Summary Statement
A broad collection of tables and charts covering health and safety in the U.S. construction industry, as well as considerable economic and training data.
2007
Dedication
CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training launched its construction safety and health research program in 1990, when the organization was known as The Center to Protect Workers’ Rights. Since that time, CPWR has grown from an organization with one full-time employee to a world-renowned leader in its field. CPWR’s comprehensive construction safety and health program is focused not only on research, but also on safety and health training, medical screening programs, and related safety and health services. It serves construction workers, unions, contractors, owners/users, and other industry organizations with 40 full-time staff and a network of over 50 organizations under its umbrella.
Countless organizations and individuals have contributed to CPWR’s growth and success. However, two individuals were instrumental to CPWR’s development into the organization that exists today. These two men also coordinated activities that resulted in the publication of CPWR’s first chart book in 1997. We dedicate this fourth edition of The Construction Chart Book to them.
Professor John T. Dunlop of Harvard University, an internationally recognized expert on industrial relations who served as President Gerald Ford’s first secretary of labor, chaired CPWR’s Construction Economics Research Network (CERN) since its inception in 1993 to his death in 2003 at age 89. He visited CPWR for the twice-yearly CERN meetings for a decade, critiquing the ideas being discussed and pressing the network to make its work more relevant to the construction industry. He was dedicated and tireless, and under his direction members of the CERN became major contributors to the production of The Construction Chart Book, a practice that has carried-over to the publication of this fourth edition.
Dr. John F. Finklea (Jack), a former director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the Carter administration, served as scientific advisor to CPWR, and also secretariat of CPWR’s Technical Advisory Board (TAB), a board he helped create in 1992. The TAB consists of senior scientists who meet twice annually to review the scientific quality of CPWR’s work. Working in close collaboration with the TAB, he initiated the concept of CPWR-supported pilot research projects in construction, the genesis for CPWR’s Small Studies program that continues to thrive today. Dr. Finklea worked closely with CPWR staff and TAB until his death in 2000 at age 67. A process beginning under Dr. Finklea’s direction, the TAB continues to be a major contributor in the publication of The Construction Chart Book, reviewing the accuracy and quality of the data and narrative descriptions of many of the tables presented in this book.
We miss the support, intellect, energy, and good humor of both of these men. It has been an honor and a privilege to have their names associated with CPWR. In gratitude of their tireless devotion and commitment to the construction industry and it workers in general, and to this organization in particular, it is only fitting that we dedicate this book to the memory of these two great men who have done so much to make this publication possible.
