News

Center committed to VPP, worker safety

  • Published
  • By Maj. Gen. Polly Peyer
  • Warner Robins Air Logistic Center
The Voluntary Protection Program at Robins is a huge success - more than 300 Commander's Challenge Safe Sites and one of only 31 OSHA Star Sites in the Department of Defense - due to the direct involvement of nearly every member of Team Robins. The Challenge provides a framework and the motivation to make our work sites safer and healthier.

The VPP is a workforce-driven effort, with over 12,000 people - employees, management and union - participating in activities to increase workplace safety and reduce on-the-job injuries. Safety data indicates that VPP is having a significant positive impact at Robins; Safe Sites have half the reported illnesses and injuries as non-Safe Sites. Statistics in the form of DART (Days Away, Transferred or Restricted) and TICR (Total Case Incident Rate) have improved dramatically at our VPP locations.

Recently, our 402nd Electronics Mainten-ance Group and the 402nd Maintenance Support Group successfully passed a pre-application audit led by the independent DoD Center of Excellence for VPP, a critical step in the process of achieving OSHA VPP Star Site recognition.

We received word Tuesday that American Federation of Government Employees Local 987 has proposed to begin the formal process of withdrawing from the Center's VPP. However, the Center will continue a dialogue with AFGE and work with all Robins people and organizations to ensure our workforce has a safe and healthy environment in which to carry out its mission.

My leadership team remains dedicated to ensuring that voluntary protection is part of our culture. Because the safety and health of our workforce is our number one priority, it is my intention to continue the Commander's Safe Site Program while working to reestablish a strong partnership with our largest union.

I am personally committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment for every member of our team. I encourage everyone's continued participation in all safety activities and programs. - Maj. Gen. Polly Peyer, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center commander