Aurora Packing Company is averaging 70 percent fewer injuries than it did a decade ago, and Mike Fagel, safety director at the North Aurora, Ill., facility says he and his 180 employees are "kicking butt with this safety program, and I'd like to think other companies that want to contain costs are doing the same thing."
That seems to be happening, according to the latest injury and illness figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Along with all the other good news coming out of Washington these days--low unemployment and inflation, continued strong economic growth--BLS reported in December that the number of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers in 1996 was the lowest on record. Based on logs kept by about 165,000 U.S. employers, the bureau estimated a total incidence rate of 7.4, down from 8.1 in 1995.