Document pe1E4Z9qxwOYJMqb2x3Gdz4Bw

1958 Xational Safety Congress fcrcncc of 1046 of joint union-managementgovermnent participation. This planned pro gram of cooperation was carried oat and the records will show :ha: during these last ten years, industrial accidents in the lumber in dustry ha\x been reduced by 68 per cent. This month is the 10th anniversary of the establishment of this program and 1 am happy to report that last year there was a 50 per cent reduction in fatalities and a 25 per cent reduction in time loss acadents. These are the dividends we seek from accident prevention programs: fewer people killed, fewer people hurt, and cleaner and letter and safer places in which to work. This program 1 speak of must be estab lished on a cooperative basis and, when all three partners in safety cooperate fully, the results are tremendous. In the opinion of the union, the respective responsibilities of management, government and the union should be dearly and correctly defined, and failure to do this will only result in chaos. Management has the legal and moral responsibility to organize and direct a safety progtam and to see that it is earned out. They must provide safe working prem ises, proper instruction of workmen, and adequate training of supervisors. One of the big reasons for the success of the safety program in the Pacific Northwest is that management is carrying out its obli gation, and h is our duty as a full partner in the program to see that he does. Management has gained a lot from safely. He saves money on his insurance costs, he saves money cm the protection of his equip ment and .material, he protects the invest ment by continuity cf production, and de velops better public and union relations--so we must believe that safety is good for man agement. Safety is good for us. too. We receive dmdcpds -- dividend? m human happiness and worker welfare, better and safer work ing conditions, and a better way to live. We started to build our safety program on a foundation of adequate, proper and complete hist aid standards. We made sure that every industrial unit had proper first aid facilities and personnel as required by the state regulations. We insisted that proper and swift transportation was provided for injured workmen by land, by sea and by air. We undertook to organize and set up a joint safety committee in every ojteraiion under contract with our union and that safety meetings will be held regularly at least onre a month without fail. As the program de veloped we sought and got adherence to the state regulations. We also proposed new one; and recommended them to the proper a:;* ihorilies, believing in the principle that then would be greater adherence to saicty roh - tliat wc helped to write. Thus it became necessary to work wi;`, the Workmens Compensation Hoard or the state enforcement agency. Titty- are alwai* available for interpretation of the safet\ codes. They proride expert advice and con sultation on mechanical and industrial safely problems. Many states and provinces rely upon their. i*ot safety posters and educational materia!. Field staff inspectors cover industrial unh and issue stop orders to anployerj whose equipment and/or work methods violate safety regulations. They are the keepers oi accident statistics, records of fatalities an-.* work exposure. They cannot make our industries sail places in which to work, however, regardlev oi size or sincerity of administration. In:*, they do make a full and great contributior. as a partner in this teamuork with !alor an*! management in safety. Many union theories were developed. Tilt end objective oi our safety program is thr development of a safety consciousness it: every worker tliat would protect him on tin job, on the highway, and in the hcmc. Wt believe that safety must `tan at the top. anJ :: you want a saiety-conscious worker you must give him a safety-conscious boss. Wc are of the opinion that safety must -tan a: the top and be carried right down throe*!: all sujiervisors and departments, right dow:: to the worker on the job. indeed, much o: the success of program and the result- obtained are due to this enlightened super vision. These are the things tliat wc believe in. No one -- no saicty director, no state in spector, and no supervisor can protect tfc? worker who is not interested m his owr protection. The hazards cf industrial unitwill always be there so it is very necessan that an educational program le adopted tha: will sell him the idea that safety is poo: for him. 6 Labor Safety Our work in the union safety program lecame so vast and complicated that it was necessary to appoint a safety director on a full-time basis to educate and train 'safety- committeemen and to coordinate safety ac tivities in the local unions. It was necessary' to organize a local safety council in every local union with its own safety director and to hold meetings on a regional basis every three months. The union l-ohry is developed and recommended by resolutions at our annual union meeting and when adopted, becomes official union policy*. Indeed I am happy to state that the I.W.A. i tire only union in North America that has its statement of policy* on paper and is used as a guide by all its local unions. The educational plan is carried out through < ur media of propaganda by our union newsjaper, our radio time, and television, h is duty of the safety director to conduct lec ture* and safety talks in plants and logging ramps. This has resulted in the development oi an attitude and a climate tor safety in *.hi- industry. The institution of this program was most difficult due to the fact that there were no footsteps to follow and progress in this field of union endeavor had to be established step bv step. As a union safety director, I do not class myself as an "expert" in industrial safety. Personally, 1 believe there is no such thing. Some state inspectors and company directors often make this mistake of setting them selves up as experts, but I believe that the worker himself, with his skill, his knowledge and experience, the narrow escapes he has m day-by-day exposure to tiic hazards of his own work is far better qualified as an "ex pert," once he has accepted the idea that safety is good for him. When workers pro tect themselves and each other by cooperating and sharing these things we will have made much progress towards accident-free oper ations. It is my firm opinion that the answer to the problem of the prevention of industrial acadents lies in the efforts of union, man agement and government together. By JOHN GRUDEN Director, Heahh and Safety Department, Ford Local 600, U-A.W,, Dearborn, Midi. Tlie Ford Motor company's Rouge Plant i -cated in Dearborn. Midi, is the only auto mobile plant of its kind in the world--the <*n1v one which can. within its confines, start at one end of the line with iron ore and have a nice, shiny new* car roll off the other end i the line. To give you some idea of its magnitude, the Rouge Plant is situated on 1200 acres of land and is comprised of 16 -eparate plants within the Rouge Plant proper. Each of those 16 plants, or "umts" is wc refer to tliem. is also quite vast. For example, the power house, which supplies l*ower for the plant, generates enough elec tric current to provide power for al! the homes in Boston. The transportation unit lias HO miles of railroad tracks with 22 diesel locomotives, and. boats that bring in two million tons of iron ore a year. There are also 61 miles of c<mveyor lines and the Rouge Plant has its wn inter-plant Inis system. The coke ovens produce approximately .',500 tons of coke daily, a blast furnace produce* 3200 tons of steel daily, an electric furnace produces 18,000 tons of steel a month, and the open hearth produces 5.000 tons of a special kind oi steel daily. The roll ing mill has an output of approximately onehalf million tons of steel a month. Then there are other plants such as the foundries, the glass plant, the world's largest stamping plant, the engine plant frame plant and assembly plant. For the employees' protection there is a plant hospital within the confines of the Rouge Plant which has a staff of 171, in cluding 12 doctors and 30 nurses. One hun dred ten acres of space is utilized for park ing lots which provide enough space for 21,000 automobiles. This should give you some idea of the vastness of the Ford Rouge Plant Now I would like to give you a brief back ground of Ford Local 600, UAW, to ac quaint you with the largest local union in the world.