Industry Marks Safety Stand-Down Day

January/February 2015

On Oct. 15, 2014, ReMA declared the scrap recycling industry’s first Safety Stand-Down Day to focus attention on the need for greater safety awareness. The association’s volunteer leaders urged member companies to halt operations for at least one hour per shift that day to conduct additional safety training and to reinforce the message that safety is their No. 1 core value and employees are their most valuable asset. ReMA sent member companies information on 11 recent scrap industry fatalities as well as five safety guides related to the leading causes of those fatalities: failure to wear seat belts, failure to follow lock-out/tag-out procedures, failure to follow confined-space procedures, workers and visitors being struck by mobile equipment, and workers or vehicles striking overhead objects.

--“All Scrap Metals [Kenner, La.] spent a good part of the day talking about safety. There were some emotional moments talking about what it would be like to inform family members of an employee that [his or her] life ended working for us,” said the company’s Vincent Costanza.

--“I feel that our Safety Stand-Down Day was a huge success,” wrote President Lee Leavitt of ASM Recycling (Mobile, Ala.). “By shutting down for an hour, our employees realized the importance of this issue, which opened the dialogue to make us all aware that there is a lot of room for improvement.”

--Greg Brown, president of Benlee (Romulus, Mich.), Raleigh Metal Recycling (Raleigh, N.C.), Goldsboro Metal Recycling (Goldsboro, N.C.), and Wilson Metal Recycling (Wilson, N.C.), participated in safety meetings that day at Benlee in person and Raleigh by conference call. “I made it clear to all that we would spend anything at any time on safety,” he said. Employees could ask their manager—or call Brown on his cell phone—at any time to ask for anything they might need to work more safely. “We took some ideas, and I approved [spending] $5,000 on items at Benlee on the fly,” he added.

--Alter Trading Corp. (St. Louis) sent a letter to every employee from President and Chief Operating Officer Jay Robinovitz that said, in part, “Today all Alter locations are taking time out of the normal workday to discuss the recent tragedies metal recycling companies have suffered this year. … I ask that each of you, today, commit to making Alter a safer place to work. … Safety should be a way of life on and off the job. For yourself, your family, and your co-workers, please adopt a culture of safety and make it part of who you are.”

--“I think it brought home exactly how dangerous just coming to work can be,” said Bill Fisher, director of operations for ELG Metals (McKeesport, Pa.). “Being blasé about your surroundings and the equipment within that space can kill. Reinforcing caution [for employees] while working in their everyday environment will hopefully insure their safe return to their families.”

--“It’s an uphill battle we’re fighting … changing a culture [to one that] empowers all employees to recognize that safety is something that they must own,” said Peter Van Houten, general manager/vice president of operations for Export Global Metals (Hillsboro, Ore.). “At EG Metals, we have probably one of the most comprehensive safety training programs for a scrapyard, yet we’ve had three near-misses which could have very easily turned fatal, all because of a lack of common sense on the part of the operator.”

--“Here at Jarvis Metals [Lubbock, Texas], we are like family, and the last thing we would ever want to experience is one of our own hurt, or worse! … If we do not constantly learn, adapt, make changes, and do things ‘Safely or Not at All,’ it can happen here,” said Health and Safety Director Deborah Vasquez. She thanked ISRI for sharing information about recent fatalities “to help our people understand how easy and quickly lives can change.”

--At Manitoba Corp. (Lancaster, N.Y.), “we brought together our entire company and conducted a walking tour of our idled plant. This gave the department supervisors, as well as production employees, the opportunity to discuss the various safety precautions that are utilized in each area,” said President Brian Shine. “The Stand-Down Day created an opportunity to connect with our employees on a deeper level in order to further emphasize the critical importance of all of our best efforts in the area of safety.”

--At Metro Group (Salt Lake City), the board of directors split into small groups, with each group visiting a different team to conduct that team’s safety stand-down meeting. “It is painfully obvious that even small failures in our industry can have fatal consequences,” said Safety, Environment, and Compliance Manager Lee Twitchell. “Some of the mistakes that others make, our employees have made. We would all like to believe that it can’t happen to us, but we know we are often luckier than we are good. Our goal during the stand down was to recognize, as a team, the mistakes that led to the loss of life in our industry and do whatever is necessary to make certain that we don’t make the same mistakes.”

--MetalX (Waterloo, Indiana) observed the day “by bringing our employees in, discussing the deaths, relating these deaths to the jobs our people do and the potential [risks] they all face, and reiterating the importance of maintaining a mindset of safe operation,” said EHS Manager Ryan Nolte.