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[Previous entry] [Main Index] [Next entry] 05/25/2004 Entry: "Minutes of Safety & Health Meeting – May 18, 2004" Posted by John Durben
PRESENT:
The meeting was called to order at 10:03 AM. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Norb has not attended a staff meeting to discuss the proper way to handle and timely processing of 1767s. This is still an issue to APWU. Employees are not being notified in writing about the abatement of a safety hazard. Every item from the last safety inspection is abated. The RR43 carrier case is continually being bumped with skids, pallets brought in by mail handlers driving forklifts. On occasion there is a work table on wheels with extended ends brought into that area. The cement parking bumpers used by the cases are not working. The committee suggested putting up permanent guard rails by the letter cases by the rural routes. There is not enough room to maneuver around in that area. Dave T. suggested switching the cases for mail processing. There would be extra lights dropped in to give more light for the clerks. Dave T. will bring this item up at the next staff meeting and see if there is a solution. Norb will send an E-mail to the SDOs and the MDOs. ACCIDENT STATISTICS There are a lower number of accidents for this year compared to last year. The largest number of accidents for Customer Service is in the slips, trips, and falls category. The largest number of accidents for the Plant is in the lifting category. 1767s The committee reviewed the 1767s. MAILHANDLERS No new business. NALC Is there or should there be a SOP as to what action a supervisor should be taking when an employee might be in danger of a stroke or a heart attack? The committee agreed that the supervisor should take charge. If the employee doesn’t want the supervisor to call 911, then the supervisor shouldn’t drive them to the hospital either. It is a liability factor. There is no list of employees that are trained in CPR. The employees were concerned about the liability factor. There was very little interest in the program. The post office is located very close to medical facilities. There was talk that District was going to purchase one or two Automated External Defibrillators per office. There is a question about who will be trained to use the device. The Power lift training program is a financial thing. The Plant can’t legally train another 250 employees with that program. Tim J. is willing to show the Customer Service employees a 10-15 minute demonstration on power lifting techniques. Norb will send an E-mail to the supervisors about this issue. The message will include instructions for the supervisors to respond even if they are not interested. The sensor lights on the roll up doors can be lowered. Plant won’t adjust the sensor lights until the system is ours. The final walk through is on May 19. The pull cord attached to the roll up door in the GMF carrier section needs to be adjusted or replaced with something better. John M. and Dave will bring up this problem with the company on the final inspection. Maintenance will also look into this issue. The motorcycle parking stalls will be marked after the cement is dry. There will be eight stalls. Parking vehicles on the lawn or in front of the gate in the parking lot is not permitted. Employees are to park their vehicles in lined stalls. John M. will talk to Sam about this problem. Some of the truck locks are getting worn out. When the inspection is done at night, some of the trucks are not locked. The customer supervisors should address this issue to the VMF. Norb will talk to Gary about this problem. APWU The APWU requested to review all submitted PS Form 1767s and safety suggestions since the last Safety and Health committee meeting. Some of the departments send the safety talk logs for Customer Service and Mail Processing to Norb. They were not available at the meeting, but Norb will send these logs to John Durben. Maintenance is in the process of getting bids to change the duct work and filters for the air conditioner at Cofrin station. The old hoist was replaced for the battery room at the GMF. There was a new lifting basket, pulley, and basket for the excess chain added. There are painted lines to aide in parking the load hogs. The emergency switch on the outside of the room has not been looked into yet, but will be. All of the items on the last safety inspection have been abated. John D. would like a copy of the first safety inspection. The security system will be fully operational on 5-19-2004. There are items that need to be discussed and some bugs need to be worked out with the system. There is signage that needs to be added by the gates on the south side of the building for customers and contract workers. Management feels that the location of the butt hut meets the regulations and that second hand smoke should not be a safety concern in this situation. John D. was concerned about the wet mail that gets dried on bread racks on the workroom floor. Is it just water on the pieces of mail or is it a biohazard? The mail handlers are the first persons to handle the wet mail. The wet mail arrives in the hampers picked up from the star route drivers. If the mail handler has a problem with the wet mail, they should contact the supervisor. John D. wants to know if there is a SOP for this situation. Norb will check the action plan if there is no SOP, one will be created and distributed. Gail N. was concerned about having no custodian on duty to cover for an 8 hour shift. Does this create a safety issue? This situation doesn’t happen often and it is not done intentionally. In the past, some employees would mention to the supervisor that a custodian didn’t show up on time so they could keep someone later. All employees should be wearing their badges all of the time. Maintenance will notify all employees when the whole new security system is up and running as part of a floor talk. Norb showed a safety deck video at the end of the meeting for educational purposes. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 10:00 AM. The meeting was adjourned at 11:45AM.
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