Worker Safety Award Winners Honored at Annual Conference

The American Meat Institute (AMI) announced the 2007 winners of the AMI-National Safety Council Worker Safety Recognition Awards.

The awards were presented at the 2007 Worker Safety, Health and Human Resources Conference, held April 2-4, 2007, at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colo.

The awards recognize the efforts of meat packing and processing plants across the country to improve their safety performance through the establishment of sound safety and health programs and achieve a high level of safety performance as part of the continuing effort to reduce occupational injury and illness throughout the industry.

As part of this year’s award program, a total of 125 packing and processing facilities were honored.

Thirty-four plants were recognized with the highest award – the Award of Honor – an increase of 31 percent over the 2006 awards. Fifty plants received the Award of Merit, an increase of six percent over 2006. In addition, 22 plants received the Award of Commendation and 19 received a Certificate of Recognition.

The various levels of awards are earned based on an evaluation of each eligible plan’s actual safety performance, as well as its implementation of various key components of an effective safety and health program as measured by the safety program questionnaire. Each plant’s award application is analyzed by experts at the National Safety Council, who assisted with the development of the program.

“This program’s ongoing success reflects a strong and sustained commitment by the industry to ensure that our workers have a safe and healthy working environment,” said AMI President and CEO J. Patrick Boyle, who was on hand to congratulate the award winners. “We applaud the efforts of these plants to protect their workers and to lead the industry in the steady decrease of injury and illness rates.

To view the award recipients, go to 2007 Awards.