Allied Building Metal Industries hosts awards ceremony.

Allied Building Metal Industries, Inc. recently held its second annual awards luncheon, where the organization's Safety Awards and Iron Worker of the Year Awards were presented. In addition, the organization gave out four-year college scholarships of up to $2,000 per year to nine students.

"Today we are recognizing and rewarding contractors for their exemplary safety programs, as well as iron workers for their performance above and beyond the call of duty," commented William Shuzman, Allied's executive director. "The accomplishments of these companies and individuals have set them apart from the normal high standards that have come to be expected from this industry of complex projects that are being built every day."

"We are also looking to support those who will one day assume the technical, professional, and management reins of our industry," he added, "by maintaining an annual program to grant scholarships to our future industry leaders."

Allied Safety Awards were presented to A.C. Associates; American Bridge Co., Inc.; Koch Skanska, Inc.; and the Schiavone Construction, Inc./American Bridge Co., Inc. joint venture. A.C. Associates, with more than 21,500 man-hours and an average iron worker workforce of 13 had only one accident in 1999 that resulted in a mere five lost workdays -- less than 2/10 of 1% of the total time worked. That same year, American Bridge Co. experienced only five injuries while employing an average of 28 men for more than 58,000 hours on difficult bridge rehabilitation projects.

Also during 1999, Koch Skanska, which employed an average of 100 men who worked almost 196,000 hours, had only 12 instances where iron workers lost time from work from minor injuries -- less than 3/10 of 1%. Schiavone/American Bridge had a perfect safety record, losing no time to accidents during last year.

Iron Worker of the Year awards were presented to Angus Adams of American Bridge Co., Inc. in the bridge category for his performance on the Ninth Street Bridge project. Lincoln Jules, of Ment Bros I.W. Co., Inc., was the award recipient in the miscellaneous metal category for work on the Empire Theatre. In the new building category, Joseph Kennedy of Canron Construction Corp., was recognized for his performance on the Reuters Building.

The college scholarships were awarded to deserving students with a parent who works within the unionized structural steel and/or miscellaneous metals erection industries. These included: Julie Ballante, daughter of a chief estimator for Midlantic Steel Erectors; Cherisse and Danielle Donaire, daughters of a project manager at United Iron Co.; Patricia Ho, daughter of a Yonkers Contracting Co. engineer; Laura Miller, daughter of a Local Union No.40 iron worker and employee of Grow Peini; Daniel O'Brien, son of a member of Iron Workers Union No.580 and employee of Diamond Installations; Jeff Powell, son of an employee of Midlantic Erectors and member of Iron Workers Local Union No.40; Josh Tatum, son of a superintendent for American Bridge and a member of Iron Workers Local Union No. 361; and Paul Zis, son of a member of Local 361 and an employee of Canron Construction.