Skill Safety
Playing it Safe
The only thing Don Croff and Dan Rotar would like to see climbing in the Ford Van Dyke plant is the facility’s safety score.
That’s why, as the UAW’s health and safety representatives at the Sterling Heights, Mich., plant, they want work brought down to ground level, instead of having skilled-trades workers climb on top of machinery or use harnesses to get the job done.
“We do what we can to prevent those kinds of situations,” Croff said.
The Van Dyke plant was recently honored for having the highest fall-protection safety score in the Ford system.
Each year more than 100,000 people suffer disabling injuries as a result of workplace falls, according to the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). And with three skilled-trades fatalities due to falls last year, fall protection remains critical in the UAW’s safety program.
The plant’s 1,638 UAW workers make transmissions for the Windstar minivan, Taurus and Mercury Sable. They also manufacture components such as knuckles, rear support arms and spindles for assembly plants.
“We’re very strict here,” Local 2280’s Croff said. “It’s costly for the company, but it’s money well spent. We’ve got a good working relationship here, and most of the time they work with us.”
The keys to a good fall-protection program are eliminating the need to climb in the first place, making the area as safe as possible if climbing is necessary, and using harnesses properly.
Eliminating the need to climb generally means bringing the job down to ground level. For example, a coolant fill valve for a drilling machine was eight feet above the ground, so workers had to climb on it to add coolant. Skilled-trades workers added a pump and relocated the fill valve to floor level.
When new equipment is being considered, Croff and a management representative go to the manufacturer to ensure that everything is done to reduce the need for work at heights.
“We have to sign off on every piece of equipment in here,” he said.
Of course, there will always be a need to work at heights. Safety professionals try to improve fall protection by adding guardrails and walkways when possible. When a gantry was purchased without a platform for skilled-trades workers to service it, the UAW pressed for one to be installed, costing Ford $19,000.
Anytime a worker must climb, a supervisor must ensure there is no other way to get the job done. If a worker has to ascend more than six feet off the floor, a harness is required, Croff said.
“There’s no walking or climbing (without a harness) on the tops of presses without guardrails,” he said.
Taking shortcuts such as bypassing lockout procedures isn’t tolerated.
“We take lockout very seriously,” Croff said. “Lockout proceedures are in place to keep our workers safe.”
Working from harnesses requires extensive training and stamina. Workers can tie off on cable lines strung from steel supports in the roof. They use retractable lifelines of 25 and 50 feet to access jobs.
Should an accident occur and a worker needs rescuing, the plant’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) is ready. Ten highly trained people can be at the site within a minute. Ford spent about $100,000 on training the ERT.
Dennis Kleiner, a millwright, has undergone CPR, first aid, incipient fire and rescue training.
“If you are hurt, the call would come to the ERT to get the necessary equipment to get you off the lanyard,” Kleiner said. The training is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The training we’ve done is harder than the work.
“It’s all volunteer,” Kleiner added. “We do this because we want to. We want a safe place to work and to be able to help out our fellow employees when we can.”
