| Mandatory Drug Testing
Thank
you for the coverage that the Ironworker Management Progressive
Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT) Drug & Alcohol program
received in the article "Unions Tackle the Costs of Drug
Use" (ENR 9/27 p. 32). But there is a discrepancy. The
IMPACT Drug & Alcohol program will not be a voluntary
program; it will be mandatory.
After the article appeared, I received
calls from union representatives and steel erection associations
questioning why this article referred to a "volunteer"
program. It is this feedback from the unions and associations
that shows the growing concern and need for a mandatory drug
and alcohol program in our industry.
Eric Waterman, CEO of IMPACT, formed
a drug and alcohol task force and asked me to be a co-chair,
along with Robert Banks of the Ironworkers District Council
of New England. Our committee met continuously for over a
year and a half looking at different union drug and alcohol
policies already in force. We combined the best of them, and
this resulted in a state of the art IMPACT drug and alcohol
program.
The research and development of
the IMPACT policy resulted in the current program we are now
using at Cornell. Our company had its first random drug testing
in June and the outcome was a 100% success. At Cornell, we
chose to do random testing on a quarterly basis. As the end
of the third quarter approached, we had two employees who
were not on the last random testing list come forward and
ask for help, admitting that they had a substance abuse problem
and needed to go into a program. Both individuals are now
enrolled in programs through our employee assistance program
and getting the help that they need.
Certainly, you can see how a volunteer
program would defeat the purpose.
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