Lafarge Cement on Mariginal Way held it's annual Safety Day on June 11 with booths and exhibits from around West Seattle and other activities all intended to highlight the importance of safety. The company itself says that safety is the number one priority, above even profit and productivity. The Seattle Fire Department was on hand to show some off their gear and take part in the activities.

While they take safety seriously, the 'Forklift Rodeo" was held to let workers and visitors show off their driving and transport skills, piloting a forklift around cones in the parking lot all in a timed competition. They also set up a basketball hoop for the event, using the forklift to lift and make a basket.

Lafarge as a company has worked safety awareness and training into the fabric of the the entire operation. While no specifics were offered, their safety record is a good one with very few accidents or injuries according to company officials because they constantly check and monitor each other's plans and documentation.

Samuel Kranzthor, Production Coordinator said, "Safety is above production or plant operation and it's just not talk, that's fact." For example Lafarge was ahead of the curve on the use of cellphones making it a company policy to forbid the use of phones while driving without a hands free device.

Plant Manager Richard Sebastianelli said, "What Lafarge does is that we put a big emphasis on awareness and that means training people so they acquire the right skills and knowledge on how to do different tasks and how to respect equipment so that injuries don't occur. Because we're a heavy industry we do have injuries and we do track them and try to understand how they occur. Lafarge continuously improves and learns how to do things differently so we improve our safety standards."

The company has certification and training every year and new hires can't work alone without a minimum of 24 hours on the job with training, even for the lowest level worker but generally workers must complete over 74 hours.
Management participates in all safety training and activities in the plant.

The barbecue lunch was prepared by one of the company's workers and everyone attending was well fed.

While maintaining a safe home and work environment isn't easy. For Lafarge, it's mostly a slam dunk