The Surreptitious Treasures of Safety

The mandatory Principles of cal/OSHAs Injury and Illness Prevention Program in the early 1990s - helped the company be better prepared when SSOP's and HACCP and its Principles of Prevention became mandatory in the late 1990s.

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By Steve Sayer

July 1998 - Occupational Hazards Magazine - Special Anniversary Issue - 60 Years Serving Safety

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In the 1991, the company that I worked for, Alpha Meat Packing Co. Inc., (AMP) faced a formidable task. We had to develop and implement from scratch a written Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) as per cal/OSHAs Senate Bill (SB) 198 requirements.

AMP is a USDA / FSIS inspected meat processor that manufactures case-ready pork, beef and lamb products for major retail outlets in California and Nevada. AMP employee 120 full-time people. As Vice-President of Operations / Human Resources along with Chris Pecci, our Vice-President of of Finance, and Regis Winter, Plant Manager, (pictured below at his 70th birthday - several Issac Asimov & Arthur C. Clarke earth orbits around the sun ago ... .) Director and HACCP Coordinator of our plant's food safety programs.

The benefits our company has reaped from SB-198 have far outweighed the costs and done little to substantiate the usual naysayers who warned of high maintenance costs, negative impact on production and more red tape. In fact, SB-198 has more than paid for itself and continues today to add to our company's bottom line.

BUILDING THE PROGRAM

During our initial preparation to meet SB-198 Jul. 1, 1991 deadline, we all three (3) attended several cal/OSHA workshops. We hired a safety and health consultant who assisted us to set parameters for our burgeoning IIPP. Still, we had had a lot of work, typing and printing ink ahead of us.

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In California every employer is required by law (Labor Code Section) to provide a safe and healthful workplace for his/her employees. Title 8 (T8), of the California Code of Regulations (CCR), requires every California employer to have an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program in writing that must be in accord with T8 CCR Section 3203 of the General Industry Safety Orders.

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Creating a customized IIPP program was important to us because we are in the meat industry - traditionally one of OSHAs Top Five (5) most hazardous industries. The working environment is wet, cold and the days are long (10 to 12 hours a day, six (6) days a week). Employees at AMP start early in the morning, (pre-operation at 3:00 am with production beginning at 4:00 am) while utilizing 10-inch razor sharp knives, B-16 band saws and liver slicers in an ambient environment of 36 degrees F., or lower.

We developed written Job Safety Analysis (JSA) for all specific job tasks involving production, sanitation, maintenance and shipping / receiving / driver departments, and painstakingly implemented them. A variety of new personal protective equipment (PPE) became mandatory for all departments. Monthly supervisor meetings were expanded to include a forum that updated important safety and health issues, such as recent injuries, recognized plant safety hazards and - near misses. We also purchased bilingual safety literature and distributed them out attached to their paychecks.

Soon, all of our forklifts were equipped with useful yellow flashing lights complemented by automatic back-up warning alarms. These and other new sights and sounds of industrial safety became a welcome additions to our occupational safety program. CPR and 1st aid training were started, which would later be combined with fed and Cal / OSHA's Bloodborne Pathogen Prevention Program. Lockout / Tag Out / Block out programs, Hazard Communication Program and mandatory job rotations in production were created and implemented.

We developed a new employee orientation program combining Good Manufacturing Practices with sound safety and health practices. This way, ALL neophyte employees would know exactly what is expected of them from their first day of employment and onward.

A $afety Pay$ Bingo Game was introduced. The $afey Pay$ Bingo Game rewards safe work practices and safety suggestions for all employees with gift certificates and congratulatory notes attached to their paychecks after "team safety goals" are met.

This incentive program helps keep safety up front every working day of the week. Chris Pecci, Vice-President (and a dogmatic stickler / teacher / preacher on the dire importance of Human Resources) of Finances for AMP is pictured below on the left. Regis Winter, with the red-colored 'casco' was the knowledgeable / clever Plant Manager and HACCP Coordinator and myself - some 23 years ago this April 2022.

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COST $AVING$ FROM OUR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH PROGRAMS WERE RE-INVESTED INTO OUR COMPANY TO HELP FUND NEW CONSTRUCTION AND TO MODERNIZE OUR FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT.

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Slowly, changes of company philosophy / culture concerning industrial safety and health from management through every most valuable line worker came about. Monthly bilingual (Spanish & English), "Safety Notes" were attached to each employee's paycheck and posted on high-foot-traffic area. Subjects have included; "Slips, Trips and Falls," "Working Safely with Forklifts, Powered - Jacks, and manual Hand Jacks,"Working Around Anhydrous Ammonia Safety," and "Workplace Violence."

INJURIES AND LOST WORKDAYS FALL

Since 1990, reportable injuries and lost working days have gradually been lowered. We trimmed our Cal/OSHA 200 log of reportable injuries by more than 85% from 1990 to 1997. During that same time, we lowered our worker's compensation payments (via our workers modification number that hit .60) by more than two-thirds as we received large workers' compensation rebates.

The rebates and cost savings derived from our safety and health programs have since been reinvested into our company to help fund new construction (walls, floors, FRP ceilings, overhead lights, production equipment, plastic upper and lower conveyors (instead of neoprene conveyors) and production lines with sound ergonomics in mind.

There have been several keys to our initial and ongoing success in lowering incidents of injuries and illnesses at out establishment. They include:

A crystal-clear message to employees, in several live and living color plant meetings conducted by Stan Fittinger, the company's owner, to maintain a safe and healthy workplace for all employees and plant visitors (vendors included).

Monthly safety and health training and education for all employees.

Management's continued proactive attitude towards safety and health.

Documented investigations of ALL injuries and illnesses, including near-misses.

A daily incentive program which involves every employee

Annual reviews of job performance of each employee with safety and health being included that would determine their pay raises.

Developing an "Employee of the Month" award of an employee picked by the Safety Committee that evinced their contributions and adherence to occupational safety and health. Monthly winner were given gift certificates with their picture placed on a high-foot-traffic bulletin board with all previous monthly winners.

Our company is presently working toward attaining Cal / OSHAs Voluntary Protection Program, ISO 14000 and ISO 9002 certifications. We're doing this because it is the right thing to do for our employees and the continued growth of our company.

FOOD SAFETY

In July 1996, a new federal law known as the USDA / FSIS "Mega Reg" was published in the Federal Register that shall greatly influence our business.

The first wave, Sanitation Standard Operational Procedures (SSOPs) took effect in Jan. 1997 and requires every meat and poultry establishment inspected by the USDA / FSIS to have written daily sanitation procedures before, during and after operations.

The 2nd wave involved Hazardous Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and pathogen reduction.

In May 1993, our company developed a voluntary in-house microbiological system / program / laboratory to monitor the integrity of our direct production surfaces and later on selected incoming meats using 3M company total plate counts and generic E. coli testing.

Four (4) months later, we introduced # ATP technology, which detects food residue in less than two (2) minutes on product contact services, which enabled AMP to perform both organoleptic and microbiological pre-operational reports that were presented prior to production proceedings to our assigned USDA / FSIS Inspector-In-Charge each and every production day. At the time (1993) AMP purchased its Bio-Trace ATP instrument for $10,000 dollars.

(# ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) is the primary energy carrier for all forms of life. The measurement of ATP concentration in a sample provides a direct assessment of biological concentration and health. ATP is quantified by introducing luciferase, the naturally-occurring firefly enzyme, into a processed sample and then measuring the light produced as a result of the reaction using a luminometer. The amount of light produced is directly proportional to the amount of ATP present in the sample.)

In late 1995, we hired an independent laboratory (Silliker Laboratories), to help us set parameters for our burgeoning HACCP Program. In Aug. 1996, less than ten (10) days after the publication of the Mega Reg in the Federal Register, our HACCP program was verified by their panel of experts. The laboratory performs semiannual audits of our HACCP program and quarterly environmental swab testing of our plant's interior areas.

AMP did not have to implement HACCP until the year 2000, but we did in 1996 - approximately four (4) years before we were legally mandated by USDA / FSIS.

Beginning in Sept. 1996, twelve (12) employees from:

Production

Shipping / Receiving,

-and sanitation, were sent to workshops held by the National Meat Association (NMA) and the HACCP Consulting Group - offered in both English and Espanol. This continuing education is supplemented with in-house training. Work smocks bearing a "HACCP Certified" patch, along with their names and company name were presented to these employees and their diplomas were mounted on a wall in a frequently traveled area.

Our industrial safety and food safety programs have blended well.

HACCP and our IIPP require accurate documentation and crystal clear verification procedures. Both systems / programs have the same ingredients for success; sound preventive protocols, verifiable documentation procedures and continued -in-house training / education - all fueled by Top Management commitment.

We developed our own unique trenchant aphorism:

"You can't have a safe plant unless its a clean plant, and you can't have a clean plant unless it's a safe plant."

PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY

There is a little difference when someone becomes seriously ill or dies, whether it resulted from an industrial hazard or an invisible lethal dose of a deadly food-borne pathogen.

The federal government estimates that more than 9,000 Americans die each year from food borne illnesses and over 1 million people become sick. Another 17 people are killed on the job each day and 16,000 are injured. Staggering figures, especially if that certain "someone," is your daughter or son or older relative whose immune system is compromised by age or acute or chronic diseases. Over the years, these problems and individual tragedies have move people to remarkable actions.

In 1906, Upton Sinclair published "The Jungle," a spellbinding account of the grim realities in Chicago's slaughter-houses. The stomach turning revelations of unsanitary and unsafe working conditions / practices in the meat industry caused a public fury that helped tremendously the Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906 later that same year.

Nearly a century later, in July 1993, 6-year old Alex Donley died just four (4) days after eating a beef patty cooked at his family's Chicago home. The hamburger was tainted with E. coli O157:H7 pathogen. Illnesses and death caused by E. coli O157:H7 were instrumental with moving forward to the "Mega Reg."

In January 1993, Americans ate on the order of 200 fast-food hamburgers every second. But as the public absorbed the meaning of the new E. coli O157:H7, it was beyond being appalled. The Jack in the Box outbreak, says the University of Georgia’s John Doyle, was “the powder keg blowing up.”

By April 1993, the Jack-In-The- Box toll from the outbreak was in from the CDC: 708 sickened, 171 hospitalized, 30 with hemolytic uremic syndrome - - - four (4) dead.

President Clinton proposed hiring 160 meat inspectors. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy poured some gas on the bon-fire and declared Zero Tolerance for fecal (ingesta and milk matter) contamination of carcasses.

Alex's mother and father have since dedicated themselves to Safe Tables Our Priority (STOP), an organization devoted to public education and policy advocacy for safe food and public health.

The non-profit group was formed in 1993, just prior to four (4) more children dying and more than 700 becoming sick / ill after consuming E. coli O157:H7 tainted hamburgers from Jack-In-The Box restaurant.

Nancy Donley (a dogmatic hero for food safety world-wide) is recognized by many as a leading proponent of improvement in both government and private food safety efforts. Nancy works in a volunteer capacity for STOP Foodborne Illness (formerly S.T.O.P.—Safe Tables Our Priority) and has served as its president for over 10 years.

Nancy serves on the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection.

And well - she should.

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In Oct. 1993, a young Pat Hayes was working in Alabama in a large grain silo doing a job called, "walking down in the corn." He was using a pick and shovel to clean off grain that was stuck to the bin walls - while an augur was turning under his feet. Suddenly, the grain gave way and he was smothered with several others under tons of grain.

Ron Hayes' father and his wife formed a nonprofit organization called FIGHT, (Families In Grief Together). They convinced OSHA to revise the Grain Handling Standard in 1996, providing enhanced protection to 250,000 employees in 24,000 grain facilities. Mr. Hayes quit his job to dedicate his time to OSHA reforms and to help other grieving families cope with losses of loved ones caused by industrial accidents.

In 1995, Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and OSHA Administrator Joseph Dear met with Hayes and his wife, Dot, and offered their personal apologies for the way OSHA investigated Patrick's death and for the insensitive manner in which the agency responded to his inquiry.

Wow. Goodness gracious ... .

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It should never have to come to the point that parents feel compelled to go on personal crusades for a safer food supply and a safer working environment - but it has.

Any company that prepares food / drinks for commerce should not be just regulatory driven regarding their food safety programs. The same is applicable for companies that temporize about the personal safety and health of their workers on the job.

These are the Surreptitious Treasures of Safety that selected companies are still not fully aware of - just yet.

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CLOSING 2022 BACK-TO-THE-FUTURE THOUGHTS

The time, monies and sheer efforts of many to plan, develop the proactive safety programs at AMP paid back dividends much, much higher than us "greenhorns / neophytes" had realized at the get-go.

It was all accomplished by Alpha Meat Company's owner, Stan Fittinger's sincere and consistent dogmatic commitment to a safe and clean plant.

One thing that was not mentioned within the article was when Stan Fittinger decided to have Berlitz School of Language show up at the plant several times a week during production and lunch (with provided meals) and teach English to our most valuable Latino workers.

When Stan was criticized about the monies he was investing and that some would leave the plant for a better opportunity. His rejoinder:

"That is fine. I had people help me, and I want to help others. I would and expect at the exit meeting with HR that the company team shall mention that we shall miss them and that we wish only continued successes wherever they move on to."

All of the workshops, seminars country-wide that Mr. Fittinger sent others and myself to - has without any doubt - been an education paid by Mr. Fittinger, for many, that led others to good paying jobs, and for me to form my own consulting and later on - GFSI / Humane Handling consulting / auditing LLC in 2000.

My Uncle knows very well how much I appreciated all that he did for others and myself - and our families - - - Post-Alpha Meat Packing, Inc., former USDA establishment #749.

Even working as Stan's Director of Clean-up when I was but 14 years old at Dick Armend's and his old Torrance, California mom and pop grocery was a privilege - as it was harbingers of things for others and myself to come... .

A unique company culture - and people - it all was - and I'm humbly thankful to have been a part of it - and - secure the life long friendship that was developed nearly two (2) decades with my former hard-working, time-consuming, dedicated mates.

It was a great wave while it lasted ... .

Trust me ... .

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