Wow!I guess I,m in disbelief.I was forced to remove my wedding band at work the other day.Simple choice,if you want to work at APM you have to forfeit something that you consider to be sacred and signifigant to your religion.Whats next? The{reason},Safety.Sure, sounds good. Good if it is hazardous.I would gladly remove my weddingband to work safer.Please someone convince me that a carloader who is required to,and does,wear gloves when peforming work is safer minus his wedding band.To remove my ring for any other reason is humliating and demeaning to me.Metallic objects increase the hazard when working with electricity,E&I or welding it should apply.This is just a blanket policy designed for the conveinence of management.Limiting the descrecion of managers makes their job simpler.I can,t think of any other logical reason for this.To say that I am upset would be an understatement.Coming from weyerhaeuser this would not surprise me,however knowing that our own people on CSC let this go by is unexcusable.The next time we vote make sure that you vote for someone that will consider your rights when making mill policy.This can not go unchallenged!If we cross paths please talk to me about this,I feel like my civil rights as an American have been trampled on, and I am MAD!Lets stick together on this one and get this rediculous policy changed.Sincerely Greg.

Greg,

I sympathise with you completely. I dont understand why it is a problem if one wheres gloves either. They just seem to be really focused on hand injuries. But their logic doesn't hold up for me. We might as remove our belts because they could get hung up on something and hurt us. I think there are exceptions to most ever rule (if you dont believe that, look at our tax laws).

I think the policy states that no jewlery can be worn in maintenance, operations, or while driving rolling stock.

I wonder if all office personell removes their jewlery before walking into maintenance or going to the production office? I bet not.

I am an electrician so I take my ring off In the morning and put it on when I get home. This is my choice and I believe a wise one considering the dangers it could pose doing my job. My wife understands this so it isn't an issue with me. Also I have personally injured myself twice, because my ring got caught and cut my finger deeply. In those two incidents, I think that wearing a thick glove would have prevented the injury.

Its my opinion that this needs to go to Central Safety for further review. I am not even sure Central Safety had anything to do with this policy originally. It may have just been imposed.

Also you might contact the ACLU. I bet Weyerhaeuser hates hearing from them. A lawyer might have some insight also.

Gloves will not keep the ring from getting smashed onto your finger...... I myself have gotten out of the habit of wearing my wedding band to the extent of trying to put it on reciently, found that it shrunk.... :-) The idea of putting it on a chain around your neck sounds like a great idea...
Roger

While no longer work at the mill I still care for all of the people whom I spent so many good years with. I try to keep up with policy changes and mill attitudes. My belief is that psychological and physical aspects, both togather, make up the main focus in everyone's safety. I am very concerned for all of you that are in the mill at this point that there has been a severe break down between management and production when it comes to safety. I have worked in other mills where it was warranted to remove rings for certain jobs. I ask this, in fairness to all. When was the last "near miss" or first aid case in the different jobs at the mills related to a mill wide policy of removal of wedding rings ...and has there been a job by job hazard analysis study done on this policy to make it mill wide? Will the people in the offices still be able to wear theirs? What about the foremen?