OSHA and American Meat Institute (AMI) Alliance Close-out Report

On October 24, 2002, OSHA and AMI formed an Alliance to provide AMI members and others with information, guidance, and access to training resources to help to protect employees' health and safety, including non-English or limited English-speaking employees, by addressing ergonomics and lockout/tagout issues, including the prevention of amputations. The Alliance was renewed on July 12, 2004 and September 27, 2006.

Because the OSHA and AMI Alliance has achieved its goals, the organizations agreed to conclude the Alliance as of October 24, 2008. OSHA and AMI will continue to work together through other avenues to share information on reducing and preventing exposure to ergonomics and lockout/tagout hazards.

A number of successes resulted from the organizations' work together to meet the agreement's goals including:

• Through the Alliance, OSHA and AMI delivered a number of best practices seminars. Through the seminars, members from meat processing companies provided an in-depth orientation about the meat industry and discussed specific safety and health applications including process safety management for ammonia refrigeration systems, personal protective equipment, machine guarding, job hazard analyses, lockout/tagout, and ergonomics. Presented five times throughout the U.S. during 2004 to 2008, 139 Federal and State Plan OSHA staff received training through these seminars.
• During 2002 to 2007, Dan McCausland, Director, Worker Safety and Human Resources, AMI, provided updates on the OSHA and AMI Alliance at AMI's Worker Safety Committee and Board of Directors meetings.
• On October 25, 2007, Edwin G. Foulke, Jr., Assistant Secretary, USDOL-OSHA, gave an OSHA update focusing on the Agency's compliance assistance and cooperative programs and the OSHA and AMI Alliance to AMI's Board of Directors at their Fall Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
• On April 4, 2007, Paula White, then-Director, Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, USDOL-OSHA presented "Learn about OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) and Other Cooperative Programs" which focused on OSHA's compliance assistance and cooperative programs including the OSHA and AMI Alliance at AMI's Conference on Worker Safety, Health and Human Resources in Denver, Colorado.
• On October 30, 2003, Lee Anne Jillings, then-Director, Office of Outreach Services and Alliances, Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, USDOL-OSHA and Dan McCausland, Director of Worker Safety and Human Resources, AMI presented "Cooperative and Collaborative Approach to Workplace Safety" and discussed OSHA's Strategic Management Plan and the benefits of the OSHA and AMI Alliance at the AMI International Meat, Poultry and Seafood Convention and Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.
• AMI members served on the editorial boards of the Powered Industrial Trucks and Meatpacking Industry Safety and Health Topics pages on the OSHA Web site. The Topics pages provide the public with numerous resources and information relevant to the meat packing industry.
• Members of AMI helped develop and served on the editorial board of the Ammonia Refrigeration eTool on the OSHA Web site. The eTool provides the public with numerous resources and information relevant to the meat packing industry.

Report prepared by: Todd Briggs, Program Analyst, Office of Outreach Services and Alliances, November 4, 2008.