Businesses Lock in on Worker Safety

CVTC’s annual Safety Day helps managers, workers learn the latest

Chippewa Falls, WI – Brad Flores, health, safety and environmental manager at Kuss Filtration in Bloomer, found just what his company needed at Safety Day at the Chippewa Valley Technical College’s Chippewa Falls campus Thursday, Oct. 6. While many companies are concerned about their workers falling off structures or dropping something heavy, the issues at Kuss are more mundane.

“Repetitive motion injury is our biggest concern,” Flores said. “We don’t do a lot of heavy lifting.”

So Flores attended a session on ergonomics, the study of efficiency in working environments and how it is affected by posture and movement. “The session was really interesting because we have some issues with that,” Flores said. “The instructor gave us some ideas on evaluating ergonomic risks.”

This is the fourth year CVTC’s Business & Industry Services division has offered Safety Day, in which business leaders and workers come together to stay on top of workplace safety issues, the latest regulations, and best practices. The 127 participants this year included safety professionals, human resources staff, and production and maintenance workers.

“Safety Day is an outreach to the community as a whole,” said Jon Leenhouts, an award-winning safety instructor at CVTC. “CVTC provides safety training to companies throughout the area, but there is also a great need for an event that brings people together to explore common issues and network about the successes and challenges at their companies.”

Attendees chose between 16 different sessions on subjects like confined space entry, site safety and emergency preparedness, lockout/tagout and machine guarding, fire extinguisher and hazardous material handling, and forklift operations.

“The conference is as much about technical information as it is about compliance and wellness,” Leenhouts said.

A “forklift rodeo” in which attendees learned about safe operations of heavy equipment with some driving exercises, addressed an issue at Premium Waters in Chippewa Falls, which uses forklifts to move pallets of heavy bottles of water.

“We have a whole forklift training program, and I took the ‘Train-the-Trainer’ program at CVTC so I could come back and train others,” said Karen Schuler, human resources manager at Premium Waters.

Schuler learned some tips from a session on on-site clinical services, which many companies are now offering. “We’re revamping our wellness program and we’re possibly looking at providing some services like on-site wellness counseling,” she said.

George Jerome, safety manager at Global Finishing Solutions in Osseo, the world’s leading manufacturer of paint booths, spray booths and finishing systems, found plenty of applicable material for his company. Jerome attended sessions on confined spaces, lockout/tagout and hazardous materials, all touching on issues at the plant.

“I’m getting a lot of baseline information, a chance to network with others, good safety procedures and a lot of compliance stuff,” Jerome said.