everything’s on the r^MOV£ Tire$lon« in North Carolina! S3SW 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.

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