Safety and Health

Building a Successful Business

Since I issued the President's Safety Leadership Challenge in 1995, Bethlehem employees have made excellent progress toward our goal of zero workday incidents and zero accidents.

Our progress has become most notable since 1996 when the results of our actively caring approach to safety resulted in our best safety and health performance ever in our corporation's long and proud history of nearly 94 years.

Successful companies routinely achieve production and safety milestones—concurrently. As we worked to improve our safety and health results, Bethlehem also achieved a series of production records in 1997.

Those records include:
At Burns Harbor, our No. 2 caster set a North American production record in October for a two-strand caster by producing 274,637 tons of slabs. In setting the monthly record, crews at the No. 2 caster cast 912 heats of steel and turned out an average of 420 tons of slabs per machine hour.

At Sparrows Point, the caster provided 100-percent on-time delivery of slabs to the Division's plate and hot strip mills aided by the development of a new scheduling and supply system. The caster recorded a yield of 98.67 percent and a record number of heats (28) on a single strand during one 24-hour period.

Sparrows Point also recorded another division production milestone at L blast furnace, the basic oxygen furnace, the cold sheet mill and the hot strip mill.

At Pennsylvania Steel Technologies, production records were achieved in steelmaking and in a number of product areas, including standard and head-hardened rails, bar flats and special sections, and semifinished steel.

Production and safety excellence are the reflection of a committed and knowledgeable workforce that understands its mission and embraces performance excellence. At Bethlehem, we are working through various safety initiatives to empower employees to make the decisions that improve their workplace safety and long-term viability. We are proud of our achievements and are all working together to post even greater gains.

In 1997, and thus far in 1998, we have strengthened the competitive position of our core steel businesses. We are also concentrating on achieving safety and production excellence at Bethlehem Lukens Plate, the new division created as a result of Bethlehem's merger with Lukens Inc. In the coming months, we will work closely with our employees to further our gains in productivity and safety, which together will help us Be the Premier Steel Company and help our customers achieve their goals.

Roger P. Penny
President and Chief Operating Officer

Bethlehem Steel takes great pride in its safety program and is continuously making improvements to protect the safety and health of its employees and others who may be working at or visiting one of our facilities. However, despite on-going improvements in the workplace and record safety performances in 1997, one Bethlehem employee at Burns Harbor and an employee of one of Bethlehem's contractors at Sparrows Point were fatally injured on the job. The Corporation and its employees were saddened by these tragic accidents and extended sympathy to the families, friends and co-workers of the two individuals. These accidents have been thoroughly investigated to determine their causes with the expectations that recommended corrective measures will prevent similar accidents.

Performance

Bethlehem's safety and health performance in 1997 was the best ever achieved in the history of the corporation. The three standard statistical measurement parameters for injury and illness incidence rates — all-injuries, lost workday cases and OSHA total recordable injuries — continued their downward trend that began in 1994. Over the past three years, the all-injury case incidence rate¹ declined by 34 percent, the lost workday case incidence rate² declined by 43 percent, and OSHA total recordable injuries³ declined by 39 percent.

Compared to 1996, the 1997 performance showed a nine-percent decrease in all injuries, a 13-percent decrease in lost workdays, and a 17-percent decrease in total recordables. For the first half of 1998, safety performance shows significant improvement over 1997. All-injury and recordable rates are both 17 percent lower while the lost workday rate is down 34 percent.

With respect to individual business division performance in 1997, South Buffalo Railway excelled, recording zero lost workdays, zero injuries and zero total recordable injuries.

Other business divisions or operations also experienced noteworthy safety performances in 1997. Steelton and Highspire Railroad had just one injury to go along with zero lost workday and recordable incidents. Burns Harbor achieved record low safety performances in the three standard reporting categories while Sparrows Point set a record low for all-injuries. PST led the corporation with the fewest lost workday cases involving days away from work. Bethlehem Coke improved its safety performance in all categories. Lackawanna Coke improved its performance in all-injury and lost workday incidence rates.

While the continued improvement in safety and health performance is encouraging, it is recognized that the only acceptable goal for disabling injuries is zero. Therefore, consistent with Bethlehem's belief that safety is a fundamental core value, we have established a corporate objective of zero lost workday cases.

Further improvement is expected in the second half of 1998 and in the years ahead as the Employee Safety Process (ESP) reaches full implementation throughout our business units.

1. All-injury case incidence rate—the total number of injury or illness cases reported per 200,000 hours worked.
2. Lost workday case incidence rate—the total number of injury or illness cases involving days away from work per 200,000 hours worked.
3. OSHA total recordable injuries—the total number of injury cases involving medical treatment, which is more than first aid, and all-illness cases per 200,000 hours worked.

Employee Safety Process

The goal of ESP is to create an atmosphere in which all employees are actively involved in the day-to-day process of creating the best possible safety environment, both on and off the job. ESP takes an integrated approach that considers environment, people and behavior factors that influence safety. It provides the tools to implement a value-based “actively caring” philosophy that gives every employee the opportunity to participate in keeping the workplace safe. Business units began implementing ESP in 1997.

During 1997, Sparrows Point Division began a special recognition program — Brother's Keepers Safety Awards. This program recognizes employees who demonstrate extraordinary actively caring safety practices that included helping friends and co-workers who became sick or injured, teaching co-workers how to work effectively and safely, and aggressively pitching in to help others do their jobs safely. Sparrows Point also has given ESP awareness training to more than 85 percent of its employees. One shop conducted an observation campaign that focused on personal protective equipment including educating people about not wearing rings that could get caught on equipment and products.

Both Lackawanna Galvanized Products (part of the Burns Harbor Division) and Sparrows Point Division gave ESP training to a variety of groups within those facilities. Lackawanna introduced ESP and also trained coaches. The Lackawanna Coke Oven Department (also part of Burns Harbor) conducted three-day ESP training for management.

Pennsylvania Steel Technologies held coaches training and also taught coaches how to develop an ESP curriculum for shop floor employees.

Burns Harbor coordinators were trained on how to make observations, and superintendents and management leaders in steelmaking received an ESP orientation.

Strains and sprains were the most frequent type of injury, followed by contusions, which suggests a need to focus ESP's DO IT process on the behaviors that produce these types of injuries. The DO IT acronym refers to a four-step process: Define a safe behavior, Observe the safe behavior, Intervene to improve the behavior, and Test to assure that behavioral change has occurred and that safe behaviors have increased. Other behavioral areas for ESP to focus on include those that affect overexertion, foreign body in eye, struck-by and struck-against.

Awards and Recognition

To recognize sustained excellence in safety performance and effective application of the ESP, Bethlehem Steel established a Chairman's Award for Safety Excellence. The first awards were presented in March 1998 to Lackawanna Galvanized Products and the Subsidiary Railroad Companies. Their accomplishments are explained on pages 14 and 15.

One “Best Practice Award” for safety was presented in 1997 by Roger Penny. This award recognizes and honors facilities, teams and individuals who make significant contributions toward achieving Bethlehem's vision to have the best safety and health performance in industry. The Sparrows Point Division received Bethlehem's Best Practice Award for setting a leadership standard that instills safety as a value through the unique Brother's Keeper Award safety recognition program.

Sparrows Point Division employees achieved a record low all-injury incidence rate and received a “Governor's Citation” from Gov. Parris Glendening for presentation of its joint union and management safety process at a Governor's Safety Council meeting.

Auditing

Bethlehem conducted two compliance review audits. At Pennsylvania Steel Technologies, the audit focused on occupational hearing loss, which covered noise exposure monitoring, audiometric testing, hearing protection, training and record keeping. The audit at Burns Harbor examined training and medical record keeping.

Regulatory Activity

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted 13 inspections of Bethlehem facilities during 1997, four at Sparrows Point, eight at Burns Harbor and one at Pennsylvania Steel Technologies. The latter received a superior rating (four on a five-point scale).

In 1997, Bethlehem paid $243,242 in penalties related to safety and health activities. Ninety percent of those penalties were for the recently closed Bethlehem Structural Products Corporation and for the BethForge and CENTEC facilities, which were sold in 1997.

Chairman's Award for Safety Excellence

Lackawanna Galvanized Products

Training: Lackawanna developed a two-day Safety ESP training session for supervisory personnel that was delivered over five weeks and began developing training for hourly personnel.

Investigations: Lackawanna assigned hourly and management subcommittees to jointly investigate accidents.

Protective Equipment: All plain cotton gloves were eliminated and replaced with 100% Kevlar� gloves or cotton gloves with Kevlar� inserts.

Joint Management of Safety and Health: A Joint Safety Awareness Committee (JSAC), composed of an equal number of hourly and management employees, met bi-weekly to discuss reports from the JSAC co-chairs, welfare tours, lockout committee, housekeeping tour, safety works order committee, internal safety audit and other subjects requiring attention.

Return-to-Work Policy: Galvanized Products established a restricted return-to-work policy in January 1997, through which employees approved by the medical staff for return within two months when appropriate work is available, are placed on selective work.

Fostering Union/Management Participation and Employee Involvement: Labor-Management Participation Teams: Fifteen teams (127 hourly and three management) met weekly to discuss, develop and implement projects to improve safety and production.

Safety and Housekeeping Tours: Management and hourly personnel conduct weekly mill tours to coach safety and housekeeping, and to publish these recommendations on work orders.

Safety Works Order Program: A safety works order program was started to encourage hourly employees to report safety concerns.

Internal Safety Audits: A team composed of two management and two hourly employees audits a different departmental group each month and then publishes its results and recommendations.

Safety Program Mechanics: Hourly and management personnel review and revise program mechanics such as departmental inspection checklists.

Subsidiary Railroads

The railroads' safety behavior continues to be outstanding, leading the corporation in 1997 in overall safety performance. Success over the years can be attributed to the railroads' leadership and management of safety.

Examples of Inspiring a Shared Vision

According to Mike Zaia, president of the Subsidiary Railroads, “Being the best in safety is not just a vision, but an expectation. The railroads management team uses the E.H. Harriman Award criteria as benchmarks for performance. Each railroad prepares a written safety plan that enables it to achieve the levels of performance needed for the Harriman Award.”

The Philadelphia, Bethlehem and New England (PB&NE) Railroad has been recognized nationally as a leader in safety with four prestigious Harriman Awards between 1991 and 1995. The PB&NE's record low incidence rate would have qualified for the top award in 1996 had enough man-hours been accrued to qualify. The Patapsco and Back Rivers Railroad recently was presented with a Bronze Safety Award in June 1998.

Mike Zaia and his staff clearly communicate expectations that safety must be well-managed, and they believe that if the safety program is world class, the business will be world class. Management regards good safety practice as being more than just a management responsibility but a higher order of personal caring for the well-being of employees and their families.

The Railroad Executive Office holds an annual planning meeting at which railroad superintendents discuss causes of incidents and share ideas for best practices at all the railroads. The Executive Office also conducts quarterly safety reviews at each railroad with superintendents and line management. Action plans to improve or maintain performance are revised in detail as needed.

Every time there is a lost-time accident or high-potential incident, the president schedules a teleconference with all superintendents to discuss the details and review possible corrective actions for all the railroads.

Each railroad holds a monthly meeting for salaried employees. A representative from corporate management attends to demonstrate management's view about the importance of safety.

Examples of Encouraging the Heart

The railroads have established extensive reward and recognition programs that acknowledge and celebrate successes of individuals, teams and business units. Every employee can participate in these programs.

Good housekeeping is considered an important component of the railroads' safety program. Each railroad has an effective housekeeping system and a special annual corporate audit conducted at each railroad assesses and recognizes good housekeeping.

All communications to employees and their families contain safety information that constantly and consistently reinforces management's commitment to safety.

Supervisors sign a safety performance agreement that identifies specific actions they will take to ensure that safety is being well-managed in their area of responsibility.

Management believes that the essential ingredient for world class safety is acceptance of personal responsibility by every member of the organization. Management also believes that concern for employee safety must be perceived as a core value that absolutely does not yield to pressures such as time, convenience, production or costs.

1997/98 Environmental Report Table of Contents