UniCarriers Americas celebrates OSHA Safe & Sound Week

As part of an ongoing campaign to promote workplace safety, UniCarriers Americas Corporation (UCA) is participating in OSHA’s Safe + Sound Week, held during the week of August 13, 2018. OSHA Safe + Sound Week is a yearly nationwide event that helps raise awareness of the value of safety programs that include management leadership, worker participation and hazard identification and elimination.

The company will host a range of activities, including an employee raffle, to support this year’s event. The activity schedule can be found below:

•  On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, UCA will host the Marengo Fire Department to speak at its facility on the importance of safety at home and at the workplace.
•  On Wednesday and Thursday, UCA will have a 5S competition, a workplace organization method that allows for increased efficiency, safety and effectiveness. A panel of judges will walk around different departments to look for good 5S practices, and each employee who demonstrates he or she is practicing good 5S habits will be awarded raffle tickets.
•  On Friday, UCA will conclude the week and celebrate safety by hosting a raffle, with the grand prize being a pair of Chicago major league baseball tickets.

UCA recently added a new element to its suite of safety management tools, a behavior-based safety observation system (BBS). In addition to the 5S competition, UCA will reward those who have met their BBS goals throughout the months of June and July and will be given more raffle tickets.

“We are very excited to participate in OSHA Safe and Sound Week. We will use this opportunity to recognize and reward our employees who are demonstrating 5S improvement and who are increasing engagement of safe behaviors, which ultimately result in improved safety performance,” said Ed Johannesen, Director of Manufacturing Engineering and Facilities for UniCarriers Americas Corporation. “Our vision is to fully establish a zero-injury mindset and culture, and this week supports that goal with information, engagement and increased empowerment for everyone.”

In addition to the scheduled week activities, UCA has many ongoing programs that align with the Safe + Sound campaign. A few include:

•  Monthly employee safety team meetings to discuss issues and improvements related to departmental safety;
• Monthly safety audits for different departments to identify any hazards/safety issues;
•  Third-party compliance audits that are held three times per fiscal year;
•  Departmental safety meetings to discuss UCA’s safety successes and constant improvement initiatives;
•  “Java with Jim” coffee meetings with UCA’s President James J. Radous III to encourage employees to participate in open discussions.