‘Take a look at some of the major benefits this money provides..
BENEFITS. They’re those EX
TRAS beyond your paycheck. Some
people still call them “fringes.” By
whatever name, there are many of
them at Firestone. This is suggested
by a list compiled by Alvin V. Riley.
Says the personnel manager of Fire
stone Textiles Company:
“Right now, a prominent and well-
known benefit is the Unemployment
Insurance which our people have.”
This is a protection against loss of
earnings by being laid off, or no
work available.
HE SAYS that for unemployment
insurance the company pays to
State and Federal agencies about
$51 per employee. The employee can
draw as much as $90 a week of this
money while out of work.
Through the following “for ex
ample” the personnel manager has
an overview of company benefits:
• For a Firestone employee earn
ing $9,000 a year, the company pays
an additional 30 per cent in benefits.
For the person earning the $9,000 a
year, the employer puts an addition
al $2,700 in various places for the
welfare and security of the worker.
Take a look at some of the major
benefits this money provides. Using
the $9,000 example, the company
pays 5.85 per cent toward Social
Security, or $526. As you know, the
employee matches that with another
5.85 per cent.
List Workman’s Compensation as
another benefit. This is on-the-job
protection against loss of pay be
cause of physical injury. Firestone
pays the full cost of this protection—
about $20 a year per employee.
Vacations: Firestone’s plan is to
provide 1 to 4 weeks annual vacation
with pay. This is figured on 2 per
cent of the person’s previous year’s
earnings for each week, using 2
weeks per employee (which is prob
ably low). This cost to the company
runs around $395 per person at
work.
THEN MORE benefits:
Holidays, sick leave, life insur
ance. We have 7 paid holidays, with
the cost to company around $167 per
employee. When an illness is sub
stantiated by a physician’s state
ment, the employee is paid $70 a
week for the time out.
Each employee has $7,500 life in
surance, and Firestone pays for it,
at around $68 per person per year.
The Pension Plan and Medical
Program are major portions of em
ployee benefits. The company pro
vides in full for medical benefits—
the protection applying to employ
ees, spouses and children. (Some
companies extend it to the employee
only).
It pays the semi-private rate in
any hospital and all surgical fees
that are customary and reasonable.
More
Beyond 3
Your Paycheck . . .
1
I
m
APRIL
1975
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
Textiles Company
BENNETTSVILLE • SOUTH CAROLINA BOWLING GREEN • KENTUCKY
☆ ☆ ☆
‘G’ Plant Commended For Suggestion Rate
Teachers Saw
Production
• Firestone, an interna
tional company, produces
9,000 sizes and types of tires,
and some 40,000 diversified
products.
• Firestone Textiles’ Gastonia
plant produces fabric of fiber
and steel for 17 tire-building
plants of the Firestone company
in several countries. A lesser
volume output is sold to out
side customers—mostly those in
the tire business.
• Last year ihe operation put
more than $10. 3 million into the
area economy—mostly in wages
and salaries, purchases, taxes
and other payments.
Mr. Rosenson
Visited Gastonia
The company vice president
of the organizational grouping
under which Firestone Textiles
Company operates, visited the
Gastonia plant in March. Jay H.
Rosenson conferred with James
B. Call, Firestone Textiles Com
pany president; others of the
staff, and reviewed operations at
the Gastonia unit.
Mr. Rosenson, from the com
pany's Akron, Ohio, headquar
ters, is company vice president
of the Raw Materials and Chem
icals group of Diversified Prod
ucts. A second diversified group
ing has Leon R. Brodeur as vice
president.
Firestone Textiles Company is
one of 7 divisions within the
broad non-tires area of the par
ent company's operations. Mr.
Rosenson has been vice presi
dent since the Diversified Prod
ucts groupings were designated
in late 1973.
TC WEAVING • Teachers
(from left) Jean Gamble, Gail
Greene and Bob Wilson, ex
amining warp.
• On a division basis, the
“fruit of our looms” at the U.S.
plants of Firestone Textiles
(Gastonia, Bennettsville, S. C.,
and Bowling Green, Ky.), is an
output of staggering proportion.
To give you some idea, one
month’s production would make
a band of fabric 16 feet wide
reaching around the earth at the
Equator (25,000 miles).
THESE and many other facts
about Firestone, its textiles di
vision and especially the Gas
tonia plant, division president
More on Page 2 •
H. B. Palmer earlier this
year wrote factory manager
P. R. Williams, commending
Gastonia Firestone people
for “playing a conspicuous
part in the success of the
Suggestion program for the
1973-74 year.”
The manager of the company’s
Suggestion Program said that in
that period, Gastonia’s partici
pation rate on suggestions was
738. He wrote, “We’re pleased
to present a certificate in recog
nition of this outstanding per
formance.”
The Employee Suggestion
Program for this period through
out the company reached the
highest performance record in
its 57-year history. Of the 36,227
suggestions submitted, 8416
I
iP
were adopted. For these, awards
totaled $320,420, and represent
ed savings of $2,016,792.
Goals of 600 per 1,000 em
ployees at participating factories
and total savings of $1,500,000
were exceeded. Company presi
dent Richard A, Riley had es
tablished the goals at the begin
ning of the ’73-’74 fiscal year.
He Coached The Team To Victory
Say “well done” to Barney
Jones for his leadership and
time and effort in a worthwhile
organization promoting youth in
his home area.
Jones, foreman of Special
Projects in Twisting at Fire
stone, Bowling Green, has coach
ed his 1974-75 Red Cross Ele
mentary Grade 6 basketball
team to a 17-2 won/loss record.
This, plus a first-place in one
local tournament and runner-up
in another.
Jones has coached the team
Adventure
2 years. His son Johnny plays
guard on the team.
At recent tournaments in
Glasgow, Ky., this team won
the Summer Shade Grade 6
tournament. For this it received
a first-place trophy; also was
runner-up in another tourna
ment, losing a hard-fought game
in the finals. Too, the team re
ceived a second-place trophy
and placed 3 of its members in
the all-toumament team. Jones’
son Johnny was one of them.
BRENDA & CORT SIMS
IN CANADA
‘Digging the past,” going to school, skiing, boating,
skating, bicycling, city planning and environmental field
work in remote areas. This and much more in the life of
Brenda and Cort Sims in Canada.
has been with Firestone 29
Brenda has her finished thesis
approved and will receive the
Master of City Planning degree
from the University of Manitoba
in May. She entered the univer
sity at Edmonton in September
1972, at the time her husband
began his second year of gradu
ate study there.
Brenda is a graduate of Wake
F o r e s t University, Winston-
Salem, N. C., where she studied
on a Firestone College Scholar
ship.
Her parents, George and Ram-
elle High, live in Gastonia.
George, a clerk in TC Twisting,
☆ ☆ ☆
Bikes—a good way to go in
city parks or countrysida. These
photos: Brenda and Cort in Win
nipeg area.
years.
Brenda and Cort spent the
last Christmas holidays in Gas
tonia.
"WE ENJOYED the visit and
the weather—even with the
rain,” she wrote after returning
to Edmonton. “The 60 and 70-
degree temperature in NC was
quite a contrast to the cold up
here—as much as 30 below ze
ro.”
Cort received the Master of
Arts degree in anthropology at
the University of Manitoba in
May 1973. His thesis concerned
a site he and Brenda had ex
cavated in Louisiana while they
were there during his service in
the Army.
In summer of 1973 Cort did
More on Page 4 •