NUCA’s Safety Awards: Where Is Your Company’s Award?

SafetyWORKS is a regular column highlighting NUCA’s William H. Feather Safety Awards winners. If you would like to be considered for these prestigious NUCA awards in 2024, please submit your entry by the end of December 2024. Award details can be found at nuca.com/safetyawards.

Safety is our industry’s number one priority on every jobsite. Over the last year, our magazine’s SafetyWORKS column highlighted the 2022 NUCA safety award winners in several categories based on manhours. We will do the same for our 2023 safety award winners, once they are announced at the NUCA 2024 Convention in Palm Springs, California, in late March.

This column started out as an idea from current NUCA leadership to highlight our association’s safety awards and the commitment to employee safety from each NUCA member. “Inspiration for other members” was the phrase used, and our volunteer leader was right about these unique industry awards and what they are meant to do when they are publicly awarded at our annual Convention.

The William H. Feather Award was created in 1978 to honor the contributions of the founding chairman of NUCA’s Safety Committee, William H. Feather, and to recognize excellent safety commitments demonstrated by other NUCA members. Each year since then, NUCA and the industry are proud of those who won these awards in each category.

We’re a competitive industry, sometimes head-strong, always thinking of business success, but when it gets down to what we have in common as NUCA members, we look out for our men and women on the jobsite.

Safety. Each of our award winners since 2021 wanted to tell their story to fellow NUCA members to inspire them to make their own company’s safety program an award-winner each day.

They had common traits across their company’s safety culture. Executive commitment to their company’s safety program, open communication and trust, reinforcement of basic safety messages daily, weekly and monthly, safety training, and safe equipment delivered that award-winning message to their workforce. And each award winner also said their company’s approach to safety enhanced their profits and business success. That’s the thinking behind Utility Contractor’s SafetyWORKS column.

Safety. A company commitment to a culture of safety in the workplace, plus a strong safety record in the last year, might just deliver some industry-wide recognition and inspiration from your own company’s achievements.

If you think your company safety program deserves a William H. Feather Safety award—and a SafetyWORKS column—NUCA strongly encourages each member with a superior safety record and program to submit an entry for the 2024 awards.

Any contractor member of NUCA who has maintained a strong safety record in 2024 will be eligible to submit an application through our website nuca.com/safetyawards. The list of supporting documentation for the award is available on the website, such as your company safety statement. a copy of your company’s OSHA 300 log, and 300A Summary for 2024. Applications for the 2024 awards open on November 1, 2024, and close December 31, 2024.

A panel of judges selected by the Awards Committee will evaluate the entries and select the overall winners. And please note by applying to this award, you are agreeing to send a representative to the 2025 NUCA Convention accept the award in-person.

NUCA will be highlighting each 2023 Safety Award winner in this column across the rest of the year. We hope you learn from your peers about their award-winning programs and what made them stand out and what techniques kept their men and women safe on the jobsite.

Safety. NUCA hopes your company’s safety program can also inspire other NUCA members throughout 2024 and beyond.

William H. Feather Safety Awards are judged in the following categories:

• Overall Winner
• 0-100,000 Manhours
• 101,001 – 200,000 Manhours
• 200,001 – 500,000 Manhours
• 500,001 – 1,000,000 Manhours
• 1,000,000+ Manhours