Hilda Solis was confirmed as Secretary of Labor one year ago this month, February 24. Her boss, President Obama, has long since seen his honeymoon end. Now he’s tanking in the public approval polls and being widely chided in the press, and I don’t only mean Fox News, as being an indecisive leader. One news magazine put him on the cover next to Jimmy Carter. Nuff said.
I don’t think anyone in the occupational safety and health world would today call Hilda Solis indecisive. Maybe other things — too aggressive, polarizing, overreaching, pro-union — but not a smooth-talking do-nothing.
For my money, one year into her job she is the most decisive Labor Secretary, when it specifically comes to OSHA affairs, I’ve seen since Elizabeth Dole in the Bush 1 administration.
There really are not many decisions a Labor Secretary has to make about OSHA. The agency’s budget of about $550 million is small potatoes compared to the total Department of Labor budget of about $117 billion (the majority to be used for unemployment insurance benefits for displaced workers and federal workers' compensation). The department's discretionary budget is about $14 billion. One decision is: how much of a leash, how much freedom, to give the assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. Two: Do you have the back of your OSHA boss? Will you provide political cover?
A former high-ranking OSHA official told me years ago: The OSHA chief is only as strong as the Labor Secretary allows him or her to be. Jerry Scannell once told me he wouldn’t have taken the OSHA chief job if not for a pre-hire talk with Elizabeth Dole that convince him he’d have her cooperation, that they were on the same page.
John Henshaw, I’m told by people close to him, would have loved to do more at OSHA than sign alliances and preside over VPP flag raising ceremonies. John would never so say publicly, but he was the right man at the wrong time during his OSHA years. His boss, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, basically ran a STOP OSHA campaign out of her third floor office in the Frances Perkins building. John didn’t stand a chance. As he said publicly more than once, you’ve got to sail with the prevailing winds.
The winds have changed 180 degrees since Ms. Solis took over. Even before Jordan Barab was named acting OSHA chief last April, she had made decisive moves regarding OSHA.
In her first 100 days, according to a summary provided on the DOL web site “in addition to undoing past actions by the Bush Administration, Secretary Solis has taken several important steps to further protect and promote the welfare of workers. The Department made significant strides forward in the development of rule addressing diacetyl by initiating a Small Business Advocacy Review Panel for occupational exposure to food flavorings containing the chemical. Diacetyl is a food flavoring most notably used in the production of microwavable popcorn and has been associated with the development of sometimes fatal respiratory illnesses in workers exposed to it, producing a condition popularly referred to as ‘Popcorn Workers Lung’."
The first budget from Secretary Solis “restores the Labor Department worker protection agencies' staffing so they can vigorously enforce the laws they oversee…”
From January 20, 2009 to April 15, 2009, OSHA conducted 8,804 inspections, issued 21,166 citations for violations and levied nearly $27 million in penalties.
When the fiery Barab came aboard, Ms. Solis accompanied him to the annual conference of the American Society of Safety Engineers in June. I have to go back to Elizabeth Dole again to recall a safety meeting where both the Labor Secretary and the OSHA chief gave speeches.
At the ASSE meeting, Ms. Solis and Mr. Barab came out swinging, stunning and scaring the cautious pragmatism of many of the safety pros attending. They both literally used fightin’ words. Join with us, partner with us in this fight for better working conditions. “My parents instilled in me many values - but most importantly they taught me to fight for what is right,” said Ms. Solis. “These are the values I bring with me to the Department of Labor.” The message couldn’t be clearer: the sheriff is back in town. SWAT teams will swoop in on Texas construction contractors. VPP is no longer a sacred cow. Industry recordkeeping is going to be scrutinized. So are state plan OSHA programs.
Ms. Solis told the ASSE crowd: “OSHA's renewal of vigorously enforcing its standards and regulations means employers will no longer be able to say that it costs too much or takes too much time to address worker safety and health. There will be no excuses for negligence in protecting workers' from injury, illness and death.
“OSHA's leadership and I are of one voice, advocating vigorous enforcement of laws that protect workers. We are committed to a strong federal role in protecting workplace safety and health, as mandated in the original Act that created the agency.”
That “one voice” is not simple rhetoric. In a January 2010 speech, OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels said with a similar tone of assertion “We're a regulatory and enforcement agency and we're going to act like it.”
It’s far too soon to judge Dr. Michaels. But I give Ms. Solis a solid “B” for her first year overseeing OSHA. As safety activist Ron Hayes told me the other day, “You’d never see OSHA posting fatality cases on its website before now.” I like the new transparency. I like that the Secretary of Labor actually discusses occupational safety and health in her speeches. That she doesn’t reserve her only comments to gloating over another annual decline in workplace injuries. That she’s allowing standards to move forward on global harmonization of hazcom labels and data sheets, confined spaces in construction, silica dust. That she talks with passion about job safety. That she doesn’t look at OSHA and see kryptonite.
As even my most liberal friends used to say about Ronald Reagan, you can agree with him or disagree with him, but you know where he’s coming from and he only does what he said he’d do.
I call that leadership. What do you say?
Friday, February 19, 2010
Fast food, hotels, health services, theme parks and retailers: Why so mum about job safety?
There are more than 2,300 worksites enrolled in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program. Only 29 are health services. Two are amusement and recreation services. Two are hotels and lodgings. Four are retailers, representing L.L. Bean and Amazon.com. One is a general merchandise store and one is a food store.
ORC Worldwide’s safety and health consultancy in Washington, D.C. is one of the largest and most reputable in the country. Of the types of services mentioned above, only Disney, Hospira, Inc., and the ServiceMaster Company are ORC members.
Where is Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, Loew’s, with their warehousing hazards? Where are the thousands of hospitals and nursing homes with their fire safety, lifting, needlestick and housekeeping hazards? Where are the theme parks with their pushing the envelop thrill rides? What about fast food chains with their hot grease, cramped kitchens and high turnover? Even pizza delivery services with their scrambling drivers.
I found none as sponsors of the Auditing Roundtable in Phoenix or the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI). I checked the client lists of Behavioral Science Technology, Safety Performance Solutions, and DuPont Safety Resources; hundreds of companies are listed. DuPont lists three retailers. None of the big box chains or national fast food chains. Same goes for healthcare systems and entertainment companies.
According to the web site themeparkinsider.com, “In the United States, no official source is keeping a complete national record of theme park accidents. And in many U.S. states, including Florida, theme parks are not legally required to report accidents involving injury to anyone”
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions has an annual Safety Week and a traveling safety institute educational program. The IAAP does not make its membership list available to the public.
Same goes for the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, or IAHSS, which bills itself as “the only organization solely dedicated to professionals involved in managing and directing security and safety programs in healthcare institutions.” Its membership directory is for members only.
I checked out Home Depot’s website and found a raft of information on “Home Depot and the Environment,” but couldn’t locate any safety and health metrics or summaries or success stories.
Takes forever to load Wal-Mart’s website with all the graphics. Here’s a tip, if you want scoops on Wal-Mart corporate, google Wal-Mart corporate. Like Loew’s Wal-Mart uses sustainability far more that anything relating to workplace safety and health to build goodwill and embellish its corporate citizenship.
Wal-Mart’s web site lists all sorts of do-good activities: disaster relief, military support, “meaningful strides to zero waste,” reducing global plastic shopping bag waste, diversity, charitable giving, empowering female factory workers in Bangladesh, a program called “Acres for America,” greater affordability of healthy foods for all Americans. One sentence in the company’s sustainability annual report mentions assisting overseas suppliers improve conditions on the factory floor. I searched the Wal-Mart site for “occupational safety and health” and came up with a 2008 press release on a distribution center getting VPP recognition and the health and safety requirements (PPE, MSDSs, etc.) for company suppliers.
I’m not saying Wal-Mart has a suspect safety program. Same goes for other companies and industries mentioned here. I just don’t know. I find very little info available. If YOU know more, let me know, and I’ll share it in a future post.
It’s strange that for a service-driven economy, service companies don’t talk about safety. One of the countries main exports today are films and TV shows, yet you find very little about entertainment industry safety practices. We don’t make many things anymore, but we sure know how to package and sell (Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Loew’s, Best Buy et al). Yet I can’t recall a safety and health pro from one of these retailers presenting at a safety conference. I’m sure they have, but nowhere near in proportion to the economic influence they wield. Fast food is part and parcel of the American lifestyle, but again, I’ve heard little about their safety records or practices. Healthcare is the 8,000 pound gorilla of the economy, but while patient safety becomes a larger and larger issue, worker safety gets no press.
Strange and perhaps unsettling, occupational safety and health is not a visible nor widely discussed component of many of America’s most dynamic industries in 2010. Quite possibly these firms consider their workplace risks unique and separate from traditional manufacturing, and believe they have little to learn from construction and production safety and health programs. Perhaps, like other industries, they benchmark safety behind closed doors.
But I ask you, has safety lost its way in the 21st century economy? If you have evidence otherwise, bring it on.
ORC Worldwide’s safety and health consultancy in Washington, D.C. is one of the largest and most reputable in the country. Of the types of services mentioned above, only Disney, Hospira, Inc., and the ServiceMaster Company are ORC members.
Where is Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, Loew’s, with their warehousing hazards? Where are the thousands of hospitals and nursing homes with their fire safety, lifting, needlestick and housekeeping hazards? Where are the theme parks with their pushing the envelop thrill rides? What about fast food chains with their hot grease, cramped kitchens and high turnover? Even pizza delivery services with their scrambling drivers.
I found none as sponsors of the Auditing Roundtable in Phoenix or the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI). I checked the client lists of Behavioral Science Technology, Safety Performance Solutions, and DuPont Safety Resources; hundreds of companies are listed. DuPont lists three retailers. None of the big box chains or national fast food chains. Same goes for healthcare systems and entertainment companies.
According to the web site themeparkinsider.com, “In the United States, no official source is keeping a complete national record of theme park accidents. And in many U.S. states, including Florida, theme parks are not legally required to report accidents involving injury to anyone”
The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions has an annual Safety Week and a traveling safety institute educational program. The IAAP does not make its membership list available to the public.
Same goes for the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, or IAHSS, which bills itself as “the only organization solely dedicated to professionals involved in managing and directing security and safety programs in healthcare institutions.” Its membership directory is for members only.
I checked out Home Depot’s website and found a raft of information on “Home Depot and the Environment,” but couldn’t locate any safety and health metrics or summaries or success stories.
Takes forever to load Wal-Mart’s website with all the graphics. Here’s a tip, if you want scoops on Wal-Mart corporate, google Wal-Mart corporate. Like Loew’s Wal-Mart uses sustainability far more that anything relating to workplace safety and health to build goodwill and embellish its corporate citizenship.
Wal-Mart’s web site lists all sorts of do-good activities: disaster relief, military support, “meaningful strides to zero waste,” reducing global plastic shopping bag waste, diversity, charitable giving, empowering female factory workers in Bangladesh, a program called “Acres for America,” greater affordability of healthy foods for all Americans. One sentence in the company’s sustainability annual report mentions assisting overseas suppliers improve conditions on the factory floor. I searched the Wal-Mart site for “occupational safety and health” and came up with a 2008 press release on a distribution center getting VPP recognition and the health and safety requirements (PPE, MSDSs, etc.) for company suppliers.
I’m not saying Wal-Mart has a suspect safety program. Same goes for other companies and industries mentioned here. I just don’t know. I find very little info available. If YOU know more, let me know, and I’ll share it in a future post.
It’s strange that for a service-driven economy, service companies don’t talk about safety. One of the countries main exports today are films and TV shows, yet you find very little about entertainment industry safety practices. We don’t make many things anymore, but we sure know how to package and sell (Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Loew’s, Best Buy et al). Yet I can’t recall a safety and health pro from one of these retailers presenting at a safety conference. I’m sure they have, but nowhere near in proportion to the economic influence they wield. Fast food is part and parcel of the American lifestyle, but again, I’ve heard little about their safety records or practices. Healthcare is the 8,000 pound gorilla of the economy, but while patient safety becomes a larger and larger issue, worker safety gets no press.
Strange and perhaps unsettling, occupational safety and health is not a visible nor widely discussed component of many of America’s most dynamic industries in 2010. Quite possibly these firms consider their workplace risks unique and separate from traditional manufacturing, and believe they have little to learn from construction and production safety and health programs. Perhaps, like other industries, they benchmark safety behind closed doors.
But I ask you, has safety lost its way in the 21st century economy? If you have evidence otherwise, bring it on.
The Toyota recall: Why consumer products companies can’t ignore safety
It’s a matter of trust. Safety-related problems are trust-busters for businesses like Toyota. These companies rely on consumer trust in their wares as an essential to building brand loyalty, brand reputation, and of course sales, market share and profits.
Safety issues become an even more significant trust-buster when they go so far as to endanger the lives of unsuspecting customers, as in Toyota’s case when brakes might fail.
I’ve long thought that safety and health pros working for consumer products companies enjoyed unique leverage. Not that they have the perfect safety job; there is no such thing. But think about it: a food company, a healthcare products company, an automaker, all depend on relationships with the public to make a profit. The same goes for airlines, as another example. Any internal screw-up in design, manufacturing, maintenance, operations or quality control that ends up threatening the health, well-being and even the lives of consumers of those products and services is a major blow to the unspoken but taken for granted trust in the safety of what that company delivers.
This is why pharmaceutical companies can’t ignore safety. Remember the Tylenol crisis? Of course you can find flaws in their safety and health programs; you can find flaws in any safety and health program if you look hard enough. But the fact is many of the long-time standard-bearers of strong safety programs are companies that have ties that bind to consumers: Ford, GM, Proctor & Gamble, Delta Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, Kraft Foods, Disney, FedEx, UPS, AT&T, GE, Kimberly-Clark.
One of the reasons for the explosive growth in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program in the past ten years is the use of the VPP flag as a sort of seal of good housekeeping endorsement, a visible and promoted display of safety as a company value to help build trust with customers. Look at some of the leading participants in VPP — Delta, GE, Frito-Lay, Sherwin-Williams, L.L. Bean, Monsanto, Honeywell, Georgia-Pacific, L’Oreal, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Milliken, ExxonMobil. With few exceptions, these companies score high in terms of consumer recognition.
Companies that operate off of the public’s radar screen are less likely to be found in the ranks of VPP. Of 2,329 work sites in the VPP at the end of 2009, only 32 are in the primary metals industry; 54 in the fabricated metals industry; 45 in instrument manufacturing. I’m not saying good safety and health programs are not found in these types of industries — good safety programs can be found anywhere you have a CEO who wants good safety, where good labor-management relations exist, and good safety and health expertise is on hand.
But recall McWane, the pipe, fittings and valve company whose many safety failures were documented several years ago by The New York Times, or AK Steel, whose series of fatalities go back even further. These are examples of the “upstream” supply channel nuts-and-bolts manufacturers who produce industrial raw materials and commodity hardgoods out of the public eye. Both McWane and AK Steel took steps similar to what Toyota has announced after their safety problems became public knowledge: top-to-bottom organization reviews, blue-ribbon safety panels, cooperation with regulators, more open safety communications.
Last Sunday more than 100 million people watched the Super Bowl and an hour’s worth of commercials. By the way, if spineless wimpy males, squawking chickens and snarky beer guzzlers are best that the most creative advertising minds in the country can come up with, advertising is mired in a deep recession of ideas. But I’m off point. The commercials were all about branding. We live in the age of brand power. And for some safety and health pros, that’s a distinct advantage.
What do you say?
Safety issues become an even more significant trust-buster when they go so far as to endanger the lives of unsuspecting customers, as in Toyota’s case when brakes might fail.
I’ve long thought that safety and health pros working for consumer products companies enjoyed unique leverage. Not that they have the perfect safety job; there is no such thing. But think about it: a food company, a healthcare products company, an automaker, all depend on relationships with the public to make a profit. The same goes for airlines, as another example. Any internal screw-up in design, manufacturing, maintenance, operations or quality control that ends up threatening the health, well-being and even the lives of consumers of those products and services is a major blow to the unspoken but taken for granted trust in the safety of what that company delivers.
This is why pharmaceutical companies can’t ignore safety. Remember the Tylenol crisis? Of course you can find flaws in their safety and health programs; you can find flaws in any safety and health program if you look hard enough. But the fact is many of the long-time standard-bearers of strong safety programs are companies that have ties that bind to consumers: Ford, GM, Proctor & Gamble, Delta Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, Kraft Foods, Disney, FedEx, UPS, AT&T, GE, Kimberly-Clark.
One of the reasons for the explosive growth in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program in the past ten years is the use of the VPP flag as a sort of seal of good housekeeping endorsement, a visible and promoted display of safety as a company value to help build trust with customers. Look at some of the leading participants in VPP — Delta, GE, Frito-Lay, Sherwin-Williams, L.L. Bean, Monsanto, Honeywell, Georgia-Pacific, L’Oreal, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Milliken, ExxonMobil. With few exceptions, these companies score high in terms of consumer recognition.
Companies that operate off of the public’s radar screen are less likely to be found in the ranks of VPP. Of 2,329 work sites in the VPP at the end of 2009, only 32 are in the primary metals industry; 54 in the fabricated metals industry; 45 in instrument manufacturing. I’m not saying good safety and health programs are not found in these types of industries — good safety programs can be found anywhere you have a CEO who wants good safety, where good labor-management relations exist, and good safety and health expertise is on hand.
But recall McWane, the pipe, fittings and valve company whose many safety failures were documented several years ago by The New York Times, or AK Steel, whose series of fatalities go back even further. These are examples of the “upstream” supply channel nuts-and-bolts manufacturers who produce industrial raw materials and commodity hardgoods out of the public eye. Both McWane and AK Steel took steps similar to what Toyota has announced after their safety problems became public knowledge: top-to-bottom organization reviews, blue-ribbon safety panels, cooperation with regulators, more open safety communications.
Last Sunday more than 100 million people watched the Super Bowl and an hour’s worth of commercials. By the way, if spineless wimpy males, squawking chickens and snarky beer guzzlers are best that the most creative advertising minds in the country can come up with, advertising is mired in a deep recession of ideas. But I’m off point. The commercials were all about branding. We live in the age of brand power. And for some safety and health pros, that’s a distinct advantage.
What do you say?
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