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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
Nov 19, 2008 - 9:15:26 PM |
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 Blackanthem Military News, Robins AFB, GA. - The Voluntary Protection Program steering group was host this week to six briefings over Tuesday and Wednesday from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard representatives on their trials and tribulations in achieving Voluntary Protection Program Star Site recognition. The seminars were held at the Robins Conference Center.
Jerry Clineman, safety manager with the Center safety office, said the two Puget Sound reps were here because of the similarity of their experience with ours at Robins.
“They were on the safety hit list, and so were we,” said Mr. Clineman. Both locations were heavily criticized by their own service and by DoD for having terrible safety records. “When we heard their story we went to them. They became very successful, and we want them to share their story with us,” said Mr. Clineman.
“In 2001 we were declared by the Secretary of the Navy as having one of the worst safety records in the Department of Defense. Now we are one of the top 20 best sites, and we’ve won the Navy Secretary’s safety awards,” said Danny Haas, production process manager for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. According to Mr. Haas, the real change happened when senior management accepted responsibility, and created a labor-management partnership. “They empowered the employees, and gave them the keys to the car.”
The promotion of positive, proactive safety behavior is vital to Puget Sound’s success. “We recognize the proactive, not retroactive behavior. When an employee sees a problem, they immediately take action if they can, and don’t wait until after an accident or injury,” said Sheila Ross, Bremerton Metal Trades VPP union rep. “If what they see isn’t within their scope, they elevate it to management’s attention. There is no fear of reprisal,” said Ms. Ross. She also pointed out that there are monetary incentives for superior safety behavior at Puget Sound as well. Well over a million dollars was awarded in the last year.
“Since we’ve been through the worst of times, we have lessons learned that we can share through these seminars,” said Mr. Haas. “We know what it takes to change a culture in a major industrial activity.”
Mr. Clineman said VPP is a DoD-wide effort to create a positive safety culture through management commitment and employee involvement. It measures success in our safety and health programs. “VPP is about changing our culture. We are near the start of our journey, and we can learn a lot from our friends at Puget Sound,” he said.
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