From left, Rocca, Cortez, King, Jerome

BALMVILLE - The Council of Industry of Southeastern New York Wednesday signed an agreement with Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials creating an alliance to foster stronger safety efforts in workplaces around the Hudson Valley.

The Council of Industry, a Newburgh-based not-for-profit association that represents manufacturing firms in the Hudson Valley, entered into the alliance in  hopes that their in-depth knowledge of organizational safety programs will help make manufacturing and construction firms safer and, according to Council VP Harold King, more profitable.

“More safety leads to less accidents, which affects a company’s bottom line given insurance costs and payout,” said King.  “This alliance was created to foster a better educational environment for our companies, and we think it is going to lead to less workers getting hurt, and ultimately more profits here in the region.”

King and OSHA representatives Diane Cortez, of the lower Hudson region and the Bronx, Ed Jerome, of the Albany region, and Lou Rocca, acting director of the New York/New Jersey regions, signed the agreement forming the alliance at council’s office at Mount St. Mary College’s Desmond Campus in Balmville.

OSHA officials said they hope to help grow safety programs in the region and increase educational opportunities at local colleges.

“If an employer is very committed to their safety and health program, then their employees will see their employer cares about them so their employees will reciprocate and will definitely be more productive,” Cortez said. The employer will also see the effects on the bottom line. “You will have less injuries, less people out of work, won’t have to spend more money to retrain new employees to cover those areas where employees have been injured or left.”

Rocca said their biggest challenges include language barriers and inexperience of the many youth joining construction trades.  “For the most part, youth that join unions get proper training in safety through apprenticeships, but many of them that join non-union shops don’t get much safety training.  We’d like to see that effort increase.”

Cortez and Jerome agreed that the largest safety risks lie among construction firms, with manufacturing firms coming in “at a close second,” said Cortez.