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BENNEHSVILLE
SOUTH CAROLINA
MAY
1973
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
BOWLING GREEN
KENTUCKY
26 Years
SAFETY
LEADERSHIP
Every Spring for a quarter-century, Firestone at
Gastonia has been honored by the Gaston County
Chamber of Commerce and the North Carolina De
partment of Labor. The recognition is for outstanding
achievement in industrial safety.
Latest of these awards
presented April 17 at the
annual Chamber of Com
merce Safety Awards Ban
quet, continues the Firestone
record for number of years
presented in Gaston County.
At the Dixie Village meeting,
184 businesses and other firms
were recognized for good work
in safety.
The 1973 honor lo Firestone
is the 26th presented. First of
the long series of awards was
presented in Raleigh in 1947.
one year before the every-spring
awards meetings were begun in
Gastonia.
Parking Improved;
Trees Gone
••A Bennettsville construc
tion firm recently improved
parking lots at the South Caro
lina Firestone Textiles plant
with a new "face" of asphalt.
Also removed were five oak
trees, around 70 years old.
The N. C. Department of La
bor awards are represented by
certificates, plaques and in
scribed bars attached to plaques
for “in between” years. The 25th
award last year was a plaque.
The 26th award is represented
by a special-design plaque, and
is the fifth of plaques to have
been presented across the years.
TO become eligible for the
latest recognition in safety, the
Gastonia operation for 1972 es
tablished a record of 50 per cent
or better rate below the injury-
frequency rate in the total North
Carolina textile industry.
The other two ways a firm
can qualify are: To have no loss
of time resulting from on-job
injuries, and a firm’s beating by
40 per cent its own safety record
from the previous year. Through
out the years. Firestone has
qualified in all these three
ways.
Francis B. Galligan, Firestone
Textiles Company general fac
tories manager, received the
1973 award “on b3half of all the
people who helped to earn it at
the Gastonia plant.”
\
May: Off-Job Safety
•• May comes on witli her
green and fertile world—a time
to listen and look, a time to go
and enjoy the outdoors. But go
safely. Travel is but one phase
of safe living emphasized dur
ing May each year among peo
ple at Firestone plants.
For many years the com
pany has been trying to build a
continuing awareness for off-
job safe living across the whole
yoar, with special emphasis in
May and December.
Figures show that in these
months have been concentrated
the heaviest toll of injuries and
fatalities in the wide areas of
off-job activities—home, travel,
recreation, many more.
“So often safety suffers be
cause it’s a matter of people fail
ing to practice good common-
sense principles which they
• • Along North Carolina's
Outer Banks. An example of "a
good place to go—but safely."
Photo: N. C. Dept. Natural and
Economic Resources. Other tra
vel suggestions. Page 4.
know very well from practice on
the job at work,” says R. E.
Mack, plant safety manager at
Gastonia. He points out that—
Increase of many outdoor ac
tivities in May is a major rea
son for placing special stress on
safety awareness and practice.
Two Scholarships; Two Merit Awards
• Barry Richard Robinson,
Gastonia.
• Charles Melvin Willis, Bowl
ing Green.
And of this year’s awards,
Certificate of Merit winners in
the textiles division are Janice
Rebecca Stiles and Rachel Eliza-
Firestone Textiles Company division has two winners
in The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company’s 1973 Scholar
ship Awards Program. They are:
beth Whitworth from the Gas
tonia area.
Barry Robinson, Gastonia win
ner of the college scholarship,
is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Har
old N. Robinson. A senior at
Hunter Huss High School, Barry
plans to study music therapy in
college beginning this fall.
At Huss, he is a member of
the Key Club, pop club and the
yearbook staff, and the Ameri
can Field Service group.
His father is warehouse man
ager at the Gastonia Firestone
plant.
Charles M. Willis is a senior
at Warren East High School,
Bowling Green, Ky. His scholar
ship is the first which the com
pany has awarded at Bowling
Green.
Charles plans to study physics
and astronomy in college. His
father, Charles, works in the
Maintenance department a t
Bowling Green. Mrs. (Pearl)
Willis, works in Splicing. Charles
and Pearl were employed at the
Gastonia Firestone plant before
transferring to the Bowling
Green plant in early 1968.
The Gastonia-area Merit win
ners;
Janice Rebecca Stiles, senior
at Bessemer City High School,
is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Buster G. Stiles. Her father
works in the TC Weaving de
partment at Firestone, Gastonia.
Rachel Elizabeth Whitworth,
senior at Hunter Huss High
School, is the daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Fred Whitworth. Her
mother, Barbara Whitworth,
works in the Cloth Room at the
Gastonia plant.
This year’s two Gastonia and
Bowling Green winners of full
college scholarships are among
the 46 outstanding high-school
students to win Firestone Col
lege scholarships for 1973.
Potential value of the total
number awarded is in excess of
$300,000.
• More Page 2
NCVTS Placement Service
People Make Quality
• • These looms at the Bennettsville, B.C.,
Firestone Textiles Company plant produce nylon
and other synthetic fabric for tires. A major
'ingredient' of the high-quality product are peo
ple—ever present on the job, but here just out
side the photo.
The Bennettsville facility annually turns out
around 13 million pounds of nylon fabric alone.
The material is used principally in production of
Firestone truck tires.
North Carolina Vocational
Textile School at Belmont has
added to the textile industry a
new placement service. Begin
ning with 1973 graduates, the
school will arrange on-campus
interviews for corporate man
power recruiters.
Only graduates of the school’s
new two-year Associate in Ap
plied Science Degree Program
will be eligible for interviewing.
Fifteen members of this first
graduating class will be avail
able for on-campus interviews
through May.
Each of these graduates have
a minimum of three years of
practical mill experience, in ad
dition to two years of formal in
struction at the textile school.
Richard M. Jackson, the
school’s assistant director, has
details on the new placement
service. The school’s address is
P. O. Box 1044, Belmont, N. C.
28012. Telephone; 704/825-3737.