE contractors. There was a decrease in lost-time injury rates from .40 in 2023 to .25 for 2024 while compensable injuries increased slightly from 3.22 in 2023 to 3.58 for 2024. OSHA recordable injury rates rose again for the fifth consecutive year from .92 in 2023 to 1.40 in 2024; however, OSHA recordable eye injuries decreased from seven in 2023 to five in 2024 with compensable eye injuries reducing slightly from 31 in 2023 to 27 in 2024.
