Western Sugar Cooperative 2015 Safety Plan

We highly value the safety of all our employees at The Western Sugar Cooperative. We believe no work is so important that it cannot be performed safely. We do not support putting production ahead of safety.

To continuously improve our safety performance, it is our belief to introduce all employees to key principles for behavior in the workplace and the tools we use to identify and remove unsafe conditions and practices. We are committed to dedicating whatever time and resources are needed and will move swiftly to take all appropriate corrective actions to keep employees safe.

We share the belief that our goal of a zero-incident safety culture is rooted in teamwork, caring for each other, and a strong safety-focused leadership. All employees must be actively involved in our safety efforts by identifying opportunities for improvement or by stopping work that is unsafe. Together, we can be the difference.

In 2015, our areas of focus will be:

Safety Accountability

Business, operations and facility managers are accountable for safe production, employee wellbeing, and organizational value for safety as well as injury and exposure elimination. We will further develop our safety management systems to better link WSC procedures to each locations implementation efforts. We will also better define our expectations for managers and supervisors in all areas of safety to ensure that accountability for performance is clear and consistent.

High Potential Exposures

We will act swiftly to eliminate or control all high potential exposures. We will focus on process safety to eliminate or mitigate incidents. All employees must be trained to recognize tasks and conditions that create risk. We will communicate the 10 Lifesaving Rules so that everyone understands these potentially dangerous situations, how they relate to high potential exposures and how to take steps to avoid risks of injury.

Job Hazard Analysis

We will continue to focus on the quality of JHAs or JSAs. The solutions developed during these assessments will be turned into standard operating procedures that will become the basis for ongoing training assessments. This work needs to be active versus left in a file cabinet.

Near Miss Reporting

We will continue to encourage near miss/exposure reporting by all employees. Prompt corrective action will be taken for each reporting along with feedback for each employee who submits a report. We will use near miss reporting as a proactive indicator of the health of our safety culture.

Site Specific Approach

Because every site is unique, site-specific safety plans will be developed by local management with the support of WSC leadership. The leadership team will review each site safety plan, including the CEO, CFO, VP of Operations, VP of HR and the Cooperative Safety Manager. These plans should address facility conditions through specific exposure reduction efforts including on the job training, a process safety emphasis, and targeted improvements identified through employee feedback. There needs to be more employee involvement created through the near miss corrective action program, and safety committees. As facilities identify best practices we will share them across all WSC locations and ensure they are appropriately implemented.