Setting the Gold Standard in Workplace Safety in Montana

A new web video shows how Montana’s MillerCoors elevator keeps workers and farmers safe, while handling the finest barley.

Combustible grain, 30-ton semi-trucks and moving rail cars are just a few of the safety hazards elevator employees and farmers at the MillerCoors Barley Operations in Huntley, Mont., face everyday as they handle the highest quality barley for the MillerCoors beers. Their effort to work safe is not only making sure that they do their part to create the first-rate beers customers expect, but that they go about doing it as safely as possible.

In a new web video called "Setting the Gold Standard," MillerCoors employees at the barley elevator in Huntley tell the story of how they are committed to working safely and making sure employees and barley farmers go home at the end of the day without incident. WorkSafeMT, the organization dedicated to improving Montana’s workplace safety record, produced the four-minute video, which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/WorkSafeMT.

"Farmers and elevator employees are some of the hardest workers around," said George Kochman, program manager for WorkSafeMT. "We want to show the agricultural community an example of how workplace safety can be integrated with the same dedication to producing the highest quality product."

In recognition of its safety excellence, the MillerCoors elevator is considered a "star" site in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). The VPP acknowledges employers and workers, who have gone above and beyond OSHA’s standard rules and guidelines and implemented effective safety and health management systems that maintain injury and illness rates below national averages. The program recognizes businesses and agencies that focus on preventing fatalities, injuries and illness through hazard prevention and control, worksite analysis, training, management commitment and worker involvement.

"At our elevator, managers and employees come together to solve safety concerns and issues," said Wade Malchow, group manager of Brewing Materials for MillerCoors Barley Operations. "We use our safety management system to make sure workers are educated on all hazards and taught to be vocal about pointing them out, and for each safety concern, we have specific tools and protocols in place to prevent injuries."

To lower the risk of explosive barley dust, the elevator has an extensive filtration system and housekeeping is of utmost importance. Around rail cars, workers are in constant communication and have a comprehensive training and fall protection system. And for those 150 to 225 semi-trucks that come through the elevator each day, signs and electronic tools are in place to make sure farmers stay in their trucks and out of harm’s way.

"We want people to know that when they open a Coors Light or a Blue Moon that they’re not only drinking some of Montana’s finest barley, but that the workers and farmers who helped produce that beer also went home safely at the end of the day to their families and enjoyed a cold one too," said Malchow.

More information on implementing workplace safety tools and programs can be found at http://www.worksafemt.com.

WorkSafeMT was created as a public-private collaborative effort of business, labor and state agency leaders, health care providers, injured workers and workers’ compensation insurers with the purpose of addressing Montana’s poor work safety record and improving Montana’s stay at work/return to work system. Established in 2008, the group received funding from the 2009 legislature to conduct outreach across the state of Montana. For more on WorkSafeMT’s mission and vision, visit http://www.worksafemt.com.