Glenn Hansen

MultiCare Health System
President, WSIA

When I began working for my employer, I was asked to conduct new employee orientation.  At the time, I had no idea what it was or what I should say.  I started looking over claims histories and talking with injured workers about it and still didn't quite have it right.  Then, one day, I was using a manual two hole punch to put some file papers together.  I wanted it done ASAP, so I squeezed as many pieces into that little hole punch as I could and then commenced hitting it as hard as I could with my palm to make the holes.  What stopped me wasn't the bruise on my palm that I was developing, but bending the metal bars of the hole puncher until they no longer functioned.  Clearly, there had to be a better way to do the same work but in safer way.   

That is when it dawned on me.  My biggest message to our employees was that we needed to seek that better way.  I wanted everyone to know that I wanted them to leave work on their terms and in the same condition they arrived to us in.  April is the ideal month to remember this concept.  It is the month we observe Workers Memorial Day. 

The first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989. April 28 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada. Every year, people in hundreds of communities and at worksites recognize workers who have been killed or injured on the job.

I will be travelling to Olympia in observance of this occasion and to hear the reading of the names of those lost during the course of their employment in 2009.  I encourage you to join me in renewing our commitment to safety programs that show our employees the better, safer way.

Thank you.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at glenn.hansen@multicare.org to let me know your thoughts.

Updated 9 April 2010

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