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Friday, April 7, 2000
Celanese wins OSHA star
Bishop plant safety record earns honor
By Andrea Jares
Caller-Times
BISHOP - The Occupational Health and Safety Administration has chosen Celanese's Bishop site as one of the country's safest manufacturing workplaces.
The OSHA Star Among Stars award, given to the plant Thursday, recognizes it as having less than half of the national average rate of injuries and lost time. The Bishop plant is one of 471 plants to have achieved this standard out of the more than 6 million plants in the nation.
Mundy Companies, an on-site contractor for Celanese, was also awarded OSHA's Star designation for safety. The designation shows that the workers are above average in safety and other requirements.
In 1998, the last year that statistics are available from the Labor Department, Celanese's OSHA incident rate was .75 per 100 workers, compared to an average rate in the chemical industry of 2.1.
More than 800 employees from Celanese and their contractors celebrated as the certificate was presented to the company. A flag was also presented with the award that labels the plant as a Star Among Stars site.
Getting the award was a goal set in 1993, said Darrell Nordeen, facility director of the Celanese site. The company set out to incorporate specific safety guidelines into the site's culture.
The plan included repositioning workers to take on safety issues on specific projects as well as to adhere to specific safety checklists when performing tasks.
"It's attention to the nth degree," he said.
Jerry Moore, vice president of operations for Celanese AG, thanked Mundy Companies employees for their work in adopting the safety attitudes.
"We're very pleased to have changed our focus and gotten a new commitment to safety," he said.
Stefan Sommer, vice president and general manager of Ticona, the plastics division of Celanese, said the company has always had good manufacturing and safety marks. OSHA isn't the only one that has noticed. Those figures more than likely played a part in the company landing a deal last month to build a new high-density plastic plant at the site, he said.
The Bishop site is the first manufacturing plant for Celanese that has earned the designation. The Bishop plant employs 875 people who make more than a billion pounds a year of acetal, polyester and nylon polymers, organic chemicals and bulk pharmaceuticals.
Nordeen said the next challenge is to retain Star Among Stars status and improve the safety record. Star Among Stars sites are recertified every few years based on their ability to improve their safety record.
"Every year, we expect more out of the companies," said Bill Klingbiel, OSHA general manager of the five-state region that includes Texas. "It's not good enough to get into the program and keep the status quo. With safety, you're either improving or you're backsliding. There's no sitting still. If you're sitting still, you're moving backward."
The Bishop plant received the Texas Chemical Council's Best in Texas Safety Award in 1999 and the Texas Governor's Special Award for Environmental Excellence in 1996.
Business writer Andrea Jares can be reached at 886-3678 or by e-mail at jaresa@caller.com
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