USW Local 340 – WestRock – Sheldon Springs, VT – Local Union Safety Committee Completes Two-Day Workshop under the USW’s Tony Mazzocchi Center’s “Preventing Fatalities and Improving Safety and Health in the Paper Sector” Project

On October 11th the USW Local Union 340’s leaders and safety committee members participated in the first day of training; on October 12th they were joined by management counterparts for the program titled “Increasing the Effectiveness of Labor-Management Safety and Health Committees.” Steve Sallman of the USW’s Health, Safety and Environment Department and Nancy Lessin of the USW’s Tony Mazzocchi Center provided the sessions.

Participants discussed strengths of their labor-management safety and health committee, such as labor and management members’ interest in the success of the committee by not just being a “fix-it” committee and tackling larger, more complex issues; and having representation from various departments; as well as challenges the committee faces such as scheduling meeting times due to shift work and how to complete action items.

The labor-management session fostered a great discussion among participants regarding their perspectives on various aspects of their committee, such as:

  • Developing processes for the committee to be regularly involved in research, reviewing hazardous substances and workplace change, investigating incidents and near misses, regular walk-around inspections and audits as well as keeping records, tracking progress and evaluating success.
  • Small groups collaborated on projects, choosing items that needed a long-term detailed plan for getting specific health and safety problems addressed, such as addressing problems associated with dust accumulation and improving training, including tackling “green-on-green” (new-training-newer)  training.
  • A self-assessment tool on labor-management health and safety committees; identifying key issues and beginning to plan for problem resolutions and making plans to increase the committees’ effectiveness.

The workplace has, and will continue to have, discussions on how to implement the items identified during the training program as well as how to accomplish the items identified with support of both union and management serving on the committee.

Participants’ comments following the sessions included: “Got the ball rolling getting management and union working together constructively,” “We got some good discussion going & identified common problems,” “Suggests ways both parties can contribute to health and safety success through the joint committee,” “Helped to widen the scope of the item to be looked at by our committee,” and “This is a welcome topic, I’m glad to see the union being active in this area, and taking initiative.”

See below for photos from the two-day training: