Document KGmV7DpbD14Dn4BMVb9bL3VqK

Monsanto MONSANTO POLYMERS & PETROCHEMICALS CO. P. O. Box 1311 Texas City, Texas 77590 Phone: (713) 945-4431 August 23, 1976 TO ALL MONSANTO EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILIES From time to time, I have written you letters about plant activities of interest to all of us who work at the Texas City plant. Right now, I would like to bring to your attention a serious situation regarding the rising frequency of Serious Injuries within our plant. Serious Injury Frequency is the number of serious injuries our employees encounter per million manhours worked. This frequency of serious injuries is a good indicator of our safety performance. In previous years, we have shown that as the serious injury frequency rises, we increase the likelihood of having a major lost-time injury, and none of us in the Monsanto family want that to happen. We believe that we have a sound safety policy which states that "Every employee is entitled to a safe and healthful place in which to work. To this end, every reasonable effort will be made in the interest of accident prevention, fire protection and health preservation." I am dedicated to carrying out this policy throughout the Texas City plant. We have a strong safety organization at work implementing this policy. Every employee is involved in our safety programs one way or another, and we emphasize the individual employee's own responsibility for doing his or her job safely. Last year we ended the year with a Serious Injury Frequency of 5.6 which was the best record we had ever achieved at the Texas City plant. We continued to improve on this performance until we passed our previous all time record of 6.8 million manhours without a major injury, but after that something happened. We believe that we have experienced a letdown in safety awareness which has lead to an increased frequency of injuries among our people. The attached plot shows the Year-to-Date Serious Injury Frequency for 1976. During January and February, we reached an all time low in serious injuries and in the first quarter of the year, we went 61 days without a serious injury of any kind. We think that this reflects an attitude of safety awareness that made this fine record possible earlier in this year. However, the time has now come to redouble our efforts to avoid injuries of any kind -- much less major injuries. sc 14450 a unit of Monsanto Company LAM015042 2- This week, we are starting a new program aimed at increasing our safety awareness. The program is called "Safety Contact '76". It is aimed at achieving a high level of safety awareness and sensitivity to hazards on the job. In this program, everyone will be involved. We will be talking to one another on a person-to-person basis about what we are doing, what our hazards are, and what we have to do to do our jobs safely. In this program, we will emphasize the importance of existing safety practices and take advantage of your expert knowledge in how we do our jobs safely. I would like to enlist you and all the members of your family to help us increase the awareness of our employees to the hazards they encounter both on the job, around the home, or wherever they might be so that they can be alert and avoid the pain and suffering which would come from a serious injury. We have a fine record, but we have become complacent, and we will surely have a major injury unless we begin improving our safety awareness at once. I know I can count on all of you to join us in this effort to avoid injury. Sincerely P. E. Brubaker gk SC 14451 L AM015043 SERIOUS INJURY FREQUENCY TREND IS UP! 1976 sc 14452 LAM015044 HOURLY UNIT/CRAFT REPRESENTATIVES AND CONTACT SUPERVISORS REPRESENTATIVE David Reynolds W. G. Odom Wayne Crowson W. E. Bazemore C. R. Acb-terhof W. T. Norris Dan Nelson Frank Radler Leroy Wilson T. W. Bryce Adolph Kivich W. G. Trainer Ken Harris Clarence Coulston Dan Hogan Don E. Leach, Jr. W. A. Grimes J. D. Kemmerling Frank Thompson Mert Zeller W. H. McDonald Adolph Black Michael Lopez Milton Coleman Jesse Hernandez Raymond Dunquez Glen Brouillard Doug Heiser Ronald Albrecht Frederick Herauf Clarice Merryman SUPERVISOR 10D 13-14D 15-16D P2 24D 35F 35P 44-45-46D 50D 19-25D 33D 48-56D 5 3D ID SS-14 SS-12 SS-13 SS-14 SS-2 35 F SS-11 SS-8 LD LD 1Z SS-26 PEL CL-1 AB WG 0-1 John Carnes Bill Eldred Art Kalbow Albert Boone R. E. Watson B. A. Hambrick K. W. Gore M. T. Devore Noel Rickard W. R. Taylor George Chestnut T. J. Kennedy G. A. Hart F. A. Wisdom Sherman Jones J. M. Anderson Paul Siems J. S. McCurley T. H. Glover C. L. Puckett H. W. Scoggins H. C. McRae R. C. Williams E. M. Travis E. T. Grubbs B. L. Jacob G. LeGendre Joe Cantrell E. R. Albritton Laverne Chandler 10D 13-14D 15-16D P2 24D 35F 35P 44-45-46D 50D 19-25D 33D 48-56D 53D ID SS-14 SS-12 SS-13 SS-4 SS-2 SS-1 SS-11 SS-8 LD 1Z SS-26 PEL CL-1 AB WG 0-1 sc 14453 LAM015045