Team Edwards signs VPP commitment agreement

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Julius Delos Reyes
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  On Aug. 8, Team Edwards signed the Air Force Flight Test Center Voluntary Protection Program Commitment agreement. 

The Voluntary Protection Program is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiative to promote effective worksite-based safety and health programs. 

"The Voluntary Protection Program Partnership Agreement solidifies the (AFFTC's) senior representatives' commitment to foster a healthy and safe work environment for all Edwards employees," said Maj. Gen David Eichhorn, AFFTC commander. 

This is a program that recognizes organizations in various industries with an outstanding safety and health management system, said Col. Mike McKenna, AFFTC chief of safety. The program is a three-way partnership between base management, labor and OSHA -- the key to Voluntary Protection Program success. 

General Eichhorn represented Team Edwards' management, while the base labor unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees, Sport Air Traffic Controller Organization and International Association of Firefighters, represented the workforce. 

"Finally we are getting that commitment through this agreement," he said. "Everyone is ready and willing to sign the document saying we are fully committed to the tenants of VPP to make this place a safer working environment." 

In July 2007, a VPP team came here to get a sense of Edwards' safety culture. This includes studying the base's paperwork, operating instructions, Air Force Instructions and safety program management documents. The team also conducted interviews with personnel to learn more about how the base does its business as well as looked through the workplace. 

The team looked at the base's four key areas -- management commitment and leadership and employee involvement; hazard prevention and control; worksite analysis; and safety and health training. 

After the evaluation, the VPP team presented their gap analysis on where Edwards is and where it needs to go to attain the Voluntary Protection Program Star Status -- organizations that have the safest working environment. 

"In the gap analysis, the VPP team found more than 200 action items we need to complete," Colonel McKenna said. "Currently, we are 22 percent complete." 

However, this does not mean that the base doesn't have safety and health programs. 

"We already have very good safety and health management programs," Colonel McKenna said. "But we still have mishaps, and we still have many preventable ones. We have been operating at an acceptable level of mishap rate. Under Voluntary Protection Program, zero mishap is an achievable goal." 

The Voluntary Protection Program aims to help the base create a safer working environment, enabling people to work efficiently and effectively, said Colonel McKenna.

"Through VPP, we are trying to incorporate safety as the fourth Air Force core value," he said. "When our people are out in their job, and they see something unsafe, they are empowered and encouraged to say something about it and bring it to leadership attention or fix the unsafe problems themselves."