Virtual Breakfast Forum – Apr 7, 2022
Thanks to all the members that could join us today for our Virtual Breakfast Forum. Members enjoyed an interactive conversation with three of our members, from three different industries, three different sizes of operations, and three different regions:
Doug Pauze, Coastline Wood Industries, Nanaimo BC
Amit Golan, CKF Food packaging producers (egg trays and meat trays), Langley BC
Ian Rood, UBSafe, Kamloops BC
Doug reports that Coastline Forest Industries’ biggest challenge is transport of product costs increasing up to 300% (if you can even get the trucks!) as well as government policies in the forest sector. As long as export policies stay in place, they have a business to continue on with. From a Health and Safety standpoint, Doug’s concern is forklifts / forklift interaction with poles and other machines. Even with extensive training and discipline, they continue to have 1-3 minor incidents, having not been successful in eliminating or reducing the frequency of these incidents. Members chimed in on some suggestions including installing blue lights on the forklifts and collision shut off mechanisms, however Doug has already employed these solutions. Another suggestion was to provide shift incentive programs to protect the equipment.
Amit’s operation, CKF, runs a 24/7 operation. CKF hires only Red Seals, and provides substantial on the job task training. Loss control management meets once a month for an hour or two to review safety protocols. Amit reports that his management regularly walks the floor, and stops the work to talk safety with a random line worker. After this discussion, they shake the employee’s hand and thanks them for working safely. This is not done to catch them doing something wrong, but rather to keep the conversation about Health and Safety going with the whole team. Amit’s organization still has a mask mandate, but stopped sanitization and separation from between the plants. There is a significant risk of fires in a pulp mill, and as a result, CKF does 12 fire drills a year and invites fire department to attend all drills. The goal is to familiarize the Fire Department with the plant and then following the teams will debrief in the boardroom. CKF also has a proactive “Pre-Accident Investigation” form that he is sharing with members for their use. Amit’s team has achieved over 50% gender equality in Sr. Management positions.
Ian reports that lately, UBSafe has been dealing with staff having spring colds, hayfever, allergies or Covid related symptoms, but their productivity is not really affected due to people being able to work remotely. UBSafe has put in a lot of work into their systems, in case of sickness of staff, other staff can step in easily to replace them temporarily, and they have built a strong team. Ian reports that his greatest concern is keeping his team, due to labour shortage. It takes 4 years to get a worker to a useful level and 20 to turn them into an expert. UBSafe works on the lifestyle component rather than high salaries. Like many other members, Ian reports supply issues as being another major challenge.
A few reminders of future events:
April 28th, The Day of Mourning. We’ll have our AGM, as well as a special guest speaker from Threads of Life, speaking on a personal loss in the workplace
Oct. 6th, our annual Round Table takes place. We are currently looking for sponsors, speakers and topics.
June 24th we are planning a trip to Kelowna, with more info coming out shortly. This will be a good opportunity to tour other members’ sites.
There will be a membership survey coming out shortly. We are asking all of our members to please take the time to complete it. It will include some important information we are trying to gather, such as how you’re measuring your effectiveness in your workplace, etc.
