Note: This post was written by Vulcan GMS plant manager Danny Mercado.
Vulcan GMS does many things on a daily and monthly basis to help keep their employees safe.
At the beginning of every shift, there is a “toolbox talk” with all employees about a safety related topic. Managers, supervisors and employees discuss things such as safety responsibilities, hazard identification and communication, accident costs (direct and indirect), PPE (personal protective equipment) and ergonomics. Monthly activities include safety committee meetings that involve employees from all levels, safety open mic where employees can bring forward any concerns that they have and employee safety poster design contest and active shooter training.
With these activities, Vulcan has been able to define moral and humanistic responsibilities for all of its employees. Our employees have adopted a new approach to safety and have really begun to understand the safety culture that we are living and breathing every day.
Along with their own responsibilities and commitment, they also now understand the financial responsibility associated with unsafe practices. We talk about how indirect costs such as production delays, equipment damage and investigation time are all items that factor into the total cost of an injury. We discuss our regulatory responsibility and that we are leaders in environmental stewardship and will continue to do so.
Vulcan’s ongoing focus towards training and compliance has led to our employees recently reaching and surpassing 1,000 days without a lost-time accident. This has been achieved through hard work, training and execution of management systems. We will continue to look at additional perspectives on training, hazard identification, corrective action controls and how well we execute our systems.