History Of JWT
Built by Cambria Iron Works from 1909 thru 1911. Purchased by Bethlehem Steel in 1936 Completely integrated steel plant.
Blast Furnace – Not at JWT Steel Making – Not at JWT Billet Mills Cleaning Capability Wire Drawing Heat Treating Electroplating (1936) Nail and barbed wire manufacturing
Bethlehem shut the operations down in 1992.
History of JWT
Prior to the shut down, Bethlehem sold the rod mill equipment to Casey Equipment for resale.
JWT purchased the remainder of the Wire Mill in 1992 and began production in December of that same year.
JWT is a Union shop and the employees are represented by the United Steelworkers.
JWT employs 52 Salary and 210 Union Employees.
JWT Currently
JWT is comprised of nine departments. Each department or group of
departments has a manager. The Quality Department operates under
the Director of Quality.
JWT Current
The nine departments at JWT are: Shipping/Receiving/Heat Treating Cleaning Lines/Wire Drawing/Bundling Plating Maintenance Quality Assurance These departments operate under five
managers. Some managers have multiple departments.
Joint Safety Committee
Due to increasing cost of workers compensation insurance, our increasing OSHA recordable accident rate, and a fatality, JWT formed their Joint Safety Committee in 2007.
The original committee consisted of: Vice President of Operations Two (2) from Human Resources Five (5) Department Managers Fourteen (14) Hourly Employees from the 9
units.
Joint Safety Committee
In late 2009, our insurance carrier suggested that the joint safety committee become a state certified safety committee. This certification would lower our insurance premiums.
JWT received it’s certification in 2010. The state certification must be renewed
annually and this requires a two (2) hour recertification class.
Joint Safety Committee
Since the committee became State Certified, the actual committee only consists of four people.
There are two from management and two from the Union workforce.
The employees not chosen to be on the State Certified Committee still function as a part of the Joint Safety Committee as guests and also participate in the meetings.
Joint Safety Committee
In fact, we try to get three of the four different employees annually to serve as members of the State Certified Committee with the Safety Manager always on the committee.
We felt that this would keep the committee fresh and the same people would not have to serve every year unless they choose too.
Presidential Challenges
Reduce the OSHA recordable accident rate to “0”. We also received a mandate from our
company President. “If there is an accident that is borderline recordable I want it recorded and turned in to OSHA”. I don’t want any gray areas in reporting.
Make the mill at JWT a safe place to work.
Types of Accidents
The top three Leading Indicators for Preventable Accidents by frequency were as follows:
Strains and Sprains 28% Lacerations (Cuts) 19% Eyes injuries 16%
Types of accidents
Top three (3) leading injuries by cost were as follows:
Lifting (strains) Lacerations Contusions
Arm
s
Caugh
t in
Cuts
slip
s/fa
lls
Stra
ins
Stru
ck b
y
Other
0
5
10
15
20
25
2010201120122013
Injury by frequency
Frequency by Body Part
Arm
sBa
ckEy
es
Fing
ers
Hands
Head
Knee
Shou
lder
s0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
2010201120122013
2014 JWT ACCIDENT RATES
Hours OSHA Lost Work
Lost Work
Lost Work
Lost Work
All Injury
Lost Work
Lost Work
Severity
Severity
WorkedRecorda
bleAcciden
tsAcciden
ts Days Days Rate Rate Rate Rate Rate
Acciden
ts(Rest. Work)
(Time Off)
(Rest. Work)
(Time Off)
(Rest Work)
(Time Off)
(Rest. Work)
(Time Off)
1995 449293 69 19 549 31 8.5 244.4 1996 481777 76 4 301 32 1.7 125.0 1997 573738 74 10 324 26 3.5 112.9 1998 546312 51 6 133 19 2.2 48.7 1999 558114 47 6 127 17 2.0 41.7 2000 595000 47 3 7 16 0.9 2001 536235 40 6 20 35 298 15 2.2 7.5 13.1 101.92002 542891 43 1 29 4 633 16 0.4 10.7 1.5 213.82003 489514 30 0 22 0 622 12 0 9.0 0 2332004 506851 25 3 9 217 396 10 1.2 3.6 85.6 143.22005 496382 25 3 7 167 459 10 1.2 2.8 67.3 169.52006 494,534 23 5 6 73 157 9.0 2.0 2.4 29.5 58.22007 503,665 27 8 10 435 240 10.7 3.2 4.0 172.7 87.42008 498,973 20 7 4 80 94 8.0 2.8 1.6 32.1 34.52009 420,392 19 7 9 93 246 9.0 3.3 4.3 44.2 107.32010 512,695 16 9 7 385 141 6.2 3.5 2.7 150.2 50.42011 509,336 32 25 7 728 267 12.6 9.8 2.7 285.9 96.12012 502,476 20 15 5 270 67 8.0 6.0 2.0 107.5 24.42013 501,468 20 18 2 258 5 8.0 7.2 0.8 102.9 1.8
Safety Training
The first task the committee took on was training.
Every new hire begins with a week long safety orientation, which includes a truck safety course that ends with fork truck state certification test.
Every hourly employee at JWT is a certified lift truck operator.
Week two, covers all OSHA required training and Zero (0) Tolerance policies on Harassment, Work Place Violence and Drug /Alcohol training, prior to being placed on a job.
Safety Training
Once assigned to a department, the new hire spends another two days learning our HAZ COM Policy, our SOP’s and JHA’s.
After completing the required training, the new employee will be assigned with an experienced lift truck operator or job they will be assigned to and trained to do a particular job.
The employee will be evaluated by the department manager after the two week period.
If additional training is required, the employee(s) receive it.
Safety Training
Secondly, the safety committee developed SQP meetings. Safety Quality Production
These meetings are held monthly. Comprised of the Department Manager ,Safety
Manager and all hourly employees. These meetings allow the hourly workers to
address any safety, quality or production concerns that they have directly to the Department Manager and to the Union Safety Committee member.
Safety Training
The third thing the joint safety committee developed was a list of ten (10) safety topics that are delivered by the Department Managers and Safety Manager, at their monthly SQP meetings.
These classes include all OSHA required training.
Point of Interest: Our insurance carrier periodically sends a
representative to our safety meetings. This is a good source of obtaining information, videos and power point presentations to help with our training.
Monthly Safety Training Classes
January – HAZ COM/GHS June – PPE/Fall Protection
February – Truck/Hoist/Crane July – LaddersMarch – Lock Out/Tag Out October – Fire Extinguishers April – Confined Space November – Propane SafetyMay – Blood Borne Pathogens December – Arc Flash
August and September were set aside for any employee that have missed any of the Safety topics throughout the year and to review key issue about safety that has occurred throughout the year.
Walk Through
The fourth thing that the Safety Committee developed was the weekly walk through.
The Department Manager and the hourly member of the Joint Safety team would walk through their department and document anything that was unsafe.
These findings are then discussed at the Joint Safety committee monthly meeting.
Walk Through
See handouts
Walk Through
The walk through consisted of the following: General Condition – aisles, mirrors, floors Materials – rod coils, waste disposal Labeling – secondary container labeling Equipment –guards, safety switches, trucks Emergency Equipment – AED, first aid Blood
Bourne Pathogen kits Personal Protective – hard hats, glasses,
hearing, respiratory protection Housekeeping – general condition of
departments
Walk Through
Most items that are found during the walk through are corrected that day or within a reasonable time frame.
If there was a larger safety item, like a bad floor area that required some extra cost or extra manpower , these are placed on a action list .
Any item that makes the action item list, must be corrected within 30 days.
Walk Through
The weekly walk through the mill also benefited the safety team. It gave the hourly employees that were not on the safety team a chance to talk with management and their union representative, and get any of their concerns addressed at the safety meeting.
The weekly walks are the best fit for JWT because we operate around the clock.
Several departments operate 365 days per year.
Safety Observations
Finally, In conjunction with the walk through, our company President insisted that the Department Managers do semi-annual safety observations.
The observations were just the department manager watching an employee do a part of his job and see if he was doing it safely.
We currently do these observations and report the good with the bad.
Due to the success of the program, lately we report more good than bad.
Safety Observations
See Handout
Measuring Stick
So, how did we measure if the system was working?
Compensation Rates OSHA Recordable Accidents Severity Rates of Accidents Lost Time Accidents Restricted Work Accidents
OSHA Reportable Accidents
Again by the efforts of the Joint Safety Committee, our Safety Manager, Department Managers and the Union Workers on the floor we lowered our All Injury Rate from 31.0 in 1995 down to 6.2 at the lowest in 2010 and averaging 8.0 through 2013. OSHA reportable accidents from 76 in 1997 to 20 in 2013. We have had a few set backs over the years but continually strive to make JWT a safer work place.
Again our goal is “ZERO”.
Accident Reduction
Strains & Sprains
Most of these occurred while removing carriers from a stack.
Our receiving foreman came up with the idea of reducing the amount of carriers in a stack.
This simple change reduced accidents in this area by 20 %.
Strains & Sprains
These are called carriers.
Strains & Sprains
These carriers are usedto hold the wire when it comes off of a drawingmachine.
Strains & Sprains
These carriers used tobe sent to us with sixcarriers in a pack.
Strains & Sprains
With six carriers in a packthe carriers had to bepried apart. This pryingand pulling action is whatcaused most of the sprainand strain injuries.
Strains & Sprains
The solution to ourinjury problem was verysimple. Order thecarriers to be shippedwith no more than fivecarriers per pack. Thissimple change reducedthis type of injury by 90%.
Accident Reduction
Eye Injuries
In 2012, a team looked at safety glasses that fit tighter to a person’s face, especially under the eye where it meets the cheek, also all safety glasses are paid for by the company.
The team also had windshields installed on all of the trucks in the mill.
This simple change reduced accidents in this area by more than 50%.
New Style of Safety Glasses
Accident Reduction
Lacerations/Burns We have seen a upward trend in cuts
over the last year. In 2014, a team recommended that all
employees cutting banding must wear long sleeves or kevlar arm guards. The committee accepted the recommendation . We are very confident that implementing these action items we can reduce our cuts and lacerations.
Kevlar Arm Coverings
Insurance Premium Dividend
With the efforts of the Joint Safety Committee working with our Insurance Company and our hourly workforce at the end of 2013, we received a dividend from our insurance carrier due to the fact that our accident rates have dropped and stayed below the industry average.
Although in 2014 we have had some set backs in our All Injury we are working together to make JWT safer place to work for all employees .
Insurance Premium Reduction
Finally, by becoming a “State Certified Safety Team”, we also saved an additional 5% per year on our Worker’s Compensation Insurance premium. With these saving we re-invest for training and better equipment , to provide a safer work place for all of Johnstown Wire employees.
DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
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