Workers achieve milestone IP logs 1 million injury-free hours

BUCKSPORT -Workers at the International Paper Co. mill have reached a safety milestone they’ve achieved just twice in the last 20 years.

On Wednesday night, the crews at the mill had worked for 1 million work hours without a lost-time injury.

In a company newsletter published Thursday, mill manager Fred Oettinger congratulated the employees on that achievement.

“It is an accomplishment for us all to be proud of,” Oettinger said. “We got there by a lot of effort and hard work on safety by many people in our organization.”

He also relayed congratulations from John Dillon, CEO at International Paper.

According to Oettinger, the mill has reached the 1 million safe work hours milestone only twice before, once in the early 1980s and again in 1986. IP spokesman Keith Cunningham said the emphasis on safety has really been a “grass-roots effort” that has been led by the employees themselves through safety initiatives in the various departments in the mill.

“These programs are in each area of the mill where employees are talking within their department about how they can do things better in terms of safety and procedures,” Cunningham said. “That’s really made a difference in the numbers and in an improvement in accident avoidance.”

The last lost-time injury at the mill occurred April 30. That’s 171 days since there was a lost-time injury at the mill, Cunningham said.

And counting. As of the shift change late Friday afternoon, employees still were adding to that million-hour mark.