Safety is job #1

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April 30, 2008

Kingsford employees work together to make site accident-free

By BRAD DICKERSON The Glasgow Daily Times Wed Apr 30, 2008, 01:27 PM CDT

GLASGOW — When it comes to safety at Summer Shade’s Kingsford charcoal facility, no employee is above a friendly reminder.

Plant manager Rob Service was the recent recipient of such a pep talk while he was sawing a pallet in half. He thought he was fully protected since his safety glasses, hard hat and hearing aids were all in place.

Someone else, however, thought differently.

“A fork truck operator came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. I stopped what I was doing and he said, ‘I was watching what you were doing and do you think you should be wearing some gloves because of the vibration off the saw?’” Service said.

“I think he was right (and) I put the gloves on.”

This notion of looking out for everyone on site has allowed the Kingsford plant to celebrate two years without an injury. The employees celebrated with an April 19 luncheon and the unveiling of a new patriotic flag area for public events that was constructed by the 14-member safety committee, a press release stated.

“Our most important asset is our great people and keeping our folks safe is our key responsibility,” said Don Knauss, chairman and CEO of parent company Clorox. “Summer Shade has clearly made that a reality.”

The plant has come a long way in three years, when it had the worst safety record in the Clorox company.

“We had six injuries in a 12-month period,” Service said.

A plant meeting was conducted for the 92 employees to discuss what needed to be done. Service asked what he, as plant manager, was not providing to help make them safer.

In the end, one employee stood and exclaimed, “It’s not you, it’s us. We’re not paying attention.”

Service then began meeting with every employee one-on-one to discuss what their commitment to safety was.

Through those discussions, two key promises were hit upon: “I will do everything I can to support the safety systems here and work as safe as I can” and “I will look out for everyone else on site.”

“What came out of that was everyone’s personal commitment that safety was their responsibility,” Service said. “We don’t have rules that say, ‘Thou shalt.’ We have two promises that say ‘I will.’”

Their new commitment incorporates an active incident investigation program, where employees are required to hand in at least one “near miss” per quarter.

“Our belief is that you’re experiencing multiple near misses and the key to a safe workplace is knowledge and information and hazard a-wareness,” Service said.

Employee Chad Ford said the company also stresses stop observation cards, where colleagues observe another person’s behavior toward being safe and then grades them.

“We like to go home the way we came to work,” fellow Kingsford employee Daniel Cole said.

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