Statement from Steele Johns
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“I first met Will Kramer when he performed a site safety audit as an outside consultant at one of
our locations in September of 2015.
During that audit, I was completely transparent with auditors so we could find the baselines of
performance and ultimately improve the safety of our facility for our workers. Examples were
shared with the auditors of activities that I had either seen for myself or had heard about from
others. To provide anything less than full candor would have been unethical and I would not
have been meeting the expectations of the audit or working in the best interest of the
employees.
I’ve now learned that Will may have taken recordings of those sessions without my knowledge
and my words are now being taken out of context to paint an incomplete or inaccurate picture of
the site at the time. Having not been permitted to listen to the recordings, I have no way of
knowing whether it’s actually me on those tapes.
All that said, the facts as I see them are these:


Greif paid a third party to come into our facility and evaluate the safety programs and the
facility.



During that audit, one of the auditors recorded our confidential conversations without my
knowledge to use later for his own personal agenda.



The information offered to the auditors was as open and factual as I understood the facts to
be so that all opportunities for improvement could be completely identified.



Areas where I saw issues and gaps were shared as completely as I could with anecdotal
stories, as I understood them, to illustrate my points.



Following the audit, a report was issued that clearly identified gaps and opportunities.



During the 16 months since the audit, not only that site, but the entire CLCM safety program
has been changed and improved on multiple fronts.



These changes include - programs, processes, training, physical corrections to the facility
and an increase in employee involvement and participation.

Changes in management of the organization have also occurred – leadership within the
manufacturing organization has changed, a full-time EHS manager reporting directly to the Greif
Safety Director now has responsibility for the reconditioning region, and, additional corporate EHS
support is now available where it was not prior to the leadership changes.

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 A look back at the facility from September of 2015 to today shows a vastly different picture. A
comparison of the audit findings from then to an examination today would reveal that the audit
process has worked. Gaps were identified and sustainable corrections have been made.
While there continues to be room for improvement in our programs, our employees work in safe
conditions with good training and the proper equipment to perform their tasks.
Far from being a story of failure, this is a story of success.”

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