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GASTONIA
Company Girds for Rubber
Demand —Page 2
Wages; 18<t a Day —Page 5
Nylon 'Whale' Hauls Fuel in the
Jungle —Page 8
VOLUME IX
GASTONIA, NORTH CAROLINA, MARCH, 1960
NUMBER 4
Bennettsville,
Woodstock
Win Contest
The first lap of a long-
range safety race among
three units of the company’s
North American textiles di
vision has marked up two
plants as joint winners. Fire
stone Textiles at Bennetts
ville, S. C., and Firestone
Textiles L t d., Woodstock,
Ontario, Canada, shared the
contest honors.
William A. Karl, president of
all three contesting plants, pre
sented the plaque at Bennetts
ville in February. Mr. Karl
made another presentation at
Woodstock.
Firestone Textiles at Gastonia
is the third plant involved in the
continuing contest which, ac
cording to its design, could be
repeated each year for a maxi
mum of 12 times.
When the inter-division safe
ty program was inaugurated last
year it dated from May 1
through December 31. It was
VICTORY SYMBOL — Ben
nettsville plant manager E. F.
Sweeney (center) receives from
Firestone Textiles president
W. A. Karl the plaque recogniz
ing safety performance at the
South Carolina plant. Looking
on is Garl Anderson, formerly
of the Gastonia plant and now
a supervisor in the Bennettsville
operation.
☆ ☆ ☆
within that time that Bennetts
ville and Woodstock became
winners, each having made a
“no-accident” record for the
eight-month period.
Beginning with 1960 and each
year thereafter each contest
dates from January 1 to the
close of the calendar year.
The award plaque is the joint
possession of both winners for
a year—or longer if they earn it.
If a plant wins three years in
a row, it would earn permanent
possession of the victor’s sym
bol.
The plaque itself is of polished
walnut, supporting a gold-gilded
figure holding the Green Cross
symbol for safety. There are
bronze tablets on which names
—More on page 6
Wage Hike To Add $375,000
The five per cent wage increase which went into effect
here February 29 will channel more than $375,000 additional
pay per year to employees of Firestone Textiles. This figure
includes generous extra benefits which Firestone employees
are currently receiving — such as vacation pay, pensions,
and company-paid insurance with hospitalization.
When general manager Harold Mercer posted the wage-
hike announcement in late February, he noted that the in
crease in pay is in keeping with the company’s policy of
maintaining wages at the top level of the textile industry.
Wildflowers Theme
Of Club Program
Projected color slides of wild
flowers will be featured at the
April meeting of Variety Garden
Club of Firestone. The well-
known naturalist, R. M. Schiele,
will present the program which
begins at 9:30 a.m., April 7 in
the dining room of the plant
Recreation Center. The public is
invited.
Mr. Schiele, retired executive
of Piedmont Council of Boy
Scouts of America, is founder
and curator of Gastonia's Mu
seum of Natural History at
113 West Third avenue. Shortly
after his program with the Gar
den Club. Mr. Schiele will leave
to begin his second summer in
the naturalist service of the
Great Smoky Mountains Nation
al Park.
S17M7.85 FOR 1960
UF ^Citizenship’
Award To Firestone
For generosity of sharing in the 1959-60 Great
er Gastonia United Fund, Firestone Textiles and
its employees have been awarded the UF cita
tion “for outstanding citizenship”. This plant
was one of the five larger firms to be accorded
the honor, at an awards dinner in the Gastonia
Eagles Club building in February.
The award, ascribed to “management and em
ployees”, is a permanent, embossed wall plaque
measuring 10¥2 x ISVa inches, and finished in
bronze gilding. It has a bronze strip on which
are embossed the name of the recipient firm and
the year of presentation. In case of additional
awards, each would be designated by adding
the year for which citation is made.
The honor came in recognition of the $17,867.85
which Firestone people here pledged to the UF
Appeal last year. This represented one of the
largest gifts from a single company in the Gas
tonia area. The Firestone employee contribu
tion will be at work throughout 1960, helping
to support 20 community, health, welfare, rec
reation and character-building services.
Two previous UF honors have come to the
Gastonia Firestone plant in recent years: Printed
citations presented in 1957,- and 1958 “in recogni
tion of outstanding achievement in serving the
human needs of our community.”
SIGNAL HONOR—Barbara Galloway's delight
registers a feeling representative of Firestone
employees who shared in the plant's eighth
United Fund Appeal, recognized by the award
which she is holding. Barbara, a clerk-typist in
Main Office, is the wife of James W. Galloway
of Weaving (synthetics).
^ .. The Winter Was
So Late In Coming... ’
By the time you see this in March, the
bluster of the Third Month will entertain
the promise of another Season—, . With
rushing winds and gloomy skies, the dark
and stubborn Winter dies; far-off, unseen,
Spring faintly cries. . .”
But just a few days ago, the proverbial
groundhog ventured to glimpse his shadow,
so weather-wise observers at the mill en
visioned 40 days more of sturdy Winter.
Yet quite unexpected was the weather fare
which Nature visited upon the Mid-South
land February 13—two years to the month
since the Piedmont Carolinas had seen a
snowfall worth remembering. Then came
March 2, with more snow—the most in 30
years.
Here is your scrapbook record of a Sun-
day-morning look at the white landscape in
front of the mill, from the Dalton street
side. The undisturbed beauty of fluff and
ice with built-in jewels on water tower and
trees, affords a scene worth a nostalgic
memory far into the hot days of summer.