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 Printing Instructions
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Remarks Prepared for Edwin G. Foulke, Jr.
(Former Assistant Secretary of Labor, USDOL-OSHA)
VPPPA National Conference
Washington, DC
2:00 pm, August 27, 2007
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- Thank-you for that kind introduction. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Washington.
- I would like to thank:
- Mike Maddox and the VPPPA Board of Directors, and
- Davis Layne, your Executive Director,
…for inviting me but more importantly for their tremendous contribution to
employee safety and health and to the VPP.
Now, earlier this year, I asked our own Stan “Big Daddy” Hankin to make a film that would showcase
VPP across the country. We sure wish we could have gone to every VPP company, but Big Daddy said I’d
have to take out a home equity loan to come up with all the money!
So, for the last few months, Stan and his team have gone to a VPP site in every one of our Regions.
Wherever he went, Stan said it was clear…over and over again…VPP is THE PATHWAY TO
EXCELLENCE.
How about a round of applause for the VPP participants featured in our new video!
- What a great job! The enthusiasm and obvious pride shown in the video will help us spread the word
about VPP.
- As with all of OSHA’s efforts, the bottom line is fewer on-the-job injuries, illnesses, and
fatalities. Of course our goal is zero.
- This is an impossible goal for us to achieve on our own. It can only become a reality when we work
together through organizations like the VPPPA.
- I salute you as individuals, and as an association, for bringing us together to celebrate 25 years
of VPP. I also want to say thank you for all you do to allow millions of working men and women
throughout our country to go home every night safe and sound to their loved ones.
VPP WORKS
- VPP works. I know that. You know that.
- We have seen it time and again.
- Companies make the commitment to pursue VPP, and begin making changes to their safety and health
systems and culture.
- Employees get more involved in identifying hazards and finding effective solutions.
- Management commits the necessary resources.
- Managers and supervisors learn they will be held accountable for safety and health.
- The safety and health culture slowly starts to change.
- Employees and managers find themselves working together, in a spirit of cooperation and trust –
maybe for the first time.
- And as a result injury and illness rates start coming down – often dramatically.
- A little later I will have a surprise to share with you. This surprise involves some inspiring
evidence of VPP’s impact beyond the worksite.
SUCCESS STORY: OMAHA STEAKS
- Let me give you a recent example of VPP success. Omaha Steaks in Snyder, Nebraska, is a meat
processing plant.
- Most of us do not think about the working conditions of the people who produce those big, juicy
T-bones we like to throw on the grill. But, in reality, meat processing involves difficult and
hazardous work.
- In 2003, Omaha Steaks in Snyder had a Total Case Incidence Rate of 25.5. Too many of the plant’s
85 workers were getting hurt, especially from repetitive motion.
- By the time the OSHA team visited Snyder they found a workforce fully engaged in the effort to
keep everyone safe and healthy.
- Our VPP team found a plant where the injury and illness rate had plummeted 87 percent. And it was
OSHA's great pleasure to award them Star recognition.
VPP GROWTH
- Omaha Steaks’ achievement is not unique. OSHA is proud of all the hard-working men and women at
each VPP facility. They, including all of you, serve as models of safety and health excellence.
- Companies from more than 300 unique industries participate in VPP. But our 1,800 participants are
the tip of the iceberg. What if every worksite
in general industry, in construction, in federal agencies made a commitment to VPP? Would not that be
something?
- Here is what OSHA is doing to make this possible:
- For companies that need help developing VPP-quality programs, we offer OSHA
CHALLENGE. We call it our roadmap to VPP. We see some very encouraging results so far:
- Reported data show that, after just one year in Challenge, participants are experiencing average
rate reductions of more than 30 percent.
- The success of OSHA Challenge depends on having a supply of qualified Challenge
Administrators -- companies and other organizations willing to provide guidance to Participants.
This is one way you can support OSHA’s efforts to grow VPP.
- I am personally convinced of the tremendous potential of OSHA Challenge to change our nation’s
safety and health landscape -- so convinced that I am
challenging you:
- If you are here representing a VPP company, consider becoming an OSHA Challenge Administrator.
- As an Administrator, guide your suppliers, your contractors, your community’s small businesses
through the Challenge process and into VPP.
- If each of VPP’s current 1,800 participants volunteered for OSHA Challenge, and brought one
successful applicant, -- think of the impact.
- OSHA is fueling VPP growth in other ways, as well.
- Expansion within the construction industry is beginning to pick up steam. General contractors and
subcontractors can now apply for our VPP MOBILE WORKFORCE DEMONSTRATION for CONSTRUCTION. This
program is tailored for companies whose workforce moves from one project to another.
- VPP CORPORATE offers streamlined application
and approval processes that save time and resources -- for the applicant and for OSHA. This pilot is
for companies willing to commit a substantial number of their sites to VPP.
- Our six approved participants in VPP Corporate have brought a total of 116 facilities into the
Program through this pilot – the bulk of them have come in via the United States Postal Service. You
folks are doing a tremendous job and you can be very proud of your achievement.
- I am also pleased to announce that OSHA has received VPP Corporate commitments from Morton Salt,
Fluor Corporation, Delta Air Lines, and Parsons Corporation.
- FEDERAL AGENCIES have become a significant
factor in VPP’s current growth.
- Nine Federal agencies participate in VPP. There are currently 148 OSHA approved sites and 26
Department of Energy approved sites.
- NASA, Departments of Defense, Labor, Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services,
Transportation, Postal Service and Energy.
- In May 2003, the Secretary of Defense challenged the services to reduce injuries by 75 percent. To
achieve this goal, DOD embraced the VPP process. They even launched a VPP Center of Excellence to
pave the way.
- Some of the Navy’s largest shipyards now participate in VPP. The Army and the National Security
Agency also are flying VPP flags.
- Here at the conference, I will be signing a Partnership with the United States Air Force that
focuses on preparing for VPP.
- The Defense Logistics Agency deserves a special mention. Not only are they working to bring their
sites into the Programs; they also serve as an OSHA Challenge Administrator for sites outside of
their organization. Now that is the VPP way!
SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
- One way we are managing VPP’s dramatic growth is through our Special Government
Employees Program.
- As many of you know, SGEs are volunteers from our VPP companies. OSHA provides them with training
in safety and health systems management and evaluation techniques. They become qualified to serve as
full-fledged members on VPP evaluation teams.
- How many of you are Special Government Employees? If you are an SGE, please stand up and be
recognized.
- You are 800-strong and growing. You have served on more than 70% of all evaluations this year.
- Because SGEs are so important to VPP, 2 years ago we established an SGE of the
Year Award. This award recognizes a Special Government Employee who demonstrates exceptional
support, effort, and action on behalf of VPP.
- As I announce the nominees for the 3rd Annual SGE of the Year Award, would those individuals
please come up and join me here?
- Paul Kniskern, Curtis Lumber
- Larry Shaffer, International Paper
- Wayne Punch, Milliken & Company
- George Hall, AmerGen Energy Company
- Paul Savage, United Space Alliance
- Mike Pendergrass, Superior Industries
- Jimmy Jacquez, Morton Salt
- Robert Hafner, Rohm & Haas
- I think it is completely accurate to say we have a stage full of winners here. Let us give these
folks a big round of applause.
- Unfortunately, the Award can go to only one person. Therefore, it is my pleasure to announce this
year’s SGE of the Year: MIKE PENDERGRASS of Superior Industries.
VPP – HELPING TO KEEP AMERICA COMPETITIVE
- I want to thank and congratulate our SGEs. You help keep jobs in America.
- In his book, The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman talks about recent economic and technological
changes eliminating traditional barriers between nations.
- According to Friedman, these changes are causing people around the globe to be more interrelated
than ever before in the history of our planet.
- In this new, flatter, global playing field, American businesses need every competitive advantage
they can find – and a comprehensive safety and health program like you have in each of your
companies can give any business a leg up on the competition.
- Protecting employees leads to securing jobs, and keeping jobs in America makes our nation vital,
safe, and strong.
- For this, I applaud every VPP participant.
- Together, we can keep America safe and working.
CLOSING
- Now about that surprise I promised you. OSHA often claims VPP’s impact is felt beyond the
workplace. Imagine how Mike Rinaldi, at Hendrickson Trailer Suspension Systems’ Research and
Development Facility in Canton, Ohio – felt when his 12-year-old daughter Emily handed him this
video that she produced.
This video gives us a glimpse of how important one daughter feels about having her father work in a
safe workplace.
Let’s take a look.
- Isn't that something special?!
Emily and Mike, please stand for a big round of applause.
- Emily’s message is clear – a workplace committed to safety and health protects its employees, and
those employees take that commitment home to their families.
- VPP is America’s model for safety and health excellence. You, the men and women of VPP worksites,
can be confident that, each day, you will return home safely to your families.
- OSHA has a stake in VPP, and clearly, so do you. A big stake. I know you see the Programs in ways
that OSHA cannot. So please -- share with us your thoughts and suggestions about how we can make VPP
even better.
In closing, I would like to recognize and thank all of the members of the armed forces here today
who are working to keep all the service branches safe and healthy.
- Thank you for inviting me. Thank you for your service to VPP. Have a great conference!
END
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