“Linde has given me the freedom to grow the safety program here. They send me to all the safety classes I want to take and make sure I have everything I need to do my job.”
Ed Bernard is the Linde Safety Manager. His responsibilities include working between Ownership, Management and Labor to ensure a safe working environment for all employees by initiating and enforcing the Linde Company safety programs at every job site. He also facilitates Linde crew interaction with the general public and governmental monitoring agencies. Ed enjoys the fact that he is given full support by Linde management to perform his duties. As he says, “Linde supplies all of us managers with a very long leash. They expect us to know what we’re doing and treat us accordingly.” With the Marcellus shale boom, Ed’s job has grown in complexity and miles driven. “Now it takes hours to drive between all our job sites,” Ed says. “Plus the facts on the ground are different. Workers have more exposure to steep slopes and uneven ground. Also, larger pipes mean bigger pieces of equipment and that always leads to bigger potential problems.” Ed has a BS degree in Safety Science coupled with over thirteen years of continuous employment in the safety field, but he has something else as well. For the Bernards, safety is apparently a family affair, as both Ed’s dad and brother are safety directors, and all three went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Ed has been with Linde since 2002.