Award of Excellence Goes to John Zink Co. –  Reneau Hails Achievement
Labor Commissioner & Worker Safety Policy Council Honor Five Oklahoma Employers
Tulsa Mayor Taylor, Insurance Commissioner Holland Join Praise for Hometown Achievement

TULSA -- Commissioner of Labor Brenda Reneau, chairman of the Worker Safety Policy Council (WSPC), presented the Award of Excellence to Tulsa’s John Zink Company, and four other outstanding Oklahoma employers at the 2006 Governor’s Conference on Safety and Health held Thursday (May 25). 

Commissioner of Insurance Kim Holland, a Tulsa resident, served as honorary emcee of the governor’s conference. She joined Reneau in honoring several Oklahoma employers for achieving the best health and safety standards in Oklahoma workplaces. Commissioner Reneau read Mayor Kathy Taylor’s words of congratulations to Zink at the end of the awards luncheon honoring all the winning companies.

The top recognition annually honors outstanding performance in creation of a safety culture in the workplace. The Safety Culture Award of Excellence this year went to Tulsa's John Zink Company LLC.  Zink also won the Oklahoma Safety Council’s Governor’s Pinnacle Award for its remarkable results. Accepting the honors for Zink were Vice President Scott Taylor and Safety and Health Manager Ed Barnaby. Other participating employees were Harold Cherry, Dan Doss, Kay Gambling, Pam Garwood, Roland Gniech, Dennis Herman, Paula Huddleston, Paul Melton, Mark Mitchell, Casey Chambers, Sam Robison, Steve Clark, Vanita Posey, Finis Richardson, Claude Stanke, Tom Stanton, Brian Watts and Kim Webster.

The WSPC's evaluation, Reneau said, praised employee involvement and cross-training in safety and Zink’s ability to identify and correct hazards before incidents occur. Reneau said she admired Zink’s “empowerment of employees to resolve issues.” She noted that work-related accident “costs per hour” had plummeted from $0.13 in 2001 to 0.006 in 2005. Taylor and Barnaby, after the awards ceremony, elaborated by noting that annual workers’ comp program expenses dropped from $245,000 in 2004 to $9,700 in 2005.

Such data, Reneau said, “is powerful documentation that companies which devote the human capital needed to make a safety program work will find, as we have at the Labor Department, that  'Safety Pays®.” The Zink Company, Reneau noted, has exceeded one year and 2.4 million man-hours worked without a single “lost time accident.” “Lost time accident” describes lost work hours/days due to a work-related injury or illness.

In a statement Reneau read after Zink had received both its prestigious awards, Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor said, “Just as public safety is the number one priority for our City, employee safety must be the number one priority for all employers. This requires not only a strong commitment from top management, but also consistent vigilance from all employees. At the end of the day, we all want to go home to our family safely. I am proud that the John Zink Company has helped to set the standard for educating employees about the importance of safety in the workplace, and that Zink employees take their safety responsibilities so seriously.”

 Zink engineers and manufactures burner and air pollution equipment for a wide range of industries and employs about 680 personnel.  Since 1993, Zink has drastically reduced work-related accidents and worker’s comp costs.  In fact, from 2003 to 2005 work-related medical payments dropped 97%.

 In her speech to the awards ceremony, Reneau commended  Insurance Commissioner Holland as a “breath of fresh air” for state businesses and consumers. Reneau said she and other state employees who grapple with workers’ compensation insurance issues have appreciated Holland’s approach. Holland thanked Reneau “for the assistance you have provided to me since I became Insurance Commissioner.” She also expressed thanks for “the professionalism of the Labor Department’s employees.”

Several other employers were honored at the awards ceremony.  

The 2006 Award of Excellence, Public Sector, went to Pontotoc County for its "total program" -- including consistent safety training, management and employee participation, and two-way communication to ensure safety and health guidelines are followed. Pontotoc County’s approach paid off with a dramatic drop in medical payments due to work-related injuries and illnesses – from $13,447.15 in 2004 to zero in 2005.

The Award of Excellence, Large Employer went to Michelin Ardmore. Reneau praised the company's "Respect for People" philosophy. She is a strong supporter of the tire manufacturer's programs to boost the involvement of workers in the production process. In three years, the company has seen an 83% reduction in lost time accidents, a 55% cut in recordable incidents, and a 67% drop in the number of lost/restricted work days. Workers’ comp costs have dropped a remarkable 45%.

The Award of Excellence, Medium Employer, went to Acord Transportation Inc., of Chandler. In 2003, the company's total job-related medical claims were $24,294. In 2005, claims were zero. Last November, Commissioner Reneau touted Acord at a Chandler ceremony after the firm became the first transportation company in state history to achieve the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) certification.

FMRI, Inc. of Muskogee garnered the Award of Excellence, Small Employer for its continuous safety improvements. FMRI, Inc. also gained a one-year federal OSHA inspection exemption/SHARP award from Reneau in November 2005 after satisfying requirements in the state Labor Department’s Safety Pays® OSHA Consultation program.

Commissioner Reneau, who is elected statewide, is statutory chairman of the Worker Safety Policy Council. Select members of the Council serve as judges for the Award of Excellence program. The 18-member council meets quarterly “to study and formulate reforms for worker safety that could result in lower work-related injuries” and reduced workers’ comp costs.  Members serve “at the pleasure” of Commissioner Reneau.

Besides Zink Co., other employers gaining recognition from the Oklahoma Safety Council (OSC) were:

Individual Award for Child Safety Advocacy, Lester Claravall, Oklahoma Department of Labor
Individual Award for Occupational Health Advocacy, Linda Loveday, Tyson Foods
Community Involvement Award, Oklahoma One-Call (Call OKIE)
Small Company Award, Fenix Constructors
Medium Company Award, Burns & McDonnell (a Tulsa general contractor)
Large Company Award, York International

The recipients of the WSPC Award of Excellence and the OSC honorees were recognized for astonishing results in workers’ safety and health efficiency and improvements during the past year. Each employer honored sought to diminish work-related accidents and prevent on-the-job injuries and illnesses.

Two key federal officials also sponsored in the safety conference: Frank Strasheim, acting Regional Administrator for Federal OSHA, and James Brown, who runs the agency’s Oklahoma City office.

John Zink Company, LLC
11920 East Apache
Tulsa, OK 74116
United States of America
+1-918-234-1800
800-421-9242 (U.S. and Canada)
email: info@johnzink.com

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