Vpp can make us all safer

  • Published
  • By John Santry
  • President AFGE Local 1764
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  About two years ago, as the AFGE Local 1764 Union President, I was asked if the Union would become involved with a new safety idea. I was told that Air Force leadership, here at Travis, would like to implement a new safety program called the VPP. The VPP is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration program based on a cooperative relationship between management, labor and government. I believe that VPP has the potential to make us all safer on Travis. 

In a nutshell VPP is a different way to look at safety. Historically, at Travis, we have had military safety NCO's or safety officers who have been the focal point for safety issues in each of our work areas. VPP advocates for active employee involvement and a management commitment to our shared goal of greater worker protection. We are going to ask each of you to be a little more proactive in observing and reporting safety issues in your work area. Management's commitment is to act on those reported issues and get back to you as soon as possible with what action they are going to take to address that issue. 

Some of the bedrock issues that all unions were founded on are good pay and safe working conditions. Across America, facilities that have adopted and participated in VPP, on average, have seen injury and illness rates drop more than 60 percent below industry norms, meaning far fewer people are getting hurt on the job. They have also seen an increase in morale, due to the feeling of ownership among employees and an improved relationship between labor and management at the worksite. 

Federal civilian employees on Travis stay here for a long time. We stay in our worksites for 30 to 40 years. We are the "BE" Team. We are going to BE here long after our military brothers and sisters come and go. If VPP is going to work, it will be essential that our civilian workforce embrace this new safety mentality. If we adopt the VPP culture as the way we conduct business, then it will be the safety climate new workers enter into. 

Please remember, today's small cut could be tomorrow's loss of a limb. Today's shock could be tomorrow's electrocution. Together we can identify unsafe conditions and be part of the teams that fix them. I think it would be the ultimate achievement of my time as president of this local union if I could say I helped make Travis a little safer and people went home to their families with all their fingers and toes.